Robert Wise directs but without much enthusiasm and Lee Garmes, the cinematographer has little opportunity to show his skill. Indeed, this little B movie, I hesitate to use the much overused 'noir' tag, is most uninspired. Prompted, apparently, by the real life Senate Committee on organised crime and even sporting an afterword by the real life head of that committee, Senator Estes Kefauver, urging American citizens to play their part in stamping out such crime in their neighbourhoods, this still lacks a bit of 'life'. John Forsythe doesn't help with a lacklustre performance as the lead and Joan Camden even less so as his wife. The thing here is that this was clearly intended as a well meaning do good kind of a film, setting out the problem and urging everyone to help solve it. To help things along at one point the wife asks her husband, 'What is the mafia?' so there's little doubt at what level this film was aimed. Competent but far too uninteresting a story and with no violence the 'real life' message is about all this has.
Review of The Captive City
