What movie did YOU just FINISH watching?
Sept 27, 2018 23:59:25 GMT
ZolotoyRetriever, teleadm, and 1 more like this
Post by kijii on Sept 27, 2018 23:59:25 GMT
Underworld U.S.A. (1961) / Samuel Fuller
Rented from Amazon Prime
This movie reminded me of Fuller's transparently exaggerated pulp dramas, such as The Naked Kiss (1964) and Shock Corridor (1963). Here, he puts Dolores Dorn is much the same role he put Constance Towers was in the two movies listed above. (Both Dolores Dorn and Constance Towers are still alive, by the way). The main women in these roles are exaggerated and the stories don't really give us any real insight into the problems that Fuller is purporting to explore. Rather than going for a more realistic story of pedophilia (TNK), mental institutions (SC), and organized crime syndicates (UU.S.A.), Fuller takes an over-broad approach, making the characters seem more like cartoons than real-life people.
I think he may have done better with his crime and war dramas than he did in this movie. Oscar-winning actor, Cliff Robertson was a better actor than the overblown and overly dramatic man who brings down an huge national crime almost single-handly simply out of revenge for his father's murder 20 years previously. The moving parts to to this puzzle just work too conveniently here, telescoping the movie's probable ending long before it actually comes to past.
Fuller uses many of his regular performers in this movie. However, one may recognize the Commissioner (Larry Gates) as the actor who slapped Sidney Poitier in In the Heat of the Night (1967).
TCM oveview with SPOILERS:
Rented from Amazon Prime
This movie reminded me of Fuller's transparently exaggerated pulp dramas, such as The Naked Kiss (1964) and Shock Corridor (1963). Here, he puts Dolores Dorn is much the same role he put Constance Towers was in the two movies listed above. (Both Dolores Dorn and Constance Towers are still alive, by the way). The main women in these roles are exaggerated and the stories don't really give us any real insight into the problems that Fuller is purporting to explore. Rather than going for a more realistic story of pedophilia (TNK), mental institutions (SC), and organized crime syndicates (UU.S.A.), Fuller takes an over-broad approach, making the characters seem more like cartoons than real-life people.
I think he may have done better with his crime and war dramas than he did in this movie. Oscar-winning actor, Cliff Robertson was a better actor than the overblown and overly dramatic man who brings down an huge national crime almost single-handly simply out of revenge for his father's murder 20 years previously. The moving parts to to this puzzle just work too conveniently here, telescoping the movie's probable ending long before it actually comes to past.
Fuller uses many of his regular performers in this movie. However, one may recognize the Commissioner (Larry Gates) as the actor who slapped Sidney Poitier in In the Heat of the Night (1967).
TCM oveview with SPOILERS:
At the age of 12, Tolly Devlin witnesses the brutal gangland murder of his father. As he matures Tolly becomes a petty criminal consumed by his vow to have revenge on the four murderers. He finds one of the four dying in a prison hospital ward and learns that the other three are now in the heirarchy of the local crime syndicate. Gradually Tolly insinuates himself into the underworld gang; at the same time he cooperates with a Federal crime commission. As he plots his revenge, he falls in love with an attractive young woman, Cuddles, whom he saves from being killed by a member of the syndicate. By playing both sides of the law, he eventually succeeds in bringing about the death of his archenemies. But he himself is mortally wounded when he kills the syndicate head rather than obey an order to kill Cuddles.