Fri 20 Mar 2020
Movie Review: DOWN THREE DARK STREETS (1954).
Posted by Steve under Crime Films , Reviews[4] Comments
DOWN THREE DARK STREETS. United Artists, 1954. Broderick Crawford, Ruth Roman, Martha Hyer, Marisa Pavan, Max Showalter, Casey Adams, Kenneth Tobey, Jay Adler, Claude Akins. Screenplay by Gordon Gordon & Mildred Gordon (as The Gordons) and Bernard C. Schoenfeld, based on the novel Case File: FBI by The Gordons. Director: Arnold Laven.
Told in semi-documentary fashion, Down Three Dark Streets tells the story of how FBI Agent John ‘Rip’ Ripley (Broderick Crawford) finishes up the three cases that fellow agent Zach Stewart (Kenneth Tobey) was working on when he was gunned down and killed. He assumes that the killer was involved in one of the three cases, but which one and who.
The cases: (1) A killer on the loose. A possible contact: his girl friend (Martha Hyer). (2) A car theft gang. Possible contact: the blind wife of one of the members (Marisa Pavan). (3) An extortion threat to a recent widow (Ruth Roman) involving her young child.
The kidnapping threat is the major one, the one Ripley spends most of his time on. There are several suspects, but if you don’t mind my saying so, while you could easily pick any one of them, the obvious one is the one. Of special note is that the semi-suspenseful finale takes place at the base of the Hollywood sign high up in the LA hills.
Broderick Crawford is his usual gruff down-to-business self. Ruth Roman was always a fine actress, as she is in this above average crime thriller, but her career never developed as much in my mind as it should have. On the other hand, Martha Hyer’s career went into high gear soon after this, in which she quite effectively plays the gunman’s moll, outwardly tough and brassy, but ultimately fragile and insecure on the inside.
March 20th, 2020 at 2:06 pm
This plays very faithfully to the Gordons’ novel, though Ripley sure isn’t described as looking like Brod Crawford!
March 20th, 2020 at 3:09 pm
Martin
I have a confession to make. I gradually became used to Crawford in the role, but at the beginning I was kind of wishing that he’d been shot and Kenneth Tobey had taken over his cases.
PS. I have just realized that Jonathan reviewed this same movie a while back. Here’s the link:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=55785
March 21st, 2020 at 12:12 am
Glenn Ford was much closer to Ripley when he played the Gordon’s series character (I think he features in three novels) in EXPERIMENT IN TERROR, but this one still works well with Roman and Heyer standouts.
The Gordon’s books were well constructed suspense novels usually easily adapted to film with few changes needed. Film adaptations include this and TERROR, MAKE HASTE TO LIVE, and two Disney versions of THAT DARN CAT.
March 21st, 2020 at 7:24 am
Broderick Crawford was instantly recognizable as “working class”. So were a number of actors in old Hollywood: Paul Douglas, George Raft, Chuck Connors, Steve Cochran. This was an important part of their stardom, and way of connecting with audiences.
I enjoyed this movie too.