Reviewed by JONATHAN LEWIS:         

   

FINGER MAN. Allied Artists, 1955. Frank Lovejoy, Forrest Tucker, Peggie Castle, Timothy Carey. Director: Harold D. Schuster.

   Frank Lovejoy stars in Finger Man, a decidedly average 1950s crime film, about a career criminal who gets a chance to go straight – with a catch. After getting nabbed by law enforcement, Casey Martin (Lovejoy) is given a choice: either serve life in prison or collaborate with the Treasury Department to nail bootlegger and syndicate leader Dutch Becker (Forrest Tucker). After seeing what Becker’s goods — presumably heroin — have done to his very own sister, Casey decides that he’ll take the deal and work to bring down Dutch.

   Unfortunately, the movie is slow to get going. It takes a while for the premise of the film to come clearly into focus. Fortunately, however, things do get moving with the introduction of Peggy Castle as Gladys Baker, a former “employee” of Dutch’s who is now Casey’s love interest and Timothy Carey as Lou Terpe, Dutch’s sadistic enforcer. Both characters play a pivotal role in the plot. After the sociopathic Terpe (Carey) kills Gladys (Castle) at the behest of Dutch, all bets are off. Casey no longer wants to bring down Dutch for the cops. He is out for blood.

   As far as the cinematography, there’s nothing especially noir about it. In fact, this black and white movie often feels visually flat. Surely some more style could have been injected into the film to give it more of a shadowy look?

   All told, Finger Man is a gritty little crime film that tells a fairly basic story about a man at the crossroads of his life. It’s got some good parts and solid acting, but it’s not a “must see” by any means. There’s nothing particularly new under the sun here.