REVIEWED BY WALTER ALBERT:         


THE CASE AGAINST BROOKLYN

THE CASE AGAINST BROOKLYN. Columbia, 1958. Darren McGavin, Warren Stevens, Margaret Hayes, Peggy McKay, Bobby Helms. Screenplay: Bernard Gordon, based on a story adapted by Daniel Ullman from Ed Reid’s True Magazine article “I Broke the Brooklyn Graft Scandal.” Director: Paul Wendkos. Shown at Cinecon 44, Hollywood CA, Aug-Sept 2008.

   This was screened to highlight the career of Cinephile guest Warren Stevens, a perennial and very talented supporting actor, in a film in which he may have been supporting Darren McGavin, but to whom he didn’t give an inch in acting skill.

   McGavin is a rookie who agrees to go undercover in an attempt to expose the dirty cops who have been collaborating with underworld gambling interests for years. Stevens is player in the underground network, and when McGavin’s cover is blown, Stevens engineers a scheme to eliminate McGavin that backfires and kills McGavin’s young wife.

   McGavin is almost brought down when he sets off on a vendetta in search of his wife’s murderers, at the climax, pitting McGavin and Stevens against one another in a deadly confrontation, is an exciting conclusion to a well-crafted thriller.

THE CASE AGAINST BROOKLYN