Dir: Hugo Fregonese | Cast: Edward G Robinson, Jean Parker, Peter Graves, Milburn Stone | US Crime Noir 80′
More than two decades after Little Caesar Eddie Robinson was still capable of showing absolutely no sign of mellowing – while as his moll Jean Parker is a classic floozie in the Claire Trevor tradition – in this astringent United Artists quickie which briefly begins as a home invasion drama, then becomes a prison film before concluding with a humdinger of a shoot-out.
Recalling the days when hoodlums still wore their hats indoors, the visual highlight is probably the section in the prison gothically lit by Stanley Cortez; although there plenty of other nice touches along the way such the scene early on were a bunch of journalists saunter in to watch a pair of executions in the electric chair as if attending a first night, and the shot during the final siege of a floor covered with spent cartridge cases. @RichardChatten
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