papyrusbeetle Posted March 22, 2017 Share Posted March 22, 2017 This A.M. the "Movies" channel showed THE MOB. Great fun cop "noir" from the classic period, starring Broderick Crawford. I was interested to watch it because it had Ralph Dumke - he was in MYSTERY STREET, playing the tattoo artist. Filled with great (and young!) bad guys, this film is low-budget and interesting. Neville Brand,Ernest Borgnine, John Marley (the Hollywood studio head in GODFATHER--horse's head, remember?), and working on the docks around Broderick Crawford you'll also see a very young Charles Bronson. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesJazGuitar Posted March 22, 2017 Share Posted March 22, 2017 This A.M. the "Movies" channel showed THE MOB. Great fun cop "noir" from the classic period, starring Broderick Crawford. I was interested to watch it because it had Ralph Dumke - he was in MYSTERY STREET, playing the tattoo artist. Filled with great (and young!) bad guys, this film is low-budget and interesting. Neville Brand,Ernest Borgnine, John Marley (the Hollywood studio head in GODFATHER--horse's head, remember?), and working on the docks around Broderick Crawford you'll also see a very young Charles Bronson. Yes, The Mob was the last noir MOVIES-TV showed last Saturday night, as part of their weekly noir evening. MOVIES-TV tends to show mostly Columbia noirs and that is great because TCM doesn't show Columbia films very often since they are not part of the so called Turner library of films (which is mostly Warner, MGM and RKO films). As you noted many familiar faces in this film and they are effective. Brand was a classic bad guy in noir and some would say he was the second meanest on the block (the meanest being Richard Widmark). E.g. Brand playing Chester in DOA. The Mob is well balanced because while it offers insight like a police procedural film it has the right amount of action and tension (unlike some of these films that are too documentary like in their approach to police procedures). In addition Crawford gets in some great tough guy dialog. The first time I saw the film I felt some of this was over the top but that was until I understood he was acting super tough as a way to get in good with the mob. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slaytonf Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 One of Crawford's better movies, despite its low budget, and one I take out on occasion to watch. TCM has shown it at least once, because that's how I got it on disk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TopBilled Posted April 16, 2017 Share Posted April 16, 2017 One of Crawford's better movies, despite its low budget, and one I take out on occasion to watch. TCM has shown it at least once, because that's how I got it on disk. I believe TCM aired it one night with ON THE WATERFRONT as part of a theme on films that take place on/around docks. Richard Kiley didn't make many films in the 50s (he was primarily a stage actor in those years) and I think his style works well with Brod's. P.S. After I wrote the above post, I found the film on YouTube and watched it last night. The dialogue was every bit as good as I remembered. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts