I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The criminals "Doc" Penny (Ted de Corsia), Ben Hastings (Charles Bronson) and Gat Morgan (Ned Young) escape from San Quentin and kill a police officer while robbing a gas-station. However Morgan is shot and left behind by his partners. He seeks shelter with the former inmate Steve Lacey (Gene Nelson), who is paroled and starting a new life with his wife Ellen Lacey (Phyllis Kirk) and working as airplane mechanic. Lacey asks him to go away but Morgan tells that he has summoned the former Dr. Otto Hessler (Jay Novello) to treat him. When Hessler arrives, he realizes that Morgan is dead and flees from the apartment. Lacey calls his parole officer Daniel O'Keefe (James Bell) while the sleazy Detective Lieutenant Sims (Sterling Hayden) arrives at his home following his instincts. Lacey is arrested for three days but O'Keefe believes him and keeps his job. When Lacey returns home, "Doc" and Ben surprisingly arrive and threaten Ellen to force Lacey to participate in a bank heist. What will Steve Lacey do?"Crime Wave" is an excellent film-noir with the story of a man trying to start a new life and haunted by his former cellmates. The cinematography in black and white is impressive and very beautiful. The direction of André De Toth is perfect and Sterling Hayden has an amazing performance in the role of a tough homicide detective. Indeed all the cast has also great performance. The beauty of Phyllis Kirk is highlighted by her role and by the cinematography. My vote is nine. Title (Brazil): "Cidade Tenebrosa" ("Tenebrous City")

"Crime Wave" is a rock solid little crime melodrama with a cracking pace and a time honoured theme of an ex-con trying to go straight. Its characters are tough and memorable and there are some great moments for not just the leads but the other performers as well. It doesn't have a lot of action but it's just as moody as the best films of its kind and fairly brutal at times. The cast is excellent right down the line; you come to admire Steve Lacey (Gene Nelson) for attempting to get his life back in order and hate his scummy associates for drawing him right back into the crime game.Sterling Hayden is enjoyably cranky, hard-boiled detective Lt. Sims, who subscribes to the idea that "once a con, always a con", and applies it to Lacey, who is visited by thugs including "Doc" Penny (Ted de Corsia), Ben Hastings (Charles Bronson), and Gat Morgan (Nedrick Young). Soon Lacey realizes that he's going to have to go along with Penny and his plans to rob a bank as the gang threatens Lacey's wife Ellen (Phyllis Kirk).This eclectic cast also includes Jay Novello, in a standout supporting performance as slimy veterinarian Otto Hessler, who's tired of humanity and now prefers to tend to the needs of animals, as well as James Bell as Lacey's parole officer, Dub Taylor in a typically hearty turn as a jovial gas station attendant, and legendary eccentric Timothy Carey in a deliciously creepy portrayal of lowlife Johnny Haslett. Bronson is fun as swaggering punk Hastings. Keep an eye out for Hank Worden and Iris Adrian as well.Efficient direction by Andre De Toth (who'd previously worked with Bronson on the horror classic "House of Wax"), impressive hand-held camera-work and use of real L.A. locations all aid in the storytelling in this taut and stylish production.Eight out of 10.

An ex con tries to go straight, but some other hoodlums won't let him.This movie has more message than story. Sterling Hayden steals most of the screen time as the usual tough cop, enhanced by his famous gigantic frame.His attitude is very modern. His detective character seems to think he is front of a camera all the time. Or it could be he is always on his toes, on the job, never giving an inch.His intuition is understandable, as he figures out what is going on, and that the ex con and his beautiful newlywed wife are unwilling participants in a scheme.The best message here is something that people knew in this era, then forgot, and now remember again.Crooks are stupid. The "mastermind" keeps boasting how smart he is, and his cronies agree, but they are just as stupid and backward thinking as the saner characters say they are.The public used to know this. The Godfather series, which is basically again a thug talking about how smart his fellow thugs are, changed that. The Godfather debacle gave the ignorant masses the delusion they love, "organized" crime. It's always been disorganized, even when thugs sit in rooms and have meetings.The Mafias of the world need the Godfather to buffalo the ignorant masses.This movie tells it more like it is. Simpletons who think they're supermen.It would score higher with better acting. Even Bronson looks like an actor playing a role here. It doesn't have a natural look, but the message is better than the way the story is told.

"Crime Wave" is a very good example of a forgotten film noir picture that deserves to be seen. Its strengths are its directness--it is compactly told, brutally violent and lacking in the glamor and glitz you find in some of the 'pretty' examples of noir. Heck, to me noir pictures should NOT be pretty--they need ugly actors, dark camera work and relatively modest production values--not the flashy Hollywood type of actors or sets. In this sense, the film is quite a success--with the most notable actor being the rugged but far from pretty Sterling Hayden (a veteran of noir) and the rather obscure Gene Nelson.The story itself is pretty simple. A gang of vicious robbers commit a strong-arm robbery and kill a cop. One of the gang is mortally wounded in the robbery but manages to make it to the home of an ex-con who lives nearby. The con has gone straight and wants nothing to do with crime--he's happily married and has a decent job. But, when the other two gang members later show up as well and demand he become the new third member of the gang or they'll kill his wife, he's stuck. Should he help them or go to the cops? As for Hayden, he plays an amazingly cynical cop who's tough to like. He is in many ways a jerk--and a lot less likable than the ex-con. I like that juxtaposition and the film is exciting throughout--making it well worth your time.By the way, while not long enough, there's a nice making of DVD extra included with this film as well as the movie "Decoy" on the same disk.