Sadly Over-hyped

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Sam Fuller prized efficiency above all in his pictures. "Underworld U. S. A." exposes the flaw in that philosophy. It's so efficient, it dispenses with believable characters, a rooting interest, or realistic suspense.As a young teenager, Tolly Devlin watches his father killed by four hoods. He may be a hood himself, but he has a sense of honor where his old man is concerned, refusing to "fink" on the killers. He wants the pleasure of offing them himself."I'll get those punks my own way," he shouts while still a youngster played by David Kent.For the rest of this movie, that's exactly what happens. Tolly, now an adult played by Cliff Robertson, manages to infiltrate a nationwide syndicate in which three of the four killers are now crime czars respectively running drugs, unions, and prostitution. Simply by stealing a cartridge box full of drugs, he manages to fool the drug czar, Gela (Paul Dubov) by telling him who he is and that he wants to follow in his father's footsteps. Instead of giving him the same treatment he dished out on Pops, Gela puts Tolly to work for his organization."I wish my kid felt about me the way Tolly feels about his old man," Gela muses.Improbable coincidences abound in this silly, mono-dimensional revenge flick. Fuller was a great pulp director but his tendencies toward fish-slap subtlety and on-the-nose exposition are on violent display."It was a pretty tough break you had, being born in prison and your mother dying there...""My father told me why you collect these dolls. He said you can't have kids of your own..."The overall crime boss complains to Gela that he hasn't gotten more of the 13 million kids in the United States hooked on drugs: "Don't tell me the end of the needle has a conscience.""Underworld U. S. A." moves like Fuller was double-parked the whole time, yet at over 90 minutes still feels bloated. There's an aging woman who loves Tolly, a younger woman who does, too, but plans to act on it ("I want your kids"), and a D. A. who spends much of his screen time eating sandwiches and letting Tolly direct his investigation.It might have been more endurable if Robertson didn't play his role like an off-the-cuff Cagney, "a collection of tough-guy tics" as Jamie S. Rich notes in his Confessions of a Pop Fan blog. Or if there were any complications in Tolly's pursuit of his mission, like say the bad guys getting wise to him, or else him having second thoughts.The visuals are sometimes arresting, with moody lighting and off- beat editing. But the only thing that grabbed me was Richard Rust's performance as Gus, head torpedo for the syndicate. Even stuck with a particularly egregious quirk, the need to don sunglasses whenever he kills, Rust plays Gus like someone both dangerous and real, with some shadings around his villainy. He's my 1961 Doe Avedon Award winner for great performance in a bad movie.And this is a bad movie, never mind the Fuller apologists. He did make great movies like "Shock Corridor," decent if flawed ones like "Crimson Kimono," but also occasionally an all-out tom turkey like this, which serves to lay bare the mold he worked from but doesn't do much either for his reputation or for your enjoyment."Almost every shot hits you like a punch," Martin Scorsese enthuses in a DVD extra. Let's just say after a couple of viewings, I was glad to leave the ring to Sam and never looked back.

Underworld U.S.A. (1961)Sam Fuller's movies have an edgy, reckless quality to them, as if lacking propriety. Which is good. What Underworld U.S.A. lacks in subtlety it makes up for in surprise and a kind of sultry sizzle, something very different than more usual "romance" that other crime and noir movies have. There is some second rate acting throughout, but if you accept some of this as "style" and go with the flow, it's click along nicely. In fact, the lack of star power makes the film a hair more everyday, and therefor a hair more realistic in a good way. And the lead male going solo through much of it is first rate, Cliff Robertson.Not that this is actually believable--it feels contrived all the way--but it has a modern interpersonal selfishness and sometimes cruelty that is fun to watch. The plot? Great enough. But the searing looks, the slaps, the brooding closeups. This is movie-making! Certainly an influence on Tarantino.As a black and white crime film with a slightly low budget feel, this naturally comes labelled as a film noir. And there are some similarities. But it's also a crime drama, more directly, and it explores (and exploits) the violence of cops and robbers circa 1960. There a lot of unsavory types involved, and some crisp filming. If you like other Sam Fuller films, you'll like this one.

The exact definition for 'film noir' is a tad vague. While some elements of noir are easy to agree upon (they are gangster/crime films and tend to be gritty and realistic), others are not. To me, a noir film MUST be made in black & white. As to my interpretation of noir, you would have to say that after the early to mid-1960s, noir disappeared in America because films were then all made in color--though they continued to make a few noir films in France--using black & white a bit longer. In light of this, UNDERWORLD USA would have to be among the last American noir movies--and probably the last great one. Now the fact that I loved this film surprised me--though I knew that Sam Fuller could make some dandy films. What made me assume the worst was that I just couldn't imagine Cliff Robertson in the lead in such a dark and gritty style of film. Boy was I wrong--as he proved to be more than equal to the task.The film begins with Tolly Devlin a teenager and well on his way to becoming a career criminal. However, this is interrupted by the beating death of his father by several unknown assailants. The only one young Tolly saw was a guy who was soon sent to prison for life--and it would be tough for Tolly to cross-examine him to find out who did it--after all, he wanted revenge. In an odd move, Tolly appeared to work hard to be caught so he, too, could make it to state prison to talk to this killer. Years pass, but finally he's able to talk to the guy--who is on his deathbed. He learns the other men's identities and comes up with an amazingly intricate plot to get them--intricate because now, a decade later, these men are very, very powerful gangsters. Just approaching them and killing them would be very difficult.I don't want to talk about all the ins and outs of the plan, but in the process several unexpected things occur. First, he actually is able to help the crime commission by taking out these gang members and works closely with them. It is NOT because he has any fondness for law & order but they are a means to his end...period. In addition, he helps a young lady who is caught up in the mob and begins, for the first time, to actually care about someone. Slowly, you see humanity appearing within Tolly and by the end of the film, he is, for the first time, thinking of something other than himself or revenge. As for the ending, it is dandy--making the film well worth seeing.There really isn't anything much to complain about here. The story is original and exciting, the acting is very good and the film appears to have been very well made--though it does lack some of the interesting camera work some noir films employed--not a problem, but I do like the dark shadows and smoke used in some examples of this genre. There is an interesting mistake, however, in the final climactic scene. Tolly falls into a swimming pool and only minutes later, as he's running from the gang headquarters, he's inexplicably dry!! And, for that matter, the death scene at the end is a bit overdone--but not in a way that particularly harms the overall film.If you care, I have seen just about every film Sam Fuller made and I would say that this and STEEL HELMET are probably his very best. He had an amazing knack for making lower budget films that still delivered lots of action and suspense--a lot like super-high quality B-movies.

Make no mistake, I do recognize that Roger Corman has put out more crap than anybody else out there, but her is the fundamental differance between him and Fuller. Fuller actually writes and directs good films. And I'm not talking about cheesy good pictures, but actually good that if they were made by any more well know director, would be hailed as brillient. Underworld USA is no exception. Fuller takes a simple story and makes it an interesting piece of drama. Personally I would classify this as a film noir, but due to the whole debate of the existence of film noir, I'll call this a drama or neo nior. Anyway, beautiful cinematography as always great script, and good direction. Could have had some better acting, but when you are working on super low budget, and only have 10-15 days to make a film, there are going to be some natural sacrifices. Anyway, must see for Fuller fans.