Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Good movie but grossly overrated

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

'The Mob' stars Broderick Crawford as a suspended policeman who goes undercover down the waterfront to investigate racketeering and find the boss of bosses. It takes time for him to wangle his way into the mob which he does with toughness and intelligence and discover some people who are not what they seem. It is well directed by Robert Parrish and filmed by Joseph Walker. (The initial scene in the rain is excellently shot).Crawford is very good and he is ably supported by familiar but welcome actors; Ernest Borgnine, Richard Kiley, Neville Brand, John Marley and Ralph Dumke. Charles Bronson appears very briefly. Betty Buehler as the girlfriend has only a minor role (and only had a very short film career) but is warm and likable in her short scenes. The main strength of the film is the wonderful hard boiled dialogue delivered enthusiastically by the cast. One wonders how much of it was in the original novel by Ferguson Findley or was added by William Bowers who wrote the screenplay. George Duning provides a good music score.

I saw The Mob at Cinevent in 2013 and it was the best film of the weekend. This tight noir is filled with great one-liners and unexpected twists.Broderick Crawford plays a cop who goes undercover as a hoodlum to try to take down a crime ring. We constantly question whether he is totally legit because his mouth is just as tough as the criminals' he's working to put in jail. The story keeps moving and if you blink you might miss something, but the plot never quite gets away from the viewer. This is realism done with panache. It is unfortunate that this movie has had no formal release because it is certainly worth seeing.

Broderick Crawford plays a cop who goes undercover to infiltrate the mob. And to make them think he's "their kind of guy" he comes into town with a major attitude and a willingness to slug anyone who gets in his way. However, this is no routine assignment, as there are lots of dangerous twists and turns and repeatedly it appears he's about to buy the farm. I particularly loved the very tense and rather violent ending in the hospital---you just have to see it to understand.This film has one of the most important ingredients of Film Noir down pat--it has one of the ugliest casts in film history!! True lovers of this gritty genre know that actors in such films can't be "pretty boys" but ugly and cold-blooded killers. That's why when I saw this film starred Broderick Crawford (king of the hard-drinking ugly actors), Ernest Borgnine and Neville Brand (the scariest looking thug in film history) I was thrilled to see it. Now this ISN'T meant as an insult--I am just stating a fact necessary for a good Noir film. Great Noir abounds with ugly mugs like Edmund O'Brien, John Ireland and John McGraw--though the cast in THE MOB is among the ugliest and therefore best in genre history. In addition to ugly and menacing men, the film also features realistic and gritty violence, tough dialog, lots of great shadows and camera angles as well as a taut script--and all are in THE MOB in spades. All the elements needed for exceptional Noir--so it certainly wasn't a surprise that I really enjoyed the film.If you love Noir, you will love this film. If you don't, then watch this film anyways!! Then, try some other great Noir films like THE KILLERS, DOA, KISS OF DEATH and ASPHALT JUNGLE--then you, too, will most likely be hooked!!

**SPOILERS** Police detective Johnny Damico, Broderick Crawford, messes up big time when he lets a cop killer, as well as the murderer of a government whiteness, get away Scot-free when he conned Johnny into thinking that the cop killer was a cop himself.Facing the loss of his job among other things Johnny agrees to go undercover in the longshoreman's union to get the goods on who's responsible in the two murders, Police Let. Marie and government witness Ed Jensen, that he's now to put his life on the line for. The police give Johnny a phony criminal record as well as new face in the newspapers, his Uncle Hecliff, and name petty hoodlum Tim Flynn from New Orleans as he ends up at this flea bag hotel, the Royal, on the docks looking for Mr. Big for a job in his crooked dock union.It doesn't take long for Johnny to make a name for himself as he gets a real easy work assignment driving a forklift that has the previous driver Culio, Frank DeKova, not at all that happy with him. After laying Cuilo out after he tried to pull a hook on him Johnny is invited to see the big man who runs the dock Joe Castro, Earnest Borgnine, who has his doubts about Johnny's real intentions.Trying to set Johnny up on a murder rap Castro's henchman Gunner, Neville Brand, works him over taking his gun and then using it to knock off Culio making Johnny, who had a fight with him that afternoon, the prime suspect. It turns out that Johnny suckered both Castro and Gunner by having two different guns on him, one that Gunner missed when he frisked him, that saved Johnny from being charged in Culio's murder.As things now start to get hot for Johnny he now has to come up with Let. Marie's and Jensen's killer the omnipresent as well as faceless Mr. Big not Joe Castro who's only one of his stooges before his cover which isn't that convincing to begin with is blown. It just happens that one of Johnny's colleagues on the docks, whom he suspected of being Mr. Big, turned out to be government agent Tom Clancy, Richard Kiley, who's also undercover. This gives Johnny some breathing room to track down the very elusive Mr. Big before Mr. Big finds out just who he is.The big break in the case comes when Johnny gets in touch with the Royal Hotel bartender Smoothie, Matt Crowley, who turns out to be a real smooth operator as well as being Mr. Big's middle or in between man. Smootie tells Johnny that his boss, or boss of bosses, Mr. Big is willing to pay him $10,000.00 to knock off a cop who's been giving him and his boys major headaches over the last two weeks. It turn out that the cop that Mr. Big wants Johnny to knock off is Johnny himself!Exciting but not that all believable ending with Johnny finally getting to face Mr. Big who's, unknowingly to him, got Johnny's girlfriend nurse Mary Kierman, Betty Buehler, as a hostage. It turns out that Mr. Big found out that Mary is the girlfriend of the cop whom he wants to knock off, Johnny Damico, and can identify him. What Mr. Big doesn't know is that cop is standing right in front of him using the name Tim Fylnn and is anything but happy, to the point of putting a slug between his eyes, the way he's and his henchmen are treating Mary!