As Good As It Gets

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Blistering performances.

A familiar story of a cop (Victor Mature) and a criminal (Richard Conte) who grew up in the same tough New York City neighborhood, in the same culture, but chose different paths in life, and end up facing off against each other. Mature's part as the detective could almost put him in the role of the bad cop out to bring down the neighborhood hero, though the story, with some excellent lines for Mature, leads us to the truth, that Conte was playing the part of a fairly ruthless con man, especially with the people closest to him. The essential conflict between the two primary roles gives the film a strong focus, but other characters elevate the movie to unexpected heights. Betty Garde, Barry Kroeger and Hope Emerson each have great parts in this film. Garde's part looks like it's going to be brief, but she reappears later in the film and adds another dimension to the story. The story is already hitting its stride when Hope Emerson makes a memorable appearance as a deadly masseuse who takes Conte into her parlor/apartment. Their lines are some of the best in the movie. Lloyd Ahern, the cinematographer captures the essence of a crime drama in the great night scenes.

Very fine noir. From beginning to end this character driven tale is very well told with some solid performances, dialogue and location shooting. Maybe this lacks a little 'action' but it is gripping and suspenseful in places nevertheless. Everyone is believable, even the kid, and that's a rarity. Richard Conte's performance as the truly ruthless bad guy is quite majestic and Victor Mature, as the ever on his heels good cop, does well to keep up, in both senses of the word. Even the smaller parts are great, including a lovely performance (which I understand was virtually all removed from the US release) from Shelley Winters. It is an almost nothing part and easily cut but she plays the moll so well, with a mixture of caring, humour and concern for her own safety. I was astonished that the several family scenes did not slip into sentimentality and even increased ones general concern for all concerned. Great street scenes, busy ones too and including shots of overhead railway. Really good, attention grabbing noir of the first order.

This is a rather simple film with a rather simple plot, though it shows that even given a rather noncomplex story, you can still have an exceptional film--thanks mostly to the direct and no-nonsense style of the movie. In many ways, this film is reminiscent of Noir films like DRAGNET, THE NAKED CITY and T-MEN--movies that focus more on the normal day-to-day police work involved in catching the bad guys. The unglamorous style actually was a major plus here--no cops working people over in the back room, no bullet-proof good guys and these cops were basically honest yet human.The film begins with Richard Conte in the hospital after having killed a policeman. Victor Mature and Fred Clark (in a real departure from his other roles) are lieutenants assigned to the case. However, despite having the injured Conte in custody, this slick crook escapes and the rest of the film involves his recapture. During the course of his time at large, Conte uses practically everyone around him and shows that despite his assertion that he's really a nice guy, he's really just a thug.There are plenty of twists and turns in the film and despite Victor Mature's saying off-screen on many occasions that he was a lousy actor, he was a major asset to the film. Other performances were also uniformly excellent. About the only problem, and it was very minor, was the ending. It was exciting but also seemed a tad tough to believe with all that "machismo". Still, it's a heck of a good film and one you should see if you love police dramas and Noir films.By the way, I do agree with spompermayer who also reviewed the film and particularly liked Ms. Emerson's performance--she was indeed an unforgettable character and greatly enhanced the film! What a dame!!

With his silky manners and glittering eyes, Richard Conte was a prince among hoodlums: elegant, magnetic and sharp as a shiv. As the mugs and roughnecks of the early thirties evolved into more sophisticated postwar gangsters, Conte's regal bearing gloved the gangster's raw aggression in smooth style. (Significantly, he was one of the first Italian-American leading men in Hollywood.) Conte always looks like he's plugged into some private source of electricity, like you could get a shock from touching him. He needs that intensity here, since he plays a wounded criminal who spends most of the movie lying in bed or limping around, dragging a gunshot-riddled leg and crumpling with pain. He still manages to radiate menace and charisma, threatening or seducing everyone who comes near him.Plot-wise, CRY OF THE CITY is that old chestnut about two boys from the same neighborhood (New York's Little Italy, presented with far more nuance and authenticity than Hollywood's usual spaghetti-with-meatballs style) who grow up on opposite sides of the law. Lieutenant Candella (Victor Mature) pursues Martin Rome (Conte) relentlessly after he escapes from a prison hospital; Rome is determined to clear his girlfriend of suspicion in a jewel theft by finding the real culprits. The plot is just a scaffolding to support a series of scenes in which Rome and Candella alternately vie for leverage and influence over an eclectic parade of supporting characters, all of whom seem driven by fear or greed. Desperation inhabits the city like weather. Director Siodmak, one of the masters of film noir, suffuses the film with a dark mood, atmospheric locations, and those corrupted personal transactions that define the genre.In a hospital in the middle of the night a priest murmurs and family-members weep quietly over a dying man who is chained to his bed—Martin Rome has just killed a cop in a shoot-out. Later, after he has escaped and collapsed again, his girl (Shelley Winters in a leopard-print coat) enlists an unlicensed foreign doctor to treat him in the back seat while they drive around damp city streets, using neon signs for light. Stolen jewels get stashed in a locker in a subway station. Marty almost meets his match in a massive, burly masseuse (Hope Emerson), who looms over him as he works his bright-eyed, caressing charm. Their scene together is funny, scary and perversely titillating all at once, as the mountainous woman starts to massage his back and then gets her hands around his throat. Sadder is Marty's seduction of a plain, middle-aged hospital nurse who is burdened, we later find out, with a nasty, selfish, annoying old mother. At one point Candella reads off to Marty a list of all the former girlfriends the cop has had to look up, and Marty amusingly reacts to each name with regret, embarrassment or fondness. For this tough guy, sex appeal is as powerful a weapon as a gun or a knife—sometimes it's the only one he has.All the time we're rooting for Marty—at least I was. CRY OF THE CITY perfectly demonstrates how easily movies can mess with one's moral compass. Marty is a killer and a selfish, remorseless crook, but his élan and vulnerability make him an irresistible underdog. His adversary, Candella, is a self-righteous moralizer, a monomaniacal Javert whose hatred seems inspired more by his enemy's charisma than by his crimes. Victor Mature's heavy, stolid presence sharply contrasts with Conte's proud, dazzling quickness. Someone once described Mature as an intelligent actor cursed with the face and physique of a dissipated life guard; I forget who wrote that, but it hits the nail on the head. The poor guy *looked* like a bad actor—all beef and no brains—even though he wasn't. Here his scenes with the Rome family are intended to soften his character, and he does have likable moments, but the way he turns them all—finally even the kid brother—against Marty only increased my sympathy for the endangered outcast. His accusation that Marty uses people is fair enough, but he lays it on too thick; it wasn't Marty's idea to enlist the illegal doctor or the "trusty" who helps him break out of jail. Booming, "Stop in the name of the law!" Candella embodies implacable authority, and who could root for that?I like to think that in real life superficial concerns like these wouldn't get in the way of my knowing right from wrong, but this is a movie; style is bound to trump substance. Are films like this one—made under the Hays Code, when movies were not allowed to openly glorify criminals—deliberately subversive? The script says one thing, but the casting says another. In a way, that hypocrisy is essential to noir, an under-the-radar phenomenon that made caustic comments about human nature while ostensibly endorsing the Ten Commandments. For Martin Rome, a premature death isn't too high a price to pay for all the fun he had breaking the rules. And a clichéd ending is not too high a price for the pleasure of this movie.