Down Three Dark Streets *** (1954, Broderick Crawford, Ruth Roman, Martha Hyer) – Classic Movie Review 10,186

Broderick Crawford plays the talented FBI man Mr Ripley, who takes over investigating three cases, in the 1954 black and white film noir crime drama Down Three Dark Streets. 

Director Arnold Laven’s 1954 black and white film noir crime drama Down Three Dark Streets is an excellent, fast-moving, quintessentially Fifties crime thriller that excitingly juggles three cases about car thieves, a fleeing gangster and an extortion racket presently targeting Kate Martell (Ruth Roman).

Broderick Crawford plays the talented FBI man Mr Ripley who takes over investigating all the three cases after his colleague FBI Agent Zack Stewart (Kenneth Tobey) who was working on them is killed with a crook’s bullet, hoping one of the cases will lead to the killer.

Big Brod Crawford is a powerful bulldozing presence in a movie that is ultra-tense all the way to the ending under the giant hillside ‘Hollywood’ sign. Down Three Dark Streets is short (85 minutes), complex, compact and taut.

The screenplay by Gordon Gordon and Mildred Gordon [The Gordons] and Bernard C Schoenfeld is based on the novel Case File FBI by Gordon Gordon and Mildred Gordon [The Gordons].

Also in the cast are Martha Hyer, Marisa Pavan, Casey Adams, Kenneth Tobey, Claude Akins, Gene Reynolds, William Johnstone, Harlan Warde, Jay Adler and Suzanne Alexander.

Although intended to be a melodrama in support of the FBI, the FBI director J Edgar Hoover objected to early drafts of the script, resulting in changes to the screenplay.

Hoover was appointed director of the FBI’s predecessor, the Bureau of Investigation in 1924, and in 1935 was instrumental in founding the FBI, where he was director for 37 years until his death in 1972, aged 77. He routinely violated the laws the FBI was enforcing, used the FBI to harass political dissidents, to amass secret files for blackmailing high level politicians, and to collect evidence using vigilantism and many other illegal methods.

Down Three Dark Streets is directed by Arnold Laven, runs 85 minutes, is made by Edward Small Productions, is released by United Artists, is written by Gordon Gordon and Mildred Gordon [The Gordons] and Bernard C Schoenfeld is based on the novel Case File FBI by Gordon Gordon and Mildred Gordon [The Gordons], is shot in black and white by Joseph F Biroc, is produced by Edward Small (executive), Arthur Gardner and Jules V Levy, is scored by Paul Sawtell, and is designed by Ted Haworth.

The cast are Broderick Crawford as FBI Agent John Ripley, Ruth Roman as Kate Martell, Martha Hyer as Connie Anderson, Marisa Pavan as Julie Angelino, Max Showalter [Casey Adams] as Dave Milson, Kenneth Tobey as Zack Stewart, Gene Reynolds as Vince Angelino, William Johnstone as Frank Pace, Harlan Warde as Greg Barker, Jay Adler as Uncle Max, Claude Akins as Matty Pavelich, Suzanne Alexander as Brenda Ralles, Myra Marsh as Mrs Domes, and Joe Basselt as Joe Walpo.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,186

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