Illegal *** (1955, Edward G. Robinson, Nina Foch, Albert Dekker, Hugh Marlowe, Jayne Mansfield) – Classic Movie Review 2172

Director Lewis Allen’s intriguing 1955 film noir Illegal stars Edward G Robinson, Nina Foch, Albert Dekker and Hugh Marlowe.

Robinson stars as canny former district attorney Victor Scott, who becomes a crooked lawyer for a mob kingpin called Frank Garland (Dekker), after making the fatal mistake of convicting an innocent man (DeForest Kelley) and sending him to the electric chair.

But Scott puts Garland’s life in peril by ratting on him when his adored former colleague (Foch) is wrongly charged with being embroiled in mob business.

The admirable Robinson, Foch and Dekker work wonders with the material, battling against the odds of a busy, but sometimes tepid, stagy, much previously trodden script. This B-movie crime thriller gets the job done briskly, thanks to the stars and Allen’s workmanlike direction. Illegal is a remake of 1932’s The Mouthpiece, which is based on Frank Collins’s play of that title.

In an early film, Jayne Mansfield has a key small but significant walk-on role as a dangerous blonde called Angel O’Hara.

Also in the cast are Howard St John, Ellen Corby, Edward Platt, Jan Merlin, Robert Ellenstein, Jay Adler, Henry Kulky, James McCallion, Addison Richards, Lawrence Dobkin, DeForest Kelley, Clark Howatt, Archie Twitchell, Herb Vigran, Kathy Marlowe, Barry Hudson, Charles Evans, John Cliff, Fred Coby, Chris Alcaide, Phil Arnold, George Ross, Ted Stanhope, Stewart Nedd, Howard Wendell, Julie Bennett and Henry Rowland.

Illegal is directed by Lewis Allen, runs 88 minutes, is released by Warner Bros, is written by W R Burnett and James R Webb, based on Frank Collins’s play The Mouthpiece, is shot in black and white by J Peverell Marley, is produced by Frank P Rosenberg, is scored by Max Steiner and is designed by art director Stanley Fleischer.

Jayne Mansfield became the first mainstream American actress to appear nude in a starring film role.

Mansfield’s debut was a supporting role in the low-budget Female Jungle, made in ten days while she was still a student at UCLA and released in early 1955. She earned $150. In February 1955, her manager and publicist negotiated a seven-year contract with Warner Bros, attracted by her self-publicity antics. The contract paid her $250 a week and brought her bit parts in Pete Kelly’s Blues (1955) starring Jack Webb and Hell on Frisco Bay (1955) with Alan Ladd. Then came Illegal (1955).

She was dissatisfied with the Warner contract and hired an attorney to get her out of it. In 1963 in Promises! Promises!, she became the first mainstream American actress to appear nude in a starring film role.

© Derek Winnert 2015 – Classic Movie Review 2172 derekwinnert.com