Rogue Cop **** (1954, Robert Taylor, George Raft, Janet Leigh, Steve Forrest, Anne Francis) – Classic Movie Review 7265

Director Roy Rowland’s 1954 black and white Rogue Cop is a commendably taut, tough film noir thriller with a neat story and an ideal, well deployed cast. John F Seitz was Oscar nominated for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White.

George Raft is solid in his typecast but fine role as the underworld crime boss Dan Beaumonte, Anne Francis does well as his moll Nancy Corlane, and a credible Taylor gives sterling service as the cynical, hardened detective sergeant Christopher ‘Chris’ Kelvaney, the undercover cop who joins Beaumonte (Raft)’s mob to find out who killed his policeman younger brother Eddie Kelvaney after he witnessed a murderer running away from a crime scene.

Steve Forrest plays the honest cop brother Eddie Kelvaney, Janet Leigh is good as Eddie’s sweet, attractive fiancé Karen Stephanson, and Robert Ellenstein is outstanding in his the feature-film debut as Detective Sidney Y Myers.

Remarkably, only four months passed between the MGM studio’s purchase of William P McGivern’s novel and the screening of the movie.

Rogue Cop is a good change of pace for Taylor, then in the middle of a run of historical adventures, and it is a good change of pace for MGM too, then in the middle of a run of musicals.

Also in the cast are Robert F Simon, Anthony Ross, Alan Hale Jr, Peter Brocco, Vince Edwards, Olive Carey, Roy Barcroft, Dale Van Sickel, Ray Teal, Paul Bryar, Robert Burton, Richard Deacon, Phil Chambers, Paul Hoffman, Russell Johnson, Connie Marshall, Gilda Oliva, Milton Parsons, Guy Prescott, Dick Ryan, George Taylor, Jack Victor, Carleton Young, Joseph Waring, Dick Simmons and Herbert Ellis.

Rogue Cop is directed by Roy Rowland, runs 92 minutes, is released by MGM, is written by Sidney Boehm, based on William P McGivern’s novel, shot in black and white by John F Seitz, produced by Nicholas Nayfack, scored by Jeff Alexander, and designed by Cedric Gibbons and Hans Peters.

It did well at the box office, costing $695,000 and grossing $2,509,000 worldwide, and came in handy again later in 1958 when MGM reissued it in a double bill with King Solomon’s Mines (1950).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7265

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