The Lineup **** (1958, Eli Wallach, Robert Keith, Warner Anderson, Richard Jaeckel, Emile Meyer) – Classic Movie Review 7611

Director Don Siegel’s taut, tough-toned and witty 1958 B-movie film noir police procedural crime thriller The Lineup, a big-screen version of the hit 1954-60 TV series The Lineup aka San Francisco Beat, is a credit to writer Stirling Silliphant and the ingenuity of director Siegel, who is at his best here in the movie’s memorable car chase.

Warner Anderson and Marshall Reed reprise their roles as Lieutenant Ben Guthrie and Inspector Fred Asher from the TV series but Tom Tully’s character of Inspector Matt Grebb is replaced by Inspector Al Quine, played by Emile Meyer. Unusually, Eli Wallach gets top billing as the main villain while TV series star Anderson gets co-star billing.

As befits his star status, Eli Wallach is on powerhouse form as the mob’s drug pusher-hired killer Dancer, who, along with thug Julian (Robert Keith), holds two women hostage at gunpoint, after they have been set up as innocent heroine smugglers.

Warner Anderson plays Detective Lieutenant Ben Guthrie, and Emile Meyer and Marshall Reed play a pair of over-the-top cops, Inspector Al Quine and Inspector Fred Asher, who crash, bash and smash their way around San Francisco in pursuit of some pretty unpleasant types. Anderson and Reed re-create their roles from the TV show.

It says everything that The Lineup is first class of its B-movie film noir kind.

Also notable in the cast are Richard Jaeckel, Mary LaRoche, William Leslie, Marshall Reed, Raymond Bailey, Vaughn Taylor, Cheryl Callaway, and Robert Bailey.

The Lineup is directed by Don Siegel, runs 87 minutes, is made by Pajemer Productions, released by Columbia Pictures, is written by Stirling Silliphant, is shot in black and white by Hal Mohr, is produced by Frank Cooper, and is scored by Mischa Bakaleinikoff.

Siegel re-used the idea of Dancer carrying his revolver in a briefcase in The Killers (1964), where the two killers carry revolvers in a briefcase.

Exterior shooting in San Francisco includes shots of the under-construction Embarcadero Freeway, the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, the War Memorial Opera House, the Mark Hopkins Hotel, and the Sutro Baths.

Marshall Reed as Fred Asher in TV’s The Lineup.

The Lineup aired on CBS radio from 1950 to 1953 and then on CBS television from 1954 to 1960, with syndicated reruns titled San Francisco Beat. It starred Warner Anderson as Guthrie, Marshall Reed as Fred Asher and Tom Tully as Grebb.

A fire in 1966 destroyed the historic 1896 Sutro Baths building while it was being demolished for a planned high-rise apartment complex. It was determined to be arson and all that remains are concrete walls, blocked-off stairs and passageways, and a tunnel with a deep crevice.

It has a line of dialogue ‘When you live outside the law, you have to eliminate dishonesty’, which Bob Dylan used in ‘Absolutely Sweet Marie as ‘To live outside the law you must be honest’.

The Lineup was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 1997.

The cast are Eli Wallach as Dancer, Robert Keith as Julian, Warner Anderson as Lt. Ben Guthrie, Richard Jaeckel as Sandy McLain, Mary LaRoche as Dorothy Bradshaw, William Leslie as Larry Warner, Emile Meyer as Inspector Al Quine, Robert Bailey as Staples, Raymond Bailey as Phillip Dressler, Vaughn Taylor as The Man, Cheryl Callaway as Cindy Bradshaw, Marshall Reed as Inspector Fred Asher.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7611

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