Underworld USA **** (1961, Cliff Robertson, Dolores Dorn, Beatrice Kay, Larry Gates, Robert Emhardt, Paul Dubov, Richard Rust) – Classic Movie Review 3656

‘The Facts… The Faces… The Film That Cracks America’s Organized Crime Syndicate Wide Open!’

Writer-producer-director Samuel Fuller’s tough, hard-hitting 1961 neo-noir revenge crime drama thriller Underworld USA is lifted way out of the rut by Fuller’s taut, high-impact direction.

Cliff Robertson (1923–2011)

Cliff Robertson gives an above-par turn as Tolly Devlin, an ex-con out to avenge the murder of his father he viewed beaten to death in an alleyway as a 14-year child by joining both the Feds and the mob. Twenty years later, he is prepared to go to endless lengths to get his revenge on the four murderous mobsters who have risen to the top of the crime syndicate.

Dolores Dorn co-stars as Cuddles a prostitute he convinces to testify against one of the gangsters who killed his father. In another showy role, Richard Rust plays the syndicate’s ruthless assassin Gus Cottahee.

Samuel Fuller (August 12, 1912 – October 30, 1997).

Running at a brisk 98 minutes, it is compactly and tightly written by Fuller from Saturday Evening Post articles by Boston Globe crime reporter Joseph F Dinneen. Fuller used the title of one of the articles and found other inspiration in Here Is to Crime, a book by newspaperman Riley Cooper. It is shot in stark black and white by Hal Mohr.

Also in the cast are Beatrice Kay, Larry Gates, Dolores Dorn, Robert Emhardt, Paul Dubov, Richard Rust, Gerald Milton, Allan Gruener, David Kent and Tina Rome.

It is made by Globe Enterprises and released by Columbia Pictures, who cut an opening scene with a union of prostitutes.

Fuller is the director of 23 movies, also including The Baron of Arizona, The Steel Helmet, House of Bamboo and The Crimson Kimono.

The cast are Cliff Robertson as Tolly Devlin, Dolores Dorn as Cuddles, Beatrice Kay as Sandy, Paul Dubov as Gela, Robert Emhardt as Earl Connors, Larry Gates as John Driscoll, Richard Rust as Gus Cottahee, Gerald Milton as Gunther, Allan Gruener as Smith, David Kent and Tina Rome.

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© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3656
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Robert Emhardt (1914–1994).