The Lineup (1958)

Sadly Over-hyped

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

How could you go wrong? Directed by Siegal.Written by Silliphant.Starring Wallach.I realize as this is written (2016) B&W police procedurals from the 1950s are no longer cool, and to many this is a piece of history.But I just re-watched it and I suggest it holds up regardless of age. The last 10 minutes includes a scene where one of the two gangsters explains to a helpless female captive that criminals "need" violence and that regular folk never understood that. A double irony -- and a credit to Silliphant's genius -- is that this particular character never touched a gun in his life.Wallach of course steals the show. By a bizarre coincidence I was watching GOOD BAD AND UGLY (Leone) on another device at the same time and I was gob-smacked at how this actor could hold the camera like no other.Recommended.

Don Siegel was a fine director, and here he has made a film based on a TV show, The Lineup, which ran on CBS for six years, and using its stars, Warner Anderson and Marshall Reed as Lt. Ben Guthrie and Inspector Fred Ascher. The show was similar to "Dragnet," meaning that it had a lot of police procedural work, which Siegel didn't want in the film. He lost that argument with Colombia.Robert Keith and Eli Wallach are gangsters employed to retrieve narcotics that are hidden in items coming into the country -- unknown to the people who actually purchased them. This means either finessing the items from them on some excuse, breaking into their homes, or whatever needed to be done. The Wallach character elects to kill as he goes. When he gets to a woman (Mary LaRoche) and her daughter, the heroin is is supposed to be inside a doll, except it isn't. Now they have to tell the big boss what happened.If you're from San Francisco, this is the film for you, as it uses San Francisco locations circa 1958, which you will find fascinating. The city gives the film a great atmosphere, too.Pretty good film noir, with a dramatic, wild ending.

The Lineup is directed by Don Siegel and written by Stirling Silliphant. It stars Eli Wallach, Robert Keith, Warner Anderson and Richard Jaeckel. Music is by Mischa Bakaleinkoff and cinematography by Hal Mohr.A drug smuggling gang are planting heroin on returning American tourists so as to get the merchandise through customs. Two hired hands, Dancer & Julian (Wallach & Keith respectively) then locate the unsuspecting tourists and reclaim the hidden drugs. But in this moment, with new driver Sandy McLain (Jaeckel) behind the wheel, things are not going to go to plan.It came at a time when the classic noir cycle was drawing to a close, when the dark alleyways had been replaced by sun brightened streets, but The Lineup is still clinical film noir. Originally a police procedural series that was poplar both on radio and TV, the film version keeps the police on the edges of the frame whilst studying the psychological make-ups of the criminal players. Expertly using real San Francisco locations as the backdrop, Siegel takes Silliphant's spicy script and unfurls a plot of bizarre like twists that are in turn cloaked with devilish noir substance.The four crims that form the core of the story are most intriguing players. Mclain the hapless getaway driver is in over his head, Dancer is always one push away from being a psychotic basket case and Julian is aged, wise and playing cards close to his chest. It's with the relationship between Dancer & Julian where things are shaded most darkly. Dancer announces to a secondary character (and us of course) that an absent father torments his inner being, armed with this knowledge it's then easy to view the Dancer/Julian relationship as father and son like, this even if Dancer is almost impossible to love. Julian constantly tries to keep Dancer correct and in line, even attempting to make him socially acceptable. Is it a lost cause? Well all these things come to an attention grabbing head in the excellent last quarter.MTH889Then there is The Man (Vaughn Taylor), a person we only hear about for the most part for he's not introduced until late in the day. He is the guy that Julian & Dancer work for, a shifty Godfather type we believe, as do the hired hands, but Dancer's curiosity gnaws away at him, as it does us the viewers. But when the inevitable happens, Siegel and Sillipant produce another strong film noir character, a pitiless soul who is the catalyst for our trip down bleakville highway, where the cityscape backdrop proves expansive to us, but for Dancer, Julian & Sandy it's an enclosed tomb. 8/10

Tightly scripted, excitingly staged, and brilliantly acted by Eli Wallach, this is a real sleeper. It could have been just another slice of thick-ear on the order of the Dragnet movie (1954). But thanks to writer Stirling Silliphant, director Don Siegel, and actor Wallach, The Lineup stands as one of the best crime films of the decade.Someone in production made a key decision to shoot the film entirely on location in San Francisco, and rarely have locations been used more imaginatively then here, from dockside to Nob Hill to the streets and freeways, plus lively entertainment spots. The producers of 1968's Bullit must have viewed this little back-and-whiter several times over, especially the car chase.Colorless detectives Warner Anderson and Emile Meyer (standing in for Tom Tully of the TV series of the same name) are chasing down psychopathic hit-man Wallach and mentor Robert Keith, who in turn are chasing down bags of smuggled narcotics. Dancer (Wallach) is simply chilling. You never know when that dead-pan stare will turn homicidal, even with little kids. Good thing his sidekick, the literary-inclined Julian (Keith), is there as a restraining force, otherwise the city might be seriously de-populated. Cult director Siegel keeps things moving without let-up, and even the forces of law and order are kept from stalling the action. My favorite scene is where Dancer goes slowly bonkers at the uncooperative Japanese doll. Watch his restrained courtship manners with the lonely mother (Mary La Roche) come unraveled as he reverts to psychopathic form, while mother and daughter huddle in mounting panic at the man they so trustingly brought home. It's a riveting scene in a film filled with them.The Line Up is another of those unheralded, minor gems that has stood the test of time, unlike so many of the big-budget cadavers of that year or any year.