Crime Wave (1954)

Wonderful character development!

just watch it!

A Disappointing Continuation

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This is a good movie. The cinematography and acting are excellent. Sterling Hayden dominates the movie. The on-locations shots of Los Angeles capture the essence of the U.S. urban scene in the early 1950s. This movie is proof that elaborate and expensive sets ate not necessary to produce a solid movie. The close-ups of Phyllis Kirk and Gene Nelson are wonderful. The rest of cast are excellent too. Jay Novello playing the doctor is great casting. And no one could have played Ted de Corsia's part better. This movie shows how excellent casting can lift an otherwise standard crime melodrama to a higher artistic level. The use of black-and-white really works effectively in establishing the mood - somber, gritty, unpretentious. Of course, the movie is also well-directed, proof being the way the story is told - through actions, not narration, and through strong acting. This movie is a cinematic gem.

Dancing movie star tried something different in this 1954 film. As Steve Lacey, married to Phyllis Kirk, he is an ex-convict going straight and living a decent life with a good job. All this changes when his former gang pulls a robbery where a police officer is killed, and the wounded bandit comes to Lacey's home before expiring.Lacey becomes implicated and despite the protestations of a very sympathetic parole officer, he is dodged constantly by officer Sterling Hayden, who is as tough as nails and will never forgive or forget Lacey regarding his past.We have the general hostage situation involving Kirk, when Lacey is forced to drive the get-away car in another bank heist.Notice a very young Charles Bronson, as a violent gang member.The story just shows you how hard it can be for a convict trying to live an honest existence. It's as if he is also being pursued by a Jean Valjean character of "Les Miserables."Hayden shows that he finally has heart by the film's end; so does this film.

Crime Wave (1954)What a surprise. There was a drift in the 1950s from highly controlled studio to highly controlled location shooting, and then, as we see here, to a slightly looser location style that used more of the ambient qualities. It isn't quite cinema verite (or some other documentary-influenced style more common in Europe), and it may be more a product of budget than aesthetics, but it really works. It's most of all realistic.Director Andre De Toth handles all the moving elements with fast precision. The photography is, by necessity, smart and crisp, but the lighting is less dramatic (less noir, you might say) than most crime films. But again, this is a indication of where the industry was moving, on on De Toth's intentions to avoid over stylizing. Other mid 1950s crime films also show shifts from the dramatics of the noirs that define the genre, one example being another Sterling Hayden, "The Killing," directed by Kubrick two years later. The use of identifiable locations for the shoots is part of their unique draw. In Crime Wave, the L.A. streets are used in a simple, unhyped way.The story is a meat and potatoes police drama, with Hayden working the homicide squad. He's terse and experienced, and has the thugs in his sights almost from the start. This puts a lot of the focus on the bad guys, and they come off as highly believable. They do crimes to survive, without romanticizing the criminal, and with lots of little mistakes and harping back and forth. And they know they are on the run, dragging a couple of innocent people along for the terrifying ride.

Crime Wave has the makings for something quite simple as a movie. Its story is about cops and criminals and a few ordinary folks trying to get by. A few criminals (the main ones played by Ted de Corsia and a young Charles Bronson) are out of San Quentin and shoot a gas station attendant and cop. On the lam they hold up with also ex-con Steve Lacey (decent leading man Gene Nelson) with his wife, but what they don't know is that he's already been tapped by the cops, specifically Sterling Hayden's Detective Sims, who is so hard-nosed he could cut through bricks with just a stare and some tough words. It all leads up to one of those heists that just can't go right for the bad guys, but what about the good couple caught in the middle? It is fairly straightforward, and it could have been in other hands. But there's something about Andre De Toth, as director, that stands Crime Wave out as a piece of lean noir cuisine. The way it's shot is one thing, as his European influence comes through in a lot of the exteriors and his way of utilizing natural lighting and real locations, or just how he has someone like a room that looks too real like Sims' office. His camera has a distinct tone to it even when sets or usual shots in moving cars have to be done, and it cuts through the BS and keeps one riveted even as one knows what's going to happen (the last couple of minutes with Sims and the Lacey's are one of them).It also can't be stressed how awesome an actor Sterling Hayden is. In everything he just brings that "umph" that is required whether it's to a hoodlum or a psychotic or a corrupt cop, and in Crime Wave his authority as a presence (six foot five inches) and his pattern of speech play off well against the rest of the usual character actors, save maybe for Charles Bronson since he too is unique even at a young age and creepy character actor Timothy Carey as the man put on watch of Mrs. Lacey. Overall, Crime Wave is a procedural that snaps and crackles and pops for 72 minutes and allows fans of classic film noir to soak up the atmosphere and have a good time seeing the coppers close in on the crooks who, as almost always is the case, don't stand a chance.