Gang War (1958)

Waste of time

One of my all time favorites.

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

In director Gene Fowler, Jr.'s "Gang War," tough guy Charles Bronson plays Los Angeles high school math teacher Alan Avery who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Big-time mobster Maxie Mathews (John Doucette of "The Big Heat") has dispatched his second-in-command, Joe Reno (Jack Reynolds of "The Basketball Fix"), and his henchman, Bernard "Axe" Duncan (Ralph Manza of "Get Shorty"), to take care permanently of Slick Connors (Leonard P. Geer) who has since become an informant for the authorities against Maxie. Reno and Bernard trap Slick atop a car and stab him to death. Alan Avery witnesses this brutal mob killing on his way home from picking up a prescription for his wife. Later, the police show up at Alvery's residence where he lives with his pregnant wife, Edie Avery (Gloria Henry), and they hand him his wife's prescription. Avery has no problem with testifying against the mobsters who killed the man. A corrupt cop makes certain that the media knows everything there is to know about Alvery, and the newspaper the following day features a banner headline about Alvery's involvement. Naturally, mob kingpin Maxie Meadows wants to throw a scare into the public-spirited school teacher so he sends his manservant, Chester (Larry Gelbman of "She Demons") a former pugilist over to Alvery's house to soften up the wife and throw a scare into Alvery. The former prizefighter lays into Edie, and Alan comes home to find the tea kettle whistling stridently and his wife dead on the floor. Immediately, Alvery arms himself with an automatic pistol and takes a taxi out to Mathews' residence where he lines up the racketeer in his sights to shoot him. Unfortunately, some uniform policemen intervene and Meadows can do little more than have our hero arrested for trespassing. Part of the reason that Meadows cannot bring bigger charges against Alan is that the sympathetic cops have confiscated Alan's pistol. Meantime, Mathews' mouthpiece, Bryce Barker (Kent Taylor of "Mississippi Gambler"), tries to persuade Alvery to not testify against Mathews. Barker is an interesting character because he has a hearing aid. When he learns about the death of Alvery's daughter, things get out of control for Maxie."Gang War" qualifies as an unusual Charles Bronson B-movie because he doesn't get the chance to exact vengeance on the mobsters. Indeed, he totes an automatic pistol, but he never gets a chance to use it. Nevertheless, this doesn't keep Alan from interfering with their plans. Ironically, the mob takes care of Maxie, and Alan doesn't get a chance to burst into the attorney's house with two pistols blazing. Director Gene Fowler doesn't waste a second in telling this little story. John Doucette makes a good villain, and Kent Taylor is even better as attorney with a hearing aid.

I finally got to see this little gem of a movie starring a still-looking young Charles Bronson. He has always and will be my favorite actor of all time. Here, he is his in one of four pictures in 1958 that he had a starring leading role. It has almost the same premises of his later hit "Death Wish"(1974). But it is more a gang picture than anything else. And what I mean by gang it has the typical cliché's like the big boss, the dumb dame, the punch-drunk ex-fighter, the 'bought' cop and the gangland attorney. All in all it holds up well.Here Bronson as 'Alan Avery', a high school teacher , underplays his role but keeps a sympathetic interest centered on him somehow.John Doucette as the big crime boss 'Maxie Matthews' whose in denial that his day as boss is numbered, does a way better job for me. He just fits that role so well. Oozing sliminess and dangerous violence within him. And his vernacular is right on target on how those gangsters would sound like. Nice job John, perfect casting.And the beautiful and sexy Jennifer Holden . Wow, what a doll! She played Marie 'the dumb dame' very well. She was just 'set dressing' but wow what a body! Too bad she did only 3 films!? Before this film she did one with Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock(1957). What a shame and loss of that beautiful figure.Gloria Henry(Dennis the Menace's mom!) plays Bronson's ill-fated wife 'Edie Avery', did OK. Did not have much to do. It looked for a while that this would be her final 'movie' role as she just later concentrated on TV series shows and TV movies, and in 1992 made what appeared to be her final appearance in anything with a appearance in the TV show 'Sisters',she then reappears 13 years later in a movie no less! The film is called 'Her Minor Thing'(2005) She once again disappears for 7 years and reappears in 2012 in a TV series again no less!? Wow.The late Barney Phillips plays the Police Lt. Sam Johnson has little do here but does recall his 'Dragnet' days by watching him do the police role. Larry Gelbman who plays the dumb and dangerous ex-fighter bodyguard of Matthews and has a thing for Maxie's moll Marie, did an okay job. Tall and menacing, he did alright for me. This tall actor disappeared from movies after 1969 and has not been heard of since.

Gang War (1958) ** (out of 4) A school teacher (Charles Bronson) witnesses a gang killing and turns the gangsters over to the police. In return, the gangsters kill the teacher's pregnant girlfriend, so he goes out for revenge. It was rather funny seeing this film because you can't help but think of Death Wish while watching it. Bronson is rather bland in the lead and the direction by Gene Fowler, Jr. doesn't add much to the mix. The ending really doesn't work and comes of a letdown as well.Fox owns this title and as of yet they haven't released it to DVD.

It's nice to see Charles Bronson in a leading role in a 1958 20th Century Fox-production. All though it's low-budget and really should be graded as B-material it is a testament to the rising stardom of Bronson. Imagine it would take another 16 years for him to become the greatest movie star in the world!(MILD SPOILER)What really makes this movie interesting, if you're a fan of Bronson, is the fact that you get to see him go into his "Death Wish"-mode so many years before he made the character of Paul Kersey part of movie lore. When gangsters accidentally kill his pregnant wife he goes from mild school teacher to a furious revenge-seeker. Sadly the cops stop him, but this is just halfway into the plot.It's nice to see John Doucette, for years one of Hollywood's many bit-players, given the chance to ham it up as a local mob boss, and there are some surprisingly nice shots for a movie of this size. Such as one mentioned in another comment, where we see Charlie in downtown L.A., late at night, with the Capitol Records building towering in the background.This is a rare opportunity to see Bronson in a serious starring-role early in his career. Ineptly titled "Gang War" this is more drama than action. Here characters (all be-it paper-thin) play a bigger part than blood and bullets. And as I mentioned above, somewhat a curio for Charlie-fans.