SIDE STREET (director: Anthony Mann; screenwriter: Sydney Boehm; cinematographer: Joseph Ruttenberg; editor: Conrad A. Nervig; cast: Farley Granger (Joe Norson), Cathy O'Donnell (Ellen Norson), James Craig (Georgie Garsell), Paul Kelly (Capt. Walter Anderson), Jean Hagen (Harriet Sinton), Paul Harvey (Emil Lorrison), Edwin Max (Nick Drummon), Edmon Ryan (Victor Backett), Charles McGraw (Stanley Simon), Adele Jergens (Lucille "Lucky" Colner), Harry Bellaver (Larry), Whit Bissell (Harold Simpsen); Runtime: 83; MGM; 1950)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A minor film noir directed with verve by Anthony Mann, about a part-time private letter carrier who steals money from a lawyer's office and gets involved in a murder rap. The crime caper was too absurd and trite to carry the film, but the fast-pace and the finale featuring an exciting car chase through the deserted streets of Lower Manhattan gave the film some oomph.
Joe Norson (Farley Granger) is someone who feels he let his pregnant wife down by not earning enough money to give her the finer things in life, and he thinks his wife should have a private room when she goes to the hospital for their expected baby. Temptation comes his way when he delivers the office mail to Victor Backett (Ryan) and sees $200 on the floor being placed in a filing cabinet. He returns to break-in and steal $30,000 in that cabinet, a sum that startles him as he panics at the thought of so much money in his possession. He doesn't realize that the money is from a blackmail scheme run by Backett's girlfriend, "Lucky" Colner (Jergens), on an elderly married man (Harvey). Backett, not wanting to take chances of anyone squealing, has his ex-con former client whom he got out on parole, the 'Big Fellow,' Georgie Garsell (Craig), strangle Lucky and dump her body in the East River.
This murder brings about a full-scale murder investigation, led by Captain Anderson (Kelly) and Detective Stanley Simon (Charles McGraw). Meanwhile Joe goes into a panic about what he did and has no clear plan about what to do, as he takes some money for immediate use and wraps the rest in a package and asks the bartender Nick Drummon (Max) to hold it for him. He tells his wife that he got a job Upstate and will be gone a few days. But, while staying in a cheap hotel in town, after thinking over what he did, he foolishly walks into Backett's office and tells him he took the money from him. But Backett pretends he doesn't know what he's saying, as he stalls to check out the story. The gangsters then force him to give him the money, but the bartender ran away with the real package and left him a phony one. After being worked over by them and thrown out of their car, he tracks down the bartender. But he's too late, as the gangsters got their first and took the money and killed the bartender.
This leads Joe through the dark spots in NYC where he finds George's nightclub singer girlfriend, Harriet (Hagen), who steers him to the gangsters, Vic, George, and the cab driver Larry (Bellaver). The gang kills Harriet rather than take a chance on the cops nabbing her and then they decide to kill Joe by the East River, as at gunpoint they force him to walk down to the taxi. On there way to the East River, at the Washington Square Market, the police pick up their trail and a high-speed chase ensues, with the criminals killed and Joe severly hurt in the car crash as he is carried out in a stretcher. He's reunited with his forgiving wife and is forgiven by the cops, as this bleak film ends on a happy note.
It was a taut suspense film, catching the despair of the protagonist who because of his human failings had a momentary lapse in good judgment and went through a hellish experience to atone for his misdeed. The strength in the film lies in the oppressive atmosphere set by seeing how the tall buildings and narrow streets of the city play against him reacting as a wounded animal trying to survive, scared and feeling too weak to help himself as his American Dream is crumbling right before him. Both Granger and O'Donnell are borrowed from MGM and Samuel Goldwyn respectively, as this studio hoped they could duplicate the success they both had while starring in Ray's RKO thriller They Live By Night. But they just couldn't get any romance going in this film to make the story seem more palpable, as it works mainly for its action sequences.
REVIEWED ON 9/7/2001 GRADE: C+
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ
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