Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Suman Roberson It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Mark Turner In looking into this film I came across a nice description of the film, a genre I'd not actually heard of before. They termed this film neo-noir. Film noir is used to describe darker crime dramas that come out during the 40s and 50s but by the time this film arrived those had passed. Taking that same sort of crime drama and placing it into current context (at the time) placed this movie in that new category. The film is filled with crime and has that dark sensibility to it and if you enjoy films of the genre the odds are good you'll enjoy this one.The movie opens with a tough street kid named Tolly Devlin (David Kent) who witnesses the murder of his father by four thugs. Recognizing one of them he doesn't turn him in, instead vowing vengeance to the mother figure in his life, speakeasy owner Sandy (Beatrice Kay). Becoming a career criminal he first get sent to reform school but then as he gets older upgrades to safe cracking. This gets him tossed into prison where he wants to be since the man he recognized is there.Now grown (and portrayed by Cliff Robertson) he works his way into the prison hospital where he confronts the man and on his death bed learns the identities of the other 3 men involved. When he's released from prison he returns to Sandy who encourages him to go straight. She's sold her business to the new crime lord in town Earl Connors (Robert Emhardt). Tolly tells her he'll do so but has his own agenda in mind.Stealing drugs one of the men on his list, now working for Connors, deals he gets a meeting with the man. Claiming he had no idea who they belonged to he gains favor with the man and goes to work for him. While taking the drugs he rescues a woman named Cuddles (Dolores Dorn) who would have been killed had he not done so.Cuddles and Tolly are soon an item, at least in her mind. For Tolly his life is nothing but revenge. It isn't long before he creates a long term plan to take down the men who killed his father. He approaches the special investigator into organized crime, John Driscoll (Larry Gates). Driscoll was the assistant DA looking into his father's death. Now Tolly tells him he's willing to help by providing him information about the entire Connors crime organization.Playing one side against the other in this pursuit of revenge there is one thing that Tolly loses in the process, his humanity. His passion to get back at the men who killed his father is so consuming that he loses all respect for anyone, including Sandy. His treatment of Cuddles is no more chivalric than that of her tormentors in the Connors organization who eventually call for her death. The question being asked throughout the film is will Tolly carry on with his quest for revenge or instead seek redemption?The film was directed by Sam Fuller, known for his work in the genre. Fuller had no problem working outside the studio system and was well known for making solid films on a low budget that didn't seem so. The worlds he depicted were normally gritty and filled with unfeeling characters. This film fit right into the movies he was known for and along with SHOCK CORRIDOR and THE NAKED KISS have become highly regarded critically.I've always enjoyed Robertson in films I've seen him in but I wasn't prepared for his portrayal of Tolly here. Robertson always played good guys or aw shucks style characters. He holds his own here as the single minded killer with no compunction for destroying the men who killed his father no matter who gets hurt in the process. His treatment of Cuddles is cold and cruel and makes you find it difficult to sympathize with his character. His quest for revenge seems justified but his method of pursuing it leave him someone we all find hard to support.The movie was an entertaining crime drama that I'm sure fans will enjoy. Twilight Time is releasing this in their usual cleaned up style with a 1080p hi def version on blu-ray. Extras here are more than the usual with an isolated music track, a short documentary SAM FULLER STORYTELLER, a reflection on the film MARTIN SCORSESE ON UNDERWORLD U.S.A. and the original theatrical trailer. As always the release is limited to just 3,000 copies so if interested order yours today.

Bill Slocum Sam Fuller prized efficiency above all in his pictures. "Underworld U. S. A." exposes the flaw in that philosophy. It's so efficient, it dispenses with believable characters, a rooting interest, or realistic suspense.As a young teenager, Tolly Devlin watches his father killed by four hoods. He may be a hood himself, but he has a sense of honor where his old man is concerned, refusing to "fink" on the killers. He wants the pleasure of offing them himself."I'll get those punks my own way," he shouts while still a youngster played by David Kent.For the rest of this movie, that's exactly what happens. Tolly, now an adult played by Cliff Robertson, manages to infiltrate a nationwide syndicate in which three of the four killers are now crime czars respectively running drugs, unions, and prostitution. Simply by stealing a cartridge box full of drugs, he manages to fool the drug czar, Gela (Paul Dubov) by telling him who he is and that he wants to follow in his father's footsteps. Instead of giving him the same treatment he dished out on Pops, Gela puts Tolly to work for his organization."I wish my kid felt about me the way Tolly feels about his old man," Gela muses.Improbable coincidences abound in this silly, mono-dimensional revenge flick. Fuller was a great pulp director but his tendencies toward fish-slap subtlety and on-the-nose exposition are on violent display."It was a pretty tough break you had, being born in prison and your mother dying there...""My father told me why you collect these dolls. He said you can't have kids of your own..."The overall crime boss complains to Gela that he hasn't gotten more of the 13 million kids in the United States hooked on drugs: "Don't tell me the end of the needle has a conscience.""Underworld U. S. A." moves like Fuller was double-parked the whole time, yet at over 90 minutes still feels bloated. There's an aging woman who loves Tolly, a younger woman who does, too, but plans to act on it ("I want your kids"), and a D. A. who spends much of his screen time eating sandwiches and letting Tolly direct his investigation.It might have been more endurable if Robertson didn't play his role like an off-the-cuff Cagney, "a collection of tough-guy tics" as Jamie S. Rich notes in his Confessions of a Pop Fan blog. Or if there were any complications in Tolly's pursuit of his mission, like say the bad guys getting wise to him, or else him having second thoughts.The visuals are sometimes arresting, with moody lighting and off- beat editing. But the only thing that grabbed me was Richard Rust's performance as Gus, head torpedo for the syndicate. Even stuck with a particularly egregious quirk, the need to don sunglasses whenever he kills, Rust plays Gus like someone both dangerous and real, with some shadings around his villainy. He's my 1961 Doe Avedon Award winner for great performance in a bad movie.And this is a bad movie, never mind the Fuller apologists. He did make great movies like "Shock Corridor," decent if flawed ones like "Crimson Kimono," but also occasionally an all-out tom turkey like this, which serves to lay bare the mold he worked from but doesn't do much either for his reputation or for your enjoyment."Almost every shot hits you like a punch," Martin Scorsese enthuses in a DVD extra. Let's just say after a couple of viewings, I was glad to leave the ring to Sam and never looked back.

David (Handlinghandel) I had seen this movie only once before, and that was 20 years ago. A lot of the concerns of his masterpiece, "The Naked Kiss," are addressed in it. In some ways, it's more horrifying because it is about what it says it's about: the underworld and, more to the point, the USA. "The Naked Kiss" is, to me, a great movie and also a parable.(As to Fuller's "best": In terms of polish, it's probably "Pickup on South Street." That movie has most of his eccentricities but uses major stars and is suspenseful and exciting.) Cliff Robertson does a fine job here as the single-minded man out to avenge his father's killing. Dolores Dorn is touching as the girl from the underworld with whom he becomes involved.The supporting cast could scarcely be better. Paul Duboy is perfect as the slimy Gelo. Richard Rust is shockingly effective as the underworld henchman.But Beatrice Kay is the standout. She plays the tough female who almost always appears in Fuller's films. (Thelma Ritter's Mo, in "Pickup on South Street, is the most poignant.) We believe that this gal is tough. We also believe that she has a soft side.When I was too young to appreciate it, an older friend gave me a paperback book about actresses in b-movies, called "Dames." On the cover is a shot from this film: Dorn and Kay are leaning on each other. Kay looks tough as a guard dog and Dorn has bandages over one eye.The movie is filled with Fuller's most important concerns: At one point, a rooftop swimming pool is pointed out. It is, one character tells another, for the fat cats -- and now and then for underprivileged children. The hypocrisy of some so-called charity is addressed here. So is Fuller's concern for the well-being of children.I don't think this is out on DVD. You need to find it on VHS. It's absolutely a must.

MisterWhiplash Writer/director Samuel Fuller is not personally attached to the material he presents in Underworld USA in the sense of it being autobiographical. But it is pretty likely, from listening to interviews with him and just from seeing his other work in the noir-esquire realm of motion pictures, that he knew at least the world these characters are in. Or at least he knows what kinds of emotions and what lies underneath certain aspects of lesser pulp fiction- and has a kind of journalistic sensibility that is all his own, telling it like it is from the mean streets of who-knows. It's got an assured eye working the gears, and it by-passes some usual clichés to get at some more interesting bits within some of the conventions. This is in the bones just a tale of revenge, but Fuller wants the little things and moments that make up such a tale, and how the characters can be more realized than might usually be. I liked, for example, early on when Tolly Devlin is 14 and makes a comment to his mother about something in the middle of their conversation- the mother doesn't say anything, but there's a quick, tight close-up of her face to catch the moment. It actually stuck with me longer than I expected, even as the main parts of the scene went along.Another part that really, really impressed me was when Devlin (Cliff Robertson, not bad at all in a part that gets to stretch his skills somewhat), nearing the end of his prison term, and finally finds one of the men who beat his father to death when he saw when he was 14. The scene is very tense, but somehow very human too, as Tolly has to contend with a dying man that he has to kill with his own hands. Soon, Fuller gets the gears of the story going further, as he vows revenge against the others who committed the crime, making him pull an undercover act to infiltrate the mob to get close to them, particularly Earl Conners (Rober Emhardt, a plum role for him considering all of his TV parts). But he also falls for a woman, Cuddles, played by Dolores Day, and like Fuller's Crimson Kimono, the weight of the main thrust of what Tolly needs is balanced against what he could also have with his possible romantic interest, caught up in the emotional bog he's in.I liked a lot how Robertson tapped well enough into the character to make him plausible, even sympathetic. He understands what Fuller is going for, a slightly more realistic- or more powerful kind of representation in the midst of the hard-boiled dialog and more complicated scenes- as he's playing a character who actually has a past, a childhood shown as shattered and made as the complete context that he has to contend with as an adult, despite women around him telling him otherwise. I still remember plenty of shots in the film too (not the gun-shots, the camera-work I mean), and this is after having seen the film months ago, and the driving musical score from Harry Sukman (a solid Fuller collaborator). That Fuller extracts a good deal of compelling entertainment out of a premise that seems pretty standard and even slight is remarkable, and ranks among the other fine superlative B-movies he was doing at the time.