Between 1950 and 1955 teenage crime increased a dramatic amount and the nation was taking note with government and communities addressing the problem in multiple ways.
Hollywood addressed the issue with a flood of films on the topic. Two of the most critically acclaimed films were released in 1955: Blackboard Jungle and Rebel Without A Cause.
A year later, low-budget studio Allied Artists released Crime In The Streets. While the film didn't have the benefit of a robust budget, just like Jungle and Rebel, Crime In The Streets was loaded with talent in front of and behind the camera. The script was written by Reginald Rose from an adaptation of a teleplay he had produced for ABC-TV less than a year earlier. (Rose would later write 12 Angry Men.)
Don Siegel was coming off directing the classic sci-fi film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers. He took Rose's teleplay, extended some scenes, and got to work with the stellar cast of young actors: John Cassavetes, Sal Mineo, and Mark Rydell. Franz Waxman would later add a jazz score that, according to his son, was among the prolific composer's personal favorites.
The opening credit scene gets to the point quickly as two rival gangs go at each other with bottles, wrenches, and two-by-fours with protruding nails. Gang leader Cassavetes and his crew take a hostage who they torture and threaten with a gun as a revenge act for a prior beating. A neighborhood resident sees the gun and alerts a beat cop. That sets in motion the major plot line, Cassavetes' plan to avenge his buddy's arrest by killing the citizen who "ratted."
James Whitmore plays a neighborhood social worker and the film's moral authority; Virginia Gregg is the mother who can't reach the Cassavetes character; and, Peter J. Votrian is the young, innocent boy whose love for his brother just might save him. All are very effective. Credit should probably go to dialogue coach Sam Peckinpah. Yes, that Peckinpah.
The film blames squalid conditions, parents working back-breaking jobs, and adults preferring corporal punishment to empathy and patience for the juvenile delinquency problem.
Cassavetes and Whitmore have two excellent scenes together. In one, the gang banger tells the social worker his troubles, "I got a hole in my shirt, my brother is wearing my underwear and my mother is sticking her thumb in some slob's soup." He goes on to reveal that it's the fear he and his fellow gang members inflict over adults that empowers them. He accuses anyone who tries to help them as doing so for their own self-interest; to alleviate their anxieties when they walk the streets.
Outside of the opening rumble scene the entire movie takes place in the impoverished neighborhood (actually an old studio set). This might give some viewers the sense that the film is too theatrical in feel, but I thought it was fine. One exception was after careful plotting of the murder, Cassavetes chooses the neighborhood alley for the location. It's right below his apartment and across the street from his conspirator's home. That was unrealistic and was probably due to the film's budget.
Director Siegel could have done a better job with his portrayal of women in his social commentary movie. There's one teenage girl in the movie and she has a couple of meaningless scenes.
From an entertainment standpoint, this is a worthwhile film to screen and a must-see if you're interested in the works of the filmmakers and actors behind it.
Hollywood addressed the issue with a flood of films on the topic. Two of the most critically acclaimed films were released in 1955: Blackboard Jungle and Rebel Without A Cause.
A year later, low-budget studio Allied Artists released Crime In The Streets. While the film didn't have the benefit of a robust budget, just like Jungle and Rebel, Crime In The Streets was loaded with talent in front of and behind the camera. The script was written by Reginald Rose from an adaptation of a teleplay he had produced for ABC-TV less than a year earlier. (Rose would later write 12 Angry Men.)
Don Siegel was coming off directing the classic sci-fi film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers. He took Rose's teleplay, extended some scenes, and got to work with the stellar cast of young actors: John Cassavetes, Sal Mineo, and Mark Rydell. Franz Waxman would later add a jazz score that, according to his son, was among the prolific composer's personal favorites.
The opening credit scene gets to the point quickly as two rival gangs go at each other with bottles, wrenches, and two-by-fours with protruding nails. Gang leader Cassavetes and his crew take a hostage who they torture and threaten with a gun as a revenge act for a prior beating. A neighborhood resident sees the gun and alerts a beat cop. That sets in motion the major plot line, Cassavetes' plan to avenge his buddy's arrest by killing the citizen who "ratted."
James Whitmore plays a neighborhood social worker and the film's moral authority; Virginia Gregg is the mother who can't reach the Cassavetes character; and, Peter J. Votrian is the young, innocent boy whose love for his brother just might save him. All are very effective. Credit should probably go to dialogue coach Sam Peckinpah. Yes, that Peckinpah.
The film blames squalid conditions, parents working back-breaking jobs, and adults preferring corporal punishment to empathy and patience for the juvenile delinquency problem.
Cassavetes and Whitmore have two excellent scenes together. In one, the gang banger tells the social worker his troubles, "I got a hole in my shirt, my brother is wearing my underwear and my mother is sticking her thumb in some slob's soup." He goes on to reveal that it's the fear he and his fellow gang members inflict over adults that empowers them. He accuses anyone who tries to help them as doing so for their own self-interest; to alleviate their anxieties when they walk the streets.
Outside of the opening rumble scene the entire movie takes place in the impoverished neighborhood (actually an old studio set). This might give some viewers the sense that the film is too theatrical in feel, but I thought it was fine. One exception was after careful plotting of the murder, Cassavetes chooses the neighborhood alley for the location. It's right below his apartment and across the street from his conspirator's home. That was unrealistic and was probably due to the film's budget.
Director Siegel could have done a better job with his portrayal of women in his social commentary movie. There's one teenage girl in the movie and she has a couple of meaningless scenes.
From an entertainment standpoint, this is a worthwhile film to screen and a must-see if you're interested in the works of the filmmakers and actors behind it.