For such a low-budget, unknown film, "The Naked Street" has an abundance of riches in the casting department. Ok, so maybe Anne Bancroft wasn't well known, but Farley Granger certainly was. And Anthony Quinn had already won an Oscar, for pete's sake!
Quinn is the best thing about this movie, playing a gangster who manipulates the system to spring a death-row inmate out of prison. Why? Because he knocked up Quinn's sister (that would be Bancroft) and Quinn doesn't want his nephew being born out of wedlock. Whew, racy stuff for 1955. So Granger and Bancroft marry, he makes a lousy husband (no surprise there), and the baby dies in childbirth. Now there's no conceivable reason for Granger and Bancroft to stay married, so Quinn frames Granger for murder so that he'll be put back on death row, since he never liked the punk in the first place.
This is pretty hilarious on paper, and could have made for a juicy movie. But it mostly falls flat. It's mildly diverting, but it doesn't come near its potential given the out-there premise.
Peter Graves also stars as a journalist who has it in for Quinn and the hots for Bancroft.
Grade: B.
Quinn is the best thing about this movie, playing a gangster who manipulates the system to spring a death-row inmate out of prison. Why? Because he knocked up Quinn's sister (that would be Bancroft) and Quinn doesn't want his nephew being born out of wedlock. Whew, racy stuff for 1955. So Granger and Bancroft marry, he makes a lousy husband (no surprise there), and the baby dies in childbirth. Now there's no conceivable reason for Granger and Bancroft to stay married, so Quinn frames Granger for murder so that he'll be put back on death row, since he never liked the punk in the first place.
This is pretty hilarious on paper, and could have made for a juicy movie. But it mostly falls flat. It's mildly diverting, but it doesn't come near its potential given the out-there premise.
Peter Graves also stars as a journalist who has it in for Quinn and the hots for Bancroft.
Grade: B.