User Reviews

**SPOILERS** Out of gas in the seedy and non residential side of L.A aerospace engineer Walt Sherill, Alan Ladd, looking for a gas station is almost run down by a gang of drunken preppies. After giving them a piece of his mind the car goes in reverse and the well dressed and well spoken hooligans confront the startled Sherill who work him over where he ends up with a concussion and broken left leg. It's when Sherill gets in touch with the police that his young tormentors not only target him but his wife Tracey, Dolores Dorn, as well.

The movie "13 West Street" is a lot like the Charles Bronson urban crime thriller "Death Wish" that was released 12 years later. In the film Sherill at first goes to the police and when he does't get the results that he wants goes on his own trying to track down and exact revenge against those who left him a crippled and later tried to both murder and rape his wife Tracey. Ulike in "Death Wish" Sherill goes after only those who did him in not just any street hood who gets in his way, using himself as a decoy, like Charles Bronson did in that movie.

Trying at first to let the police track down and arrest his attackers Sherill gets impatient and hired a private detective Finny, Stanley Adams, to do the job. It turns out that Finny despite finding those who brutally beat Sherill tails them in his car losing control by driving some 80 to 90 MPH and ending up dead at the bottom of a ravine. The hoodlums themselves are lead by by this conceded and what seems like stuck up, on those who are law abiding citizens, spoiled brat named Chuck,Michael Callan.

Chuck gets so carried away in tormenting both Sherill and his wife Tracey that even his fellow criminals try to distance themselves from him. Bill, Arnold Merritt, one of Chuck's hangers on gets so guilt ridden at what he did to Sherill that he's murdered by Chuck, who made it look like a suicide, in order to keep his fellow hoodlums in line and from talking to the police.

Det. Koleski, Rod Steiger, who's on the case has so much trouble in keeping Sherill from going off the handle and ending up not only killing any of his attackers but even innocent persons who get in his way almost has Sherill arrested for his own good. Meanwhile Chuck, who wasn't all there upstairs to begin with, gets this bright idea to break into Sherill's house and show just what a man he really is by raping his wife Tracey which alerts the cops who catch him both red handed and with his pants down.

Running back to mommy and daddy, who've been covering up for him all this time, Chuck is caught by surprise by a cane swinging Sherill who after breaking his head almost drowns Chuck in his parents swimming pool. Sherill has to thank Det. Koleski for coming to his rescue not that he really needed him but to stop him from killing Chuck and ending up behind bars himself.

P.S With all the comparisons to the movie 'Death Wish" there is a scene in "13 West Street"that left me a bit startled. This happens when Sherill in his hospital room, with a cast and clutches, slips and falls on the ground and is unable to get up by himself. In pops this young man who at first you think is one of those who put him there in the first place. It turns out that the young man, Adam Roarke, is visiting his mom in the room next to Sherill who helps him up and gives him back his clutches. Adam Roarke looks so much like a young Charles Bronson that for a moment I almost thought that he was actually him!

SPOILERS. Sounds like it might be a good unpretentious flick, maybe a noir, doesn't it? "Pickup on South Street," "Call Northside 777," "The House on 92nd St.," "13 West Street." It isn't, though. The story is simple enough. Ladd is driving home from work late at night and his car chugs to a halt on an ominously deserted city street -- the only good location shooting in the movie. He's a rocket scientist, so when he sees that his car is out of gas, he tries to restart the engine. (A rocket scientist, mind you.) At this point, the good part is more or less over. Ladd is set upon and brutally beaten by a handful of well-dressed white thugs. He recovers in the hospital but spends the rest of the film on crutches or canes. The police of course investigate, under the guidance of Rod Steiger, but they are too slow for Ladd. He becomes obsessed with finding these punks and begins poking his nose into the investigation. Each time he does so, the juvenile delinquest somehow become aware of it and threaten him over the phone, throw rocks through his window, or beat him yet again. And all the time Steiger (who underplays -- for him) threatens to throw him in jail for "interfering with justice." And in fact he IS thrown in jail. In the end, things turn out as you would expect them to in a routine crime drama like this.

The script is full of holes, beginning with the unmotivated beating of Ladd by rich, educated kids. Not that it doesn't happen, but they're given no motivation before this incident, or afterward. One of the kids, who feels he might soon be queried about the beating, hangs himself because he's upset. Both Ladd and his assailant act in the worst possible way, as far as their self interest is concerned. Ladd, a middle-aged engineer on a broken ankle, is able to subdue an athletic high schooler armed with a pistol. Well, I won't go on. The direction is perfunctory. There isn't a shot after the first few minutes that couldn't have been done by following an instructional manual. Oh -- one thing, perhaps. The head thug, Mickey Callan, after throwing his buddies out of his car for reasons known only to him, forces his way into Ladd's house and confronts Ladd's wife, Dolores Dorn. He plans to shoot Ladd, then rape her, he explains. Then, upon thinking things over, he decides to assault her first, and he throws her to the floor, shredding her bodice in the process. (This is known as "ripping a bodice".) At this point the director has the good taste to give us a glimpse of Dolores Dorn's bra and stockinged legs as she writhes on the floor terrified.

The acting. This is the sad part. Ladd by this time in his career was pretty well shot, and he looks and sounds it. Some of this is due to the normal process of aging, for which no one, thank God, can be held responsible. But he was also doing beaucoup booze and pounding a lot of barbiturates. He looks puffy, the way Clark Gable began to look puffy when he was drinking heavily. Both his voice and his mannerisms are slurred, so much so that at times he utters a sentence that seems to consist of nothing but one long vowel and no consonants. And he needs to be seen on cane or crutch to be believed. He wobbles and flaps frantically when he moves quickly, and when he walks slowly or stand still the image evoked is Frankenstein's monster. Dolores Dorn, alas, is no actress but is nevertheless sympatico. Not only because of her role as the patient and understanding wife but because her voice, unprofessional as it sounds, seems imbued with a kind of pathos. We feel sorry for her. She's also quite attractive in a not quite conventional way. Her skin seems to have a tawny quality that suggests she is naturally tan all over, and her pale blonde hair complements the tone exquisitely. Steiger engages in little of his usual bravura acting. He's a reliable cop, but almost always in the background.

Sometimes a film of this kind can be redeemed by a supporting cast of seasoned and familiar players, but not here. A bartender has a prominent bit part. The guy looks like an overweight actor -- when one thinks of what John Ford would have done with a part like that, it brings tears to the eyes. Mickey Callan I admire, as I do all dancers, for being able to do things I would never have dreamed of trying with my own body. But he's merely pretty, and a poor actor in a dramatic role. (He was better at light comedy.)

I don't enjoy being this negative about a movie like this. I've enjoyed the performers' work in other films. And I do feel sympathetic towards Ladd. But there is simply nothing to recommend this movie.

I am a big Alan Ladd fan, so I have seen a lot of Ladd films ( 28 where he played a major role ( not including stuff like Citizen Kane where it was basically a cameo)). 13 West St was not one of his best. In fact, Rod Steiger as Detective Sergeant Koleski and Michael Callan as Chuck. Landry out do Ladd's Walt Sherill. Landry is shown to be really evil especially after the crash scene where a private detective hired by Walt is killed and says he is "fat and has no right to live." Also watch the scene where he breaks into the home of Walt and his wife Tracey.( the beautiful but unknown. Delores Dorn) and see his reaction after she calls him a "Stupid child." This is a character who believes he is above anyone. That includes his gang, Walt who he and his gang beat up n the beginning, and everyone else. He even felt Walt had no right to bother him after he put Walt in the hospital. Spoilers ahead: Does it come down to Walt versus Chuck? Of course? Does Walt win? Of course. But the problem with the movies is only in the final scene do we see the old Alan Ladd, giving it to Chuck with his cane and almost drowning him in his parent's pool. One more point: Ladd is nothing compared to Charles Bronson in Death Wish ( I have read numerous posters making the comparison). Paul Kersey ( Bronson) is far more ruthless then Walt ( probably because unlike Kersey, Walt has Tracey (which is the reason he does not kill Chuck)). I give the movie 6/10 stars. Mostly for Steiger and Callan.

Alan Ladd, at almost 50, plays a rocket scientist (literally) who is too dumb to fill up his gas tank. So he gets stranded on a lonely street and gets roughed up by a gang led by pretty boy Michael Callan. It's a little disconcerting to see someone who was once a major star getting the crap kicked out of him, but that's Hollywood. So Ladd winds up in the hospital, where we get introduced to his wife, played by Dolores Dorn. Ethnic Detective Rod Steiger (he is supposed to be of Polish descent, apparently so he could use the word "Pollock") investigates the case. Steiger wears a bowtie, but no one will confuse him with Pee Wee Herman. Steiger manages to get a few details out of Ladd, then the case bogs down.

Dorn's brother just happens to be the principal of the local high school, so she enlists Steiger to go with her and see if any of the local kids might be involved. One of the kids spots her, and later, somebody throws an object through her window. Dorn walks outside the house to check. Idiot. A few moments later she gets a threatening phone call. When Ladd gets home a few seconds later, she makes up a story that she was vacuuming the drapes and the machine slipped; thus the hole. Yeah, I'd swallow that story in a minute. Eventually, Ladd gets the truth out of her, and so he proceeds to break numerous laws on his quest to bring the gang to justice. I lost count of the violations, but there is stalking, breaking and entering, obstruction of justice, stealing a police car, hiring an incompetent private eye, and challenging Jack Palance to draw. This would all be worth it if had he been eliminating the gang members one by one in vigilante style; sadly, that is not the case, and he comes off as pathetic at times. Meanwhile, Steiger keeps warning Ladd to cool it.

Steiger, who works even slower than Columbo, finally puts some clues together, one of which is a gang member who hangs himself. In the finale, Callan breaks into Ladd's house (naturally Ladd's not around) and terrorizes Dorn. Well, terrorize isn't quite the right word. Annoys might be better. Callan runs off when he hears a police siren, and Ladd (in the aforementioned stolen police car) tracks Callan down, where he proceeds to assault Callan with a cane. Steiger, who by now has switched from bowtie to necktie, arrives in the nick of time and allows Ladd to walk away (well, limp).

There are plenty of familiar faces in the cast, including Ted Knight, Stanley Adams, Henry Beckman, Margaret Hayes, and future soap stars Chris Robinson and Jeanne Cooper. I also spotted future biker-film scuzzball Adam Roarke sitting in the back seat of a car. Michael Callan, who was almost 27 by the time the film was released, almost convinced me he could be a high school student - assuming his high school went up to grade 22.

I went back and forth on whether Ladd was the right choice for his role. He was at the end of his career and did not look well. He spends most of the film on crutches or using a cane (due to the beating, although a cynic might say it was possibly due to his drinking). He just looks plain tired and his speech sounds slurred at times. Dolores Dorn was over 25 years younger than Ladd, which makes things even worse. Steiger is clearly on tranquilizers. I've never seen him so sedate. Apparently there was not enough scenery in the budget for him to chew this time.