Goingbegging Almost last lap for the once-heroic Alan Ladd, with whom it is hard not to sympathise in his all-too-visible alcoholic decline.Cast as a rather improbable rocket scientist (a distraction, in fact), Ladd manages to run out of gas in a rough street at night, where some less-usual teen gangsters from genteel homes show their courage by challenging him five-to-one and beating him to pulp. Rod Steiger somewhat underplays the sympathetic but overworked cop, whose slow, deliberate detective work provokes Ladd into a manhunt of his own.Much of the storyline probably looked as implausible then as it does now, especially Ladd's single-handed trouncing of the armed gang-leader before deciding whether to perform a noble act of mercy.But the film is now mainly rewarding as a little black-&-white mirror of a vanished suburban life, just before the 60's became the 60's. Ladd's young wife, played by Dolores Dorn, is the vulnerable blonde in the perfect home that suddenly gets a mafia-style threat through the window. Ladd's investigations show us into other affluent homes too, with the mean features of Jeanne Cooper as one of the parents concealing their sons' guilt, Margaret Hayes cool and elegant as another. And when Dorn is unexpectedly flung to the floor, there is more erotic voltage in two seconds of her part-exposed thigh than in any of the yawn-porn that would soon become standard.

Marco Segundo I had fairly low expectations going into this one, but the film quickly churns into full noir-ish life as one of the last of what was to be a dying breed of movie--a psychological thriller pulling us close to the world of the always fascinating Alan Ladd as he runs head on into forces beyond his control. (I disagree that Ladd's personal problems detract from his performance at all. In fact to me the intentional darkness of the mood is simply strengthened by Ladd just as he was able to do in a dozen other gripping dramas both large and small. This is a "small" drama, to be sure, but none the less intense and intriguing.A plot theme emerges here treated the way a great noir director of the 40's might have treated it--pathological youth violence, a real social problem often glossed over {Rebel Without A Cause, for example) or in later 1960's films glamorized and turned into the iconic images for a new generation.But here it is--stark, vicious, mindless, and cruel just because people can get away with it. This is a brave and unflinching film and a real treat for those who appreciate the genre. Keep your expectations modest and it will surprise you quite happily!

sol1218 **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!

John Seal This is an above average programmer that benefits from decent, if predictable, performances by Alan Ladd and Rod Steiger. Ladd is a rocket scientist who gets mugged on the way home from a late night at the office by a roving band of Beverly Hills punks led by Michael Callan. What follows could be considered Death Wish 1962, as Ladd pursues the villains whilst police officer Steiger tries to keep him under control. Good photography by Charles Lawton Jr. and a reasonably interesting George Duning score make this one to watch on a cold winter's night.