gordonl56 DOWN 3 DARK STREETS 1954This one is based on the novel, CASE FILE FBI by Gordon and Mildred Gordon. The Gordons also wrote the screenplay for the film.This one starts with the murder of a gas station employee. The man had spotted a wanted killer and was calling in the info to the FBI. The killer, Joe Bassett is heading to L.A. to hook up with his girl, Martha Hyer.FBI Agent Kenneth Tobey is assigned to track down Bassett. At the same time Tobey is involved with two other cases, a man, Gene Reynolds who has been grabbed up for driving a stolen car. Then there is a case involving a threat of kidnapping. A woman, Ruth Roman, has been called and told her daughter will be taken, if she does not fork over a 10 grand insurance payment she just got.Broderick Crawford plays Tobey's boss in the FBI chain of command. The deal here is that there could be a link between the last two cases to the first one. It is Tobey's job to unravel the twists. Tobey gets shot and killed during a stake-out for the killer, Bassett.The FBI now pulls out all the stops as they give all three cases top priority. The film follows Crawford and the various agents as they track down the leads and eliminate them. They solve one case and move on to the next as they look for Tobey's killer.The women involved in the various story threads, is what makes this film really click. Ruth Roman, Suzanne Alexander, Marisa Paven and Martha Hyer are the female leads. Miss Hyer in particular shines as she keeps thrusting her upper-works at Crawford and crew, as she cracks wise with lines like, "Do you mind if I put something on? I don't like men staring at me before lunch".This documentary style noir was directed by Arnold Laven. He cranked out several watchable film noir early in his career, WITHOUT WARNING! as well as VICE SQUAD.Film noir specialist Joseph Biroc handled the cinematography duties on the production. Two time Oscar nominated, and one time winner, Biroc was known for his work on, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, CRY DANGER, THE KILLER THAT STALKED NEW YORK, LOAN SHARK, WITHOUT WARNING!, ATTACK, TENSION AT TABLE ROCK, FORTY GUNS, CHINA GATE, LADY IN CEMENT and THE TOWERING INFERNO.This one has the odd slow spot but for the most part moves right along. There is some excellent location shooting involved here.The writers, The Gordons would dust this one off in 1963 and use most of the story to make, EXPERIMENT IN TERROR with Glenn Ford.

secondtake Down Three Dark Streets (1954)An FBI man has been killed, and the suspects are related to the three cases the agent was working one when he died. So all three cases become priorities, thinking that by solving them all, the cop killer will come to light.The title of the movie is a cue that this is in some ways a three part movie, with three basically distinct, if intertwined plots. But what holds it together is a single character, an FBI agent played by Broderick Crawford. And it's Crawford who holds it together beautifully. He plays his part with cool, somber, and weary reserve (and if you know Crawford in his more famous roles, such as "All the King's Men" or even more in "Born Yesterday").Each of the three stories is layered up as you go, which makes it interestingly complex, and in each there is one leading woman connected to a suspect. Ruth Roman is the most powerful of these three, though the other two are bit weak. Luckily, the weakest of these, Ruth Hyer, loses relevance so that Roman and Marisa Pavan (playing a blind woman fairly well) carry their shares. And in a way you never quite notice the uneven acting because the events tumble one after another, through lots of changes of location, and from one plot to the next. It's filmed with economy but good drama. And the story, which might lose some viewers because of its complexity, also has the beauty of not being obvious, with lots of good dialog. Why isn't it quite a classic? There's something awkward about the many parts that have to be connected, and an occasional odd aspect, like the unlikely ruse of a blanket carried as Roman's child into her car (it looks very much like a blanket). Still, there is a lot of suspense throughout, dark alleys, drives at night, phones that ring and aren't answered, all along waiting for something and not knowing what. An intense example is when Roman takes a senselessness lonely walk in a cemetery and a car pulls up. "I'm waiting for a friend." "Maybe I'm that friend you're waiting for."This is good movie-making, and it makes for a good movie. Then, to cap it off, it has what is maybe the best vintage use of the famous Hollywood letters on the hill overlooking movieland. Odd to say, but I think the movie is worth watching for that alone. This is exactly when the industry was falling apart (legally and literally), and the letters were no accident. There is also a nice use of that trope of money blowing away in the wind (made more archetypal in "The Killing" in 1958). The last line? "Sometimes you meet some nice people in this business." Perfect.

BILLYBOY-10 FBI story about Brodrick Crawford working three cases at once trying to find a killer who may also be an extortionist. First there's the criminal on the run who kills a gas station attendant. His va-va-voom semi floozie moll played by Martha Hyer is entertaining, Second story is an innocent caught up in a hot car ring afraid to squeal and his adroitly played blind wife, Marisa Pivan & finally single mom Ruth Roman who is being squeezed out of her dead husbands $10,000 life insurance payout under death threat of her young child. Crawford is intense & thorough yet soft & human toward victims. The film moves along briskly, never lags..very economical pace & direction. Lots of L.A. exteriors, good storyline and interwoven plots/characters. I found this exciting & suspenseful & was fooled by who the villain actually was due to red herrings so the final revelation was a part of the overall thrill, the climax taking place in Hollywood hills (is that vacant lot at the ice-cream truck scene the same one used in Strangers When We Meet where Kirk Douglas & Kim Novak rendevoux)? I never heard of this film, glad NETFLIX obtained it for instant streaming an was well worth the watch. Definitely check it out.

dadier55 DOWN THREE DARK STREETS, with its trio of cases for the FBI to solve, was the template eight years later for EXPERIMENT IN TERROR, reduced down to just the extortion plot. Broderick Crawford is "Agent John Ripley" in the first, Glenn Ford is named the same character in the second. STREETS uses the semi-documentary approach (heavy-handed voice-over narration) and is more of a whodunit, while EXPERIMENT is a real suspense-filled thriller with the villain identified much earlier. But even then, it is much more chilling. Ruth Roman is the fear-filled victim in the original, Lee Remick plays the spunky lady being extorted in the semi-remake. Good Los Angeles locales, especially the "Hollywood" sign usage in the first. But great San Francisco scenes in TERROR, particularly the Candlestick Park shootout following a Giants-Dodgers game. Both are recommended, with STREETS a competent mystery and EXPERIMENT a classic at the end of the Noir cycle.