mark.waltz The next time you take a trek around the Central Park reservoir, you're walking along a trail traveled by many, from Woody Allen in "Hannah and Her Sisters", to Dustin Hoffman stalking an evil dentist in "Marathon Man" and years before, the man who discovers a corpse in a parked car in this obscure film noir. The good Samaritan only wanted to return a glove he found near the parked vehicle (presumably on the south side of the reservoir where parking still takes place) and finds the strangely tattooed woman who obviously doesn't need it anymore-she's dead! Clues include fingerprints on the car, strange remnants of a rare blade of grass, to the corpse's tattoo, and this leads to an attempted attack on the corpse, more clues located in the Bronx (on Gun Hill Road) to a series of strange characters. This is filled with an extremely rare obscure cast, faces you may recognize from early TV anthology series, but no names you'll know. The film's short running time encompasses tight dialog and enough intrigue to fill up several film noirs. A rare glimpse of vintage New York location footage makes this a pleasing curio, a real sleeper.

BJJManchester A relatively unknown 'B' movie second feature,THE TATTOOED STRANGER is developing something of a cult following after being shown several times on late-night UK TV in recent years (the last being merely several days ago).The murder mystery plot and script are both rather mundane,the performances weak and direction routine,yet the location work around New York is interesting and well photographed,and something you would rarely see in American films at this time.The very reason for it's cult following is the obscurity of it's cast and crew,unheralded even by normal American 'B' movie standards.The only well-known face here is Jack Lord,but at this stage of his career he was as unrenowned as virtually everybody else involved in this project,and his is a wordless,uncredited role which lasts barely a minute.The only other slightly well-known performers on board are Patricia Barry (billed here as Patricia White) and Lewis Charles (who like Lord is uncredited),and the director Edward Montagne later worked more prolifically on TV as a producer,not surprising as his direction is mostly nondescript and awkward (as is nominal lead actor John Miles) during the exchanges of flat,uninspired dialogue,though he redeems himself partially with the location work of scarcely seen side streets,tenements and backyards in New York.This certainly saves the film from total mediocrity,and although he probably didn't realise it at the time,Montagne's decision to film in such run-down neighbourhoods provide an engaging,even mildly fascinating social document of one of the World's great cities of the time shortly after the end of the Second World War.Had THE TATTOOED STRANGER been wholly studio-bound,it would have been a totally forgotten and ignored routine 'B' murder mystery (among scores of others),with insipid acting,writing and direction,but thanks to it's real outdoor New York settings,is certainly a mark up on the usual fare from this particular genre.RATING:5 and a half out of 10.

drmality-1 This police procedural is no worse than many others of its era and better than quite a few. Obviously it is following in the steps of "Dragnet" and "Naked City" but emerges as an enjoyable programmer. The best thing about it is the unadorned look it provides into a world now long gone...the lower class New York of the late 40's/early 50's. Here it is in all its seedy glory, from the old-school tattoo parlors to the cheap hotels to the greasy spoons. These old police films are like travelogues to a bygone era and very bittersweet to anybody who dislikes the sanitized, soulless cityscape of today.Also intriguing is the emphasis on the nuts-and-bolts scientific aspect of solving the crime...in this case, the murder of a tattooed woman found in an abandoned car. Our main heroes, Detectives Tobin and Corrigan, do the footwork, but without the tedious and painstaking efforts of the "lab boys", they'd get nowhere. Although the technology is not in the same league, the cops here use the dogged persistence of a C.S.I. investigator to track down their man.The way some reviewers have written about this movie, you think it would have been directed by Ed Wood and acted by extras from his movies. What bosh! I enjoyed John Miles as the gangly ex-Marine turned cop Tobin...he had a happy-go-lucky, easy-going approach to the role that's a welcome change from the usual stone-faced histrionics of most movie cops of the period. Patricia Barry is cute and delightful as his perky girlfriend who helps solve the crime. Walter Kinsella is stuffy and droll as the older detective Corrigan. I rather liked the chemistry of these two and it made for something a bit different than the sort of robotic "Dragnet" approach.The mystery itself is not too deep and the final chase and shoot-out certainly won't rank amongst the classics of crime cinema, but during it's brief running time, "The Tattooed Stranger" more than held my interest.

denscul Its not sophisticated, and nobody in the credits had a great career, but taken as a whole, because there are no famous personalities; the film seems more realistic than some high budget, well cast films.A film made for a few bucks, that is worthy of watching should give hope to all those would be film makers and wantabee actors.The problem with this film is it was made in the worst possible time. TV was taking over the revenues of the film industry, and this film could have easily been shown on TV. In 1950, all the fare on TV would qualify for a "G" rating. The film industry began to make more "adult" films that could not be shown on TV during the days when TV wouldn't dare show the sex and skin of today's commercials.