7/10
Entertainment As Public Service
11 October 2013
Skirting the periphery of Film-Noir this one probably lands more than not in the Police Film or the Authorities Are Your Friend Category. These Types were Everywhere after the War. This one Preaches about Your "two dollar bet" Financing Organized Crime and Murder. These Movies were not only for Entertainment but for a sort of Public Service.

Technology was also a "new" element in Law Enforcement and the Fight against Communism and Films were want to display as much High Tech Stuff as possible. We get quite a bit of that here with Electronic Whiz Kid, Edmond O'Brien strutting His Stuff and landing a Slot with the Local Mob. This is a less Personal Film then most Noir's and tends to paint with a wide brush with its Coast to Coast Crime Syndicate with tangled wires and many Locations.

A good tightly wound Thriller, this has an Energy for sure and hardly ever settles down and the Interpersonal is disposed of quite Brutally at times. Interesting and more layered than most, this one has a Bigger Budget and Broader Scope than a typical B-Movie and is a well crafted, if at times Stiff, Expose.
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