As the '50's kicked off for the second half and film noir's sell by date drew ominously nearer, the genre underwent a sea change perpetuated by the explosion of rock'n'roll, coupled with movies like The Wild Ones and Rebel Without a Cause. Move aside crime syndicates, love triangles and grizzled gangsters, the youth culture was here to stay. The Acme Delivery Company, magically transformed to The Acne Delivery Company and the focus firmly fixed on the juvenile delinquent.
Retiring officer Gus, has ruled the unruly with a softly softly, anything for a quiet life strategy. His replacement, rookie George Montgomery adopts the opposite approach. The "ahm gonna clean up this town" mantra has fuelled numerous movies, but if Montgomery intends to throw the book at every miscreant, it's to be hoped that there's a big library situated nearby! Ultimately, his unremittingly confrontational attitude towards both teenagers and local MR. BIG, (Nehemiah Persoff) begins to rankle and grow tiresome. Add on a bewildering soundtrack which veers from modern jazz to a solitary haunting harmonica at a heartbeat and Street of Sinners is a seriously oddball concoction.
Montgomery is at least appreciated by the females on the block and accepts a dinner invitation from inebriated Geraldine Brooks, who claims to have had just a pre-meal cocktail, ...yeah, a quart of port and a bin of gin! Her steak would make a good door stop, whilst her homemade biscuits were clearly baked to an ancient recipe first used by Alfred the Great. As the evening unravels, she breaks down and sobs, "I can change, I can change." With most of the dinner spilt down his uniform, it's Montgomery who needs to change. When this pantomime scenario suddenly takes a tragic turn, the movie becomes more purposeful, leading towards an unexpectedly tense finale.
The quickening pace of the final stage cannot mask the movie's legion of shortcomings -woeful acting, rudimentary dialogue and shallow characters. That such a seismic societal shift should be given its voice in a picture so flaccid, feeble and dispensable, a work of such little substance, is disheartening to say the least....daddy-o.
Retiring officer Gus, has ruled the unruly with a softly softly, anything for a quiet life strategy. His replacement, rookie George Montgomery adopts the opposite approach. The "ahm gonna clean up this town" mantra has fuelled numerous movies, but if Montgomery intends to throw the book at every miscreant, it's to be hoped that there's a big library situated nearby! Ultimately, his unremittingly confrontational attitude towards both teenagers and local MR. BIG, (Nehemiah Persoff) begins to rankle and grow tiresome. Add on a bewildering soundtrack which veers from modern jazz to a solitary haunting harmonica at a heartbeat and Street of Sinners is a seriously oddball concoction.
Montgomery is at least appreciated by the females on the block and accepts a dinner invitation from inebriated Geraldine Brooks, who claims to have had just a pre-meal cocktail, ...yeah, a quart of port and a bin of gin! Her steak would make a good door stop, whilst her homemade biscuits were clearly baked to an ancient recipe first used by Alfred the Great. As the evening unravels, she breaks down and sobs, "I can change, I can change." With most of the dinner spilt down his uniform, it's Montgomery who needs to change. When this pantomime scenario suddenly takes a tragic turn, the movie becomes more purposeful, leading towards an unexpectedly tense finale.
The quickening pace of the final stage cannot mask the movie's legion of shortcomings -woeful acting, rudimentary dialogue and shallow characters. That such a seismic societal shift should be given its voice in a picture so flaccid, feeble and dispensable, a work of such little substance, is disheartening to say the least....daddy-o.