Chicago Confidential (1957)

the audience applauded

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Best movie ever!

A cast of familiar faces appear in Chicago Confidential, a 1957 B movie. The stars are Brian Keith, Beverly Garland, Dick Foran, Elisha Cook Jr., John Hamilton, and Phyllis Coates. The latter two stars were in the TV "Superman" in case you don't recognize their names.The story is told with a narration, semidocumentary style. This type of film was popular for a time, but to me, it's very dry and too "Dragnet." A union accountant who has been keeping two sets of books calls DA Jim Fremont (Keith) and announces he is bringing in proof that the mob has infiltrated the union and is stealing from it. As could have been predicted as he starts walking to the DA's house in the dark, briefcase and folders in hand, he doesn't make it.The bad guys set up one of the good union guys, Artie Blaine (Foran) to take the fall for the murder, and they do a decent job of it, using a drunk (Elisha Cook, Jr.) who finds the murder weapon as a witness to go to the DA once they clean him up. Then they discredit Blaine's fiancée (Garland) on the witness stand. The noose tightens.Fairly formulaic, with a couple of interesting things - one is an impressionist, and the other is the use of a machine that recognizes speech patterns.I interviewed Beverly Garland some years ago, so I always try to watch her films. She was a vibrant, funny, wonderful lady with a million stories. It makes me sad that she's no longer with us, but at least we can enjoy her film and TV work. For me she's a bright spot in "Chicago Confidential."

Chicago Confidential (1957) * 1/2 (out of 4) Boring, low-budget crime drama about racketeers forcing their way into unions. In this case, a D.A. (Brian Keith) swears to bring them down by ends up locking away an innocent man (Dick Foran) and with the help of his girlfriend (Beverly Garland) they try to get the real killer. CHICAGO CONFIDENTIAL is trying hard to be dark, cool and serious but it pretty much fails on all three levels. To be honest though, this here really isn't any worse than the countless "B" crime pictures that were released around this time as they all feature the same limitations. Some of those are obviously the budget but I think a good director and cast can turn this into a benefit. That really doesn't happen here and what we're left with is just one clichéd scene after another and it all boils up to a climax that you'll see coming from a mile away. What made this film so hard to get through was the Dragnet-like voice overs that narrate the entire film. I always found this routine to be rather cheap and pathetic for a number of reasons but the biggest one is that it really tells the viewer that they're too stupid to understand what's going on. That's what happens the majority of the time but this film goes a step further by not even bothering to have the action in the film do anything and instead we're just told what should be happening with the narration. The plot of this film is so weak because it seems they didn't try to have anything happen in front of our eyes and instead we're told everything. Keith, Garland and Foran are fun to watch but even they can't save this film. Elisha Cook, Jr. plays a drunk who holds some key evidence.

***SPOILERS*** Hard hitting movie about the mob or "Syndicates" attempted takeover of the biggest union in Chicago the Workers National Brotherhood, or WNB for short. This devious plan is cooked up by disbarred lawyer and former Al Capone gang member Alan Dixon, Garvin Gordon,who plans to turn the WNB into a front for the Syndicates illegal activities; loansharking gambling and prostitution.The man running for president of the WNB the beloved and respected, by all the union members, Arthur "Artie" Blaine, Dick Foran, is about to get a boost from his friend the accountant of the union Mickey Partos, John Morley, who's to turn over the crooked and mobbed up president Ken Harrison, Douglas Kennedy, cooked books to Chicago's districts attorney Jim Fremont, Brian Keith. It just happens that Mickey is kidnapped and murdered by Harrisons hood's who plant evidence, the murder weapon, at the scene of the crime implicating the innocent Artie Blaine.Harrison and his boss the behind the scenes Alan Dixon are now ready to pull off a "Hat Trick" in their planned takeover of the WNB union. Get rid of of Mickey Partos, which they did, frame Artie Blaine for his murder and then, with Artie's reputation as an incorruptible union leader go straight down the toilet, pave the way for the mob-controlled Harrison to get re-elected unanimously, with no one running against him, by the hapless and disgruntled union members. There's was just one thing that both Dixon & Harrison didn't plan on a drunken rummy, and former WNB union member, Candymouth Duggan, Elisha Cook Jr, who staggered on the scene and found the gun that killed Mickey Partos; the gun that his best friend Artie was supposed to have killed him with!Despite Harrison screwing up it didn't take long for him and his boys to get Candymouth to change his story telling the D.A, Jim Fremont, that he found the gun in Partos' car ,which was at the bottom of Lake Michigan at the time Candymouth came on the scene, tying Artie to Partos' murder. Harrison also had a key witness, Artie's next door neighbor, Sylvia Clarkson, Beverly Tyler, change her testimony which at first cleared Artie of the crime. With all the evidence pointing at him Artie is convinced of first degree murder and slated to have a date with the state of Illinois' electric chair. Feeling that he's now on a roll D.A Fremont is a shoe-in to be elected the next governor by having Artie Blaine sent to the death house. Still Artie's girlfriend Laura Burton, Beverly Garland, refuses to give up on Artie's innocence and it's her bulldog like determination to get the truth out that in the end saves Artie's life and puts Harrison & Co. either in the city morgue or behind bars in the state penitentiary.Documentary-style crime flick has all the ingredients of a great film noir classic but gets a bit carried away with the violence which makes it just another crime shoot-him-up movie. It's hard to believe that the Chicago D.A Jim Fremont would go out on his own risking both his and his wife's Helen, Phillis Coates, lives in tackling the "Chcago Syndicate" almost single handed. This without using the entire Chicago Police Force as well as, with Harrison & Dixon also involved in tax fraud, the FBI which were easily at his disposal!Fremont does in the end get the job done and has Artie Blaine freed and restored back to being the president of the WNB Union but he could have done it a lot easier if he only let the Chicago Police and US Justice Departmet do the job themselves. Not by trying to be a hero and go solo and very possibly end up together with the late Mickey Partos sleeping with the fishes. But then the movie wouldn't have been as exciting as it turned out to be.P/S Besides Phillis Coates who played Lois Lane in the Adventures of Superman TV series there's also in the movie "Chicago Confidential" John Hamilton playing Artie's defense attorney Emory Morgan. Hamilton was also a member of the Superman TV cast as the city of Metropolis' newspaper The Daily Planet's editor Perry "Great Caesars' Ghost" White.

The mob has infiltrated a union and are about to be ratted out to the state's attorney. They rub out the songbird and make a patsy out of the union's leader. Things look bad for the condemned man, but his girlfriend never gives up trying to exonerate him. Good film with lots of old familiar faces.