The Mob (1951)

 

The Mob is a 1951 Film Noir starring Broderick Crawford. This is just a couple of years after Crawford won an Oscar for All the King's Men --and this was a time when the Oscars actually celebrated what I consider good movies, rather than celebrating movies I've never often never heard of and (for the most part) you couldn't pay me to see.

But I'm not sure that Crawford's performance in The Mob doesn't equal or even succeed All the King's Men. He plays a cop named Johnny Damico. We meet him as the film opens, as he barters with a jewelry store owner over the price of an engagement ring. The store owner knows him and his girl. It's a great scene. Crawford immediately makes us like Johnny and we also learn that he's quick with a clever one-liner. This, in turn, tells us he's smart.

Being smart, though, doesn't always keep you from making a dumb mistake. There's a shooting outside the store. Johnny gets the drop on the shooter, but this guy identifies himself as a cop and the dead man as a cop killer. The shooter flashes a badge, so Johnny believes him. It's only after the shooter gets away that Johnny learns he was a hitman. The dead man was a witness against the mob. The badge had belonged to a cop who had also been murdered.

That puts Johnny in hot water with his boss. Officially, he's suspended for 60 days. Unofficially, he's going to go undercover on the waterfront to smoke out the head of the mob who is forcing the longshoremen to pay kickbacks in exchange for work.

This is where Crawford's performance really shines. He adopts the identity of a low-level thug named Tim Flynn, who has just arrived from New Orleans. Like Johnny, Tim is quick with clever comebacks. But where Johnny is likeable, Tim is quick-tempered and a bit of a jerk. Johnny is pretty much using his Mirror Universe self to fool the mobsters.

He starts to make contacts, trying to find the big boss. That boss is named Blackie, but no one knows who he really is. Johnny/Tim runs into trouble when a lower level boss tries to frame him for murder.  He's able to think his way out of that situation. 

That's another strong element of the film. Despite his goof-up at the beginning of the movie, Johnny is indeed smart. He can indeed think his way out of potentially dangerous situations.

Eventually, Johnny does get a line on Blackie. He also finds out that Blackie wants to hire him (as Tim) to kill a cop named Johnny Damico. All this leads to a satisfying climax.

The supporting cast includes a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance by Charles Bronson as a dock worker, Ernest Borgnine as a second-tier mob boss and Neville Brand as a college-educated leg-breaker working for Borgnine's character. Gee whiz, I love movies like this. Filmed in glorious black-and-white, seeded with actors whom classic movie fans come to consider to be old friends, and telling a good story in a logical manner. This is what movies should be. 

The movie can be found on Amazon Prime. Here's a link to it on YouTube::