Watch The Mob For Free

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

If one didn't know better, it looks like this might have been a training film for future police detectives. How'd you like the way the cops planted a phony picture of Johnny Damico (Broderick Crawford) in the paper with a phony story to back it up? Or the wise guy banter Johnny used in his guise of Tim Flynn to ingratiate himself with big time gangsters? And what about rigging Smoothie's (Matt Crowley) car with the dripping liquid that glowed in the dark under a fluorescent lamp? Can you really do that? I thought it was pretty clever.I wasn't quite ready to give this movie credit as a film noir because there are really no sultry femme fatales to speak of, but in this case I don't think it matters. There are all kinds of shady characters prowling around with the likes of Ernest Borgnine, Neville Brand and Richard Kiley as part of the main event, and if you're sharp, you'll pick up on quick cameos by character actors Harry Lauter, Don Megowan and a still unknown Charles Bronson, a real treat for gangster film fans.The picture has it's share of neat twists, as in Richard Kiley's Clancy character turning out to be another undercover cop, and the dopey bartender Smoothie proving to be the mastermind criminal Blackie Clegg. Crawford makes the picture with his snappy dialog that's quick witted and off the cuff, and he's good with his fists when he has to be, and sometimes even when he doesn't. The ending comes off as a bit forced with the rooftop snipers waiting for bad guy Blackie, but the best has to be the way Clancy sets up Johnny for the closing scene. You'll just have to check it out for yourself.

Broderick Crawford plays a cop who goes undercover to infiltrate the mob. And to make them think he's "their kind of guy" he comes into town with a major attitude and a willingness to slug anyone who gets in his way. However, this is no routine assignment, as there are lots of dangerous twists and turns and repeatedly it appears he's about to buy the farm. I particularly loved the very tense and rather violent ending in the hospital---you just have to see it to understand.This film has one of the most important ingredients of Film Noir down pat--it has one of the ugliest casts in film history!! True lovers of this gritty genre know that actors in such films can't be "pretty boys" but ugly and cold-blooded killers. That's why when I saw this film starred Broderick Crawford (king of the hard-drinking ugly actors), Ernest Borgnine and Neville Brand (the scariest looking thug in film history) I was thrilled to see it. Now this ISN'T meant as an insult--I am just stating a fact necessary for a good Noir film. Great Noir abounds with ugly mugs like Edmund O'Brien, John Ireland and John McGraw--though the cast in THE MOB is among the ugliest and therefore best in genre history. In addition to ugly and menacing men, the film also features realistic and gritty violence, tough dialog, lots of great shadows and camera angles as well as a taut script--and all are in THE MOB in spades. All the elements needed for exceptional Noir--so it certainly wasn't a surprise that I really enjoyed the film.If you love Noir, you will love this film. If you don't, then watch this film anyways!! Then, try some other great Noir films like THE KILLERS, DOA, KISS OF DEATH and ASPHALT JUNGLE--then you, too, will most likely be hooked!!

**SPOILERS** Police detective Johnny Damico, Broderick Crawford, messes up big time when he lets a cop killer, as well as the murderer of a government whiteness, get away Scot-free when he conned Johnny into thinking that the cop killer was a cop himself.Facing the loss of his job among other things Johnny agrees to go undercover in the longshoreman's union to get the goods on who's responsible in the two murders, Police Let. Marie and government witness Ed Jensen, that he's now to put his life on the line for. The police give Johnny a phony criminal record as well as new face in the newspapers, his Uncle Hecliff, and name petty hoodlum Tim Flynn from New Orleans as he ends up at this flea bag hotel, the Royal, on the docks looking for Mr. Big for a job in his crooked dock union.It doesn't take long for Johnny to make a name for himself as he gets a real easy work assignment driving a forklift that has the previous driver Culio, Frank DeKova, not at all that happy with him. After laying Cuilo out after he tried to pull a hook on him Johnny is invited to see the big man who runs the dock Joe Castro, Earnest Borgnine, who has his doubts about Johnny's real intentions.Trying to set Johnny up on a murder rap Castro's henchman Gunner, Neville Brand, works him over taking his gun and then using it to knock off Culio making Johnny, who had a fight with him that afternoon, the prime suspect. It turns out that Johnny suckered both Castro and Gunner by having two different guns on him, one that Gunner missed when he frisked him, that saved Johnny from being charged in Culio's murder.As things now start to get hot for Johnny he now has to come up with Let. Marie's and Jensen's killer the omnipresent as well as faceless Mr. Big not Joe Castro who's only one of his stooges before his cover which isn't that convincing to begin with is blown. It just happens that one of Johnny's colleagues on the docks, whom he suspected of being Mr. Big, turned out to be government agent Tom Clancy, Richard Kiley, who's also undercover. This gives Johnny some breathing room to track down the very elusive Mr. Big before Mr. Big finds out just who he is.The big break in the case comes when Johnny gets in touch with the Royal Hotel bartender Smoothie, Matt Crowley, who turns out to be a real smooth operator as well as being Mr. Big's middle or in between man. Smootie tells Johnny that his boss, or boss of bosses, Mr. Big is willing to pay him $10,000.00 to knock off a cop who's been giving him and his boys major headaches over the last two weeks. It turn out that the cop that Mr. Big wants Johnny to knock off is Johnny himself!Exciting but not that all believable ending with Johnny finally getting to face Mr. Big who's, unknowingly to him, got Johnny's girlfriend nurse Mary Kierman, Betty Buehler, as a hostage. It turns out that Mr. Big found out that Mary is the girlfriend of the cop whom he wants to knock off, Johnny Damico, and can identify him. What Mr. Big doesn't know is that cop is standing right in front of him using the name Tim Fylnn and is anything but happy, to the point of putting a slug between his eyes, the way he's and his henchmen are treating Mary!

The title of this review says it all. In 1951, who knew who Ernest Borgnine, Richard Kiley and Charles Buchinsky were? But in this Columbia noir, made after Broderick Crawford became an unlikely star because of ALL THE KING'S MEN has the lead going undercover to investigate racketeering on the docks, we see how good actors can overcome a basically decent script overloaded with 'snappy' dialog, cheap sets and unexceptional directing. The actors are, frankly, amazing and this is as good as a movie can get with a major flaw like this -- ace DP Joseph Walker can't do much with the studio sets and back projection, but he makes a good effort with a highly mobile camera.