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Memorable, crazy movie

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

What a load of awful characters. Charles McGraw is good as always with a brief appearance as a thug as is Sheldon Leonard (Cornell) as a gangster boss. Outside of these two, the only others of any note are Fifi D'Orsay as an elderly suitor for the idiotic character that is Harry Morgan's soda jerk. She gets one brief scene which provides the funniest moments of the film as she throws him out of her apartment. The other cast member of note is an uncredited Shelley Winters who plays a cashier for about 30 seconds of screen time. Given that most of the film contains the other lot in this film, that's not a good sign.The film follows unpleasant Barry Sullivan (Shubunka) as he loses hold of his small-time crime empire. It's impossible to identify with him just as it is impossible to identify with anyone else. The film is boring and confusing at the beginning as the dialogue isn't delivered in a particularly clear manner. I'm not going to namecheck the duds in this film as it would take too long. Didn't care for any of the characters and the story wasn't too gripping. A waste of time for all involved. I guessed the girlfriend Belita (Nancy) plot line pretty early on so no mystery there either. She also sings a boring song.

***SPOILERS*** Odd kind of crime flick that has a director Fritz Lang "M" movie like look to it about a small time racketeer Shubunka, Barry Sullivan, who's about to be put out of business not by the law but his fellow criminals. With crime boss Connell, Sheldon Leonard, muscling in on Shubunka's territory in the Neptune Beach section of Brooklyn he's given a choice in joining the party, Cornell's mob, as a $80.00 a week collector or check out of town for good. But before Shubunka makes his exit Cornell want's him to hand over a list of those businesses on the beach who pay him off for protection.Determined to hold on to his criminal enterprise Shubunka tried to recruit outside mob members, from Detroit Cleveland & Chicago, to keep Cornell and his mobster off his back but doesn't have the funds or cash to do it. As it turns out one of Shubunka's costumers and good friend ice cream and soda shop owner Nick Jammey, Akim Tamikoff, starts to crack under the pressure of the Cornell Mob and soon is forced, in order to save his life, to join them. Everything starts to fall apart for Shubunka's attempt to hold on to power and the final domino to fall is his girlfriend showgirl Nancy Starr, Belita. It's Nancy who after trying to get Shubunka to quit the crime business joined his bitter rival Cornell just to get away from the now paranoid and self destructive hood.****SPOILERS**** What was the final nail in Shubunka's coffin was something that he was totally innocent of the brutal murder of his friend soda & ice cream owner Nick Jammey. It was accountant Karty, John Ireland, who embezzled his brother in law's business whom he worked for by fixing the books who went first to Shubunka, who turned him down cold, then to Jammey for cash to prevent from getting his legs broken. In a crazed and mindless assault on Jammey, who also refused to give him the money, Karty bash his head in and killed Jammey with a frying pan. With Cornell thinking that it was Shubunka who did in Jammey for joining his outfit he out a hit on him not realizing that Shubunka was totally innocent of his murder. By now Shubunka didn't care what happened to him and with the skies opening up and the rain pouring down on him he just meekly walked out on the dark and rain soaked streets of Neptune Beach to meet what fate has in store for him and thus get his final reward.

... that is who Shubunka (Barry Sullivan) is in this crime drama/noir that is quite good given that it came from poverty row outfit Allied Artists, previously known as Monogram Pictures. What can you say about a film where time is taken to paint a detailed psychological profile of a gangster and gives the film a fine supporting cast, but there is no time taken to ensure that Shubunka's scar shows up on the same side of his face throughout the film. I saw it change sides at least once! But I digress.Shubunka is in charge of "the rackets" on Neptune Beach in New York City. He makes good money, but he's blown it all on a girl he's infatuated with, night club performer Nancy Starr (Belita). His nervous partner is Nick Jammey, the owner of an ice cream parlor down on the beach. The cast in the ice cream parlor could be a movie all on its own. You have Harry Morgan as a 38 year old soda jerk who wants to get laid in the worst way but has the pedestrian lady's man skills of a 14 year old boy, you have an accountant (John Ireland as Frank Karty) who hangs out in the ice cream parlor hiding from his brothers-in-law. You see, he was in charge of their auto repair shop's books and stole 1300 dollars from them so he could gamble on the horses - ironically one of Shubunka's rackets. His in-laws intend to keep beating him up until he returns the money, and he can't go to the police because, after all, he's the embezzler! The young cashier (Joan Lorring as Dorothy) doesn't say much until the end, and I'll get to that later. Nick Jammey, the owner of the parlor and Shubunka's partner, is the loving husband of a hypochondriac wife and a real tower of jello.The gist of the plot is that another racketeer is trying to muscle in on all of Shubunka's rackets (Sheldon Leonard as Cornell), and although Shubunka is remaining cool about all of this, he is distracted by imaginations that his girlfriend is unfaithful. He's driving her to distraction by following her and accusing her one minute, telling her he loves her and buying her gifts the next.By his own admission to the ice cream parlor cashier, Shubunka's been on his own since age six, working for gangsters at age 9, bootlegging himself at age 14. With nobody to care for him from the earliest age, it is no wonder he has grown up to trust nobody and makes his living any which way he can. The oddest thing about this film is that Shubunka keeps talking about how ruthless he is, yet I never see him do anything that seems the least bit ruthless. He talks tough to other thugs who are ruthless themselves, and the only time he gets physical is with a goofy thug who wants to start something and deserved the slapping Shubunka gave him. And his rackets that are supposed to be "so dirty"? All I can see that is involved is gambling - an activity that requires willing participants.I'm going to spoil this a little for you and talk about the final dialogue in the film. In the end, Shubunka rather owns up to what I've just said about him not really being that ruthless after all - he says his real downfall was not being ruthless enough, for not being a big enough loner, for not believing his instincts that all people are untrustworthy. Who does he speak these words to? In the end he finds himself cornered in the house of the ice cream parlor cashier, the only person he thinks he can trust. Her response, knowing his background, knowing his predicament? She tells him to get out of her house, that he deserves to die for his sins. She's young and untested in life, and unlike Shubunka she's had the benefit of a secure roof over her head, a loving father, and a full stomach her whole life and yet she's completely without empathy for a fellow human being who never had any of these things. In the end I found myself liking the gangster Shubunka far more than I liked this narrow minded youngster.I'm leaving out some key details and ironies in the plot, so even though I have a spoiler warning I think you'll find plenty of twists and turns to keep you interested. This was a fine noir with a bunch of surprisingly gray characters for a production code era film, and I highly recommend it.

Occasionally Allied Artists was able to produce a first rate serious film unrelated to their usual formularized output.'The Gangster' is an unconventional crime picture that concentrates on the latter end of a racketeer's career,the effects rather than the causes of his persona,his neighborhood of operations,and the people who have been corrupted by his contact. As the protagonist Barry Sullivan essays a suitably morose,hardened individual driven by desperation to hold onto his rapidly crumbling kingdom.Desperate too are the pathetic bystanders who will be effected if this petty prince of rackets should fall to the machinations of a rival mob.Belita is a fashion socialite whom Sullivan uses but cannot love.Akim Tamiroff is terrific as the owner of a seemingly innocuous ice-cream parlor where Sullivan's influence has set in motion the tragic events that follow.Also well-cast are Joan Lorring as an adoring counter girl,John Ireland as a hooked gambler,Harry Morgan as an amusing soda-jerk,and every film buff's "favorite" New York thug,Sheldon Leonard as the leader of the new mob organization.