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Too much of everything

Great Film overall

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

If you've never seen an Anthony Quinn movie, The Naked Street is the perfect one to start with. He's handsome, angry, warm, loyal, frightening, and passionate. He plays the powerful gangster brother to Anne Bancroft, and when she gets herself in the family way, he takes matters into his own hands. . .My mother and I aren't the only people in the world who thought Anthony Quinn should have played the title character in The Godfather; later in his career he continually played Italian mob bosses, as if to make it up to his fans who were disappointed in Marlon Brando's ridiculous performance. The Naked Street is what started it all. Tony is so perfectly Italian, it's hard to believe he actually wasn't! To my fellow Italians out there, what would you do if your younger sister got herself in trouble by a no-good criminal? Plan to bust him out of jail, of course! The real punishment would be to force him to marry her-and what Catholic wouldn't want a legitimate baby from his sister?The Naked Street is intense and gritty, for the time it was made. Film noir fans will find a gem in this largely forgotten film. Anthony Quinn gives a great performance and sufficiently scares the pants off of Farley Granger, as well as the audience! A young Anne Bancroft balances out her need for rescue with the rebellious streak that got her into the mess in the first place. For a great noir weekend, rent The Naked Street and Pickup on South Street.

The acting makes the movie, especially gang boss Regal (Quinn) and his naive sister Rosalie (Bancroft). Regal may be a ruthless racketeer outside his family, but inside, he's a protective pussycat. That is, until cheap Lothario Bradna (Granger) first knocks-up Rosalie and then philanders after Regal forces him to marry her. And that's after Regal gets him off a murder-one rap so the irresponsible kid can do the right thing. Now, feeling betrayed, Regal's really angry, so we know Bradna's in for even worse trouble. The movie's got some twists and turns, not all being very plausible. But that's okay because Quinn delivers a scary and riveting performance. The actor's just back from Italy where he starred in the powerful classic La Strada (1954). So maybe he was trying to show Hollywood a thing or two since he delivers a lot more than the role requires. Then there's Bancroft, already a magnetic personality, and on her way to an Oscar-studded career. Looks to me like the producers spent their money on the cast and not on the visuals that are pretty bland and bare-bones. But then the supporting cast is full of familiar faces, especially up-and-comers like Van Cleef and Graves, along with great vets like Bissell and Flavin.Five-years earlier and I expect the film would have been straight noir, without the moralizing voice-over. But this is the McCarthy Cold War period, so there can't be any lingering ambiguity. Still, it's a fairly gritty little film with a compelling central performance that deserves better than near- total Hollywood obscurity, despite the titillating title.

The Naked Street (1955) *** (out of 4)Gangster Phil Regal (Anthony Quinn) finds out that his younger sister Rosalie (Anne Bancroft) is pregnant by criminal Nicky Bradna (Farley Granger) who just happens to be at Sing Sing and on death row. Regal manages to scare the witnesses who change their testimony and Nicky is released but soon the gangster regrets what he did. THE NAKED STREET seems to have mostly negative reviews and while I can admit that the film has some major flaws, the cast is simply so great that it's impossible not to get caught up in everything going on and in the end I really enjoyed the picture. There's no question that the story itself is pretty far-fetched in the way the gangster is able to pull a man off death row and it's even more far-fetched when you come to the climax of everything. I won't spoil what happens but the logic behind it is set at a zero. Another problem is that the sister character was really poorly written and her dumbness really gets annoying after a while. I mean, her brother is a big time gangster yet she never realized how he gave her everything with having a "real" job? The morals of her character also goes back and forth as the film moves along, which is another problem. Outside of those things I thought the film was entertaining. Quinn is wonderful as the tough gangster who isn't afraid to push people around to get what he wants. For 1955 his performance is pretty raw and rough and it really reminded me of the stuff we used to see from the pre-code Warner gangster pics of the early 1930s. Granger is also very believable as the lover boy who simply got caught up in a bad crime. Even though her character is weak, Bancroft at least delivers a fine performance as does Peter Graves who plays a reporter. I also really liked how the Quinn character worries about his sister being pregnant, unmarried and what this would make her look like. The moral worries of a gangster was an interesting touch and it's handled in a rather raw fashion, which certainly wasn't normal for this era. THE NAKED STREET has some issues but for the most part it's worth watching.

Anthony Quinn is a mob boss, his sister Anne Bancroft is pregnant by her cheap thug boyfriend Farley Granger who is on death row for killing a liquor store owner, she lives a home with their sweet mom. When Quinn finds out Granger is Bancroft's father he arranges to get Granger sprung and free by strong-arming and intimidation. So Granger and Bancroft get married but the baby dies at birth and Granger snaps and starts fooling around and resents Quinn. Quinn decides Granger is no longer necessary so he has him set-up and framed for the murder of Lee Van Cleef. Granger is now on death row again so he confesses to the first murder of the liquor store guy so the D.A. will prosecute Quinn for getting him off in the first place. Pretty soon things get tense and the cops come for Quinn. He runs to the roof of his old building and tries to jump the 8 feet between buildings, he makes the jump but teeters and grabs a TV antenna to right himself. The whole time, Peter Graves is the crusading newspaper reporter weaving in and out of the story and narrating the flick. This is a so-so crime drama with everything including the chubby short foreign accent mother cooking Sunday dinner, Quinn's goons working people over, floozy girl friends, street wise upbringing stories and pigeons on the roof. Not really formula but not spectacular. Entertaining enough for an hour and a half.