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Good movie but grossly overrated

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

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

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

None of the actors in this movie are particularly well known. The director, Edward L Cahn is likewise obscure. The only big name the film has to offer is Rod Serling, whose short story was the basis for the movie. And yet Incident in an Alley is a detective story, a courtroom drama, and a redemption story all in one. Officer Bill Joddy (Chris Warfield) accidentally shoots a boy named Harvey Connell (Bobby Fox) in the back, aiming for his leg. Bill is charged with first degree manslaughter. Bill is acquitted but he is haunted by the shooting. To make things worse, Bill is assigned a new assignment. But redemption comes his way when he investigates a robbery of a music store that Harvey was involved in. I won't spoil the ending but it's very entertaining. It's a hard movie to find, but if you come across it, give it a watch.

"Incident in an Alley" is a very simply made film. The budget was small and the actors are mostly faces you won't recognize. However, because it has good writing and surprisingly good writing and direction, it's well worth your time.The film begins with a burglary in progress. The police show up and suddenly teen delinquents are running about everywhere. In the confusion, one cop, Bill Joddy (Chris Warfield) repeatedly tells one of the gang to halt. Eventually, he fires warning shots and somehow a younger teen is hit and killed. Almost immediately, there is a huge uproar and folks are calling for the cop's head. The case goes to court but he is found innocent of responsibility in the death. But, he cannot live with himself and is stuck--alternately blaming himself and searching for more answers. See the film and see where this goes.One of the only folks you probably would recognize if you grew up in the 40s, 50s or 60s is Virginia Christine (the dead boy's mother). She played a lot of characters on TV (such as in the original "Dragnet") and was also the spokesperson for Folger's Coffee for many years. Yup...she's Mrs. Olsen. Another familiar presence is Rod Serling--who wrote the original story. All in all, surprisingly good and worth your time.

Between 1959 and 1962, director Edward Cahn made MANY very-low-budget films for a production company that went under a few different names, but all were produced by Robert Kent. TCM did a salute to Cahn in 2001 and dug many of these up, including this one, INCIDENT IN AN ALLEY. Chris Warfield plays a police officer who breaks up what he thinks is a robbery and possibly an assault in an alley, and shoots one of the suspected robbers who runs away. That takes place in the first five minutes. After that, the film surveys exactly what happened, looks at the incident from multiple perspectives, has a trial where the officer is charged with manslaughter, and THEN starts another plot which becomes just as exciting as the first one, and finally it all comes to wild but satisfying close in just over an hour! Pardon my vagueness, but I don't want to give anything away. This film, written by the great Rod Serling, is a completely unexpected gem that does not go in any direction you expect it to. Shot on a few small sets, b-movie veteran Cahn keeps an exciting pace going, and the acting makes each character seem individual and real. In some ways this seems more like a play than an action film, but that's not surprising considering Serling's background in 1950s live TV and Cahn's background in VERY low budget films where talk and atmosphere make up for scenes that would be too expensive to shoot. As I wasn't expecting anything special, just a b-grade crime film, I was very pleasantly surprised at the care taken in the making of the film and in the many serious and complex issues it dealt with both intelligently and realistically. Bravo to writer Serling, director Cahn, and star Warfield for his little-known gem of a film.

Low budget cop movie which pops up on Showtime now and then concerns a cop who shoots and kills a young juvenile delinquent and how he deals with it. The most amusing part is the big city 'precinct' set which looks like the receptionist area at a dentist office.