Watch Stakeout on Dope Street For Free

Fantastic!

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.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Before he helmed his three most prominent films: "Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back" (1980), "Never Say Never Again" (1983), and "RoboCop 2" (1990), director Irvin Kershner got his big-screen start with "Stake Out on Dope Street" in 1958. Kershner wrote this crime story with Andrew J. Fenady, who later scripted the John Wayne cattle western "Chism" (1970). Lensed in black & white by the incomparable Haskell Wexler of "Medium Cool" fame, with an atmospheric voice-over "Dragnet" style narration, this 82-minute melodrama concerns the loss of two pounds of uncut heroin after a drug bust. Los Angeles narcotics agents had arrested a white drug peddler carrying a satchel containing a can filled with two pounds of uncut heroin when they were fired on by assailants. The drug peddler died in the shooting, but he threw the satchel away. Nobody has any idea where the satchel landed, so both the police and the dope peddlers embark on a massive search for the heroin. Three teenagers-- Julian "Ves" Vespucci (Jonathon Haze), aspiring artist Jim Bowers (Yale Wexler) and bodybuilder Nick Raymond (Morris Miller)--discover the satchel and its content, but they aren't sure about the contents of the can. Initially, Julian throws it again, but when learn that it is heroin, they search high and low for it. Finally, they drive out to the city trash dump and stumble upon it. Meantime, the police send out their detectives roust anybody suspicious, while the underworld is doing the same thing but without to restraint. Nick turns his friends on to an older guy with a prison record, and he helps them see the heroin. It is only a matter of time until the cops catch up with both the teens and the criminals. The best scene deals with an oldster who once used heroin. He describes the nightmare that using heroin can induce. Naturally, the mob finds the teens and the drugs. Everything works out well in the long run. Most of the cast are unknowns. Nevertheless, Kershner keeps the action moving swiftly enough.

Three teenagers find a briefcase with a beat-up old can in it. They throw away the can and pawn the suitcase. When they read in the papers that the can was full of uncut heroin and belonged to a drug dealer who killed two narcotics agents in a shootout, they go back to look for the can, find it, and decide to go into the heroin selling business.This is not one of those great crime films you hear about, but it should be. It not only has a great story of cops and crooks, with teenagers caught in the middle, but it is refreshingly honest. I don't know that films about heroin were really around until the indie boom of the 1970s, but this film is very direct and does not try to sugar coat the issues.I suppose one could say it has some seems that are bit melodramatic, and the junkie's long story of going through withdrawal has almost a "Reefer Madness" quality to it. But as a whole, this is a solid film.

Long before Irvin Kershner tackled big budget movies such as "The Empire Strikes Back", he began his theatrical directorial career with this little movie. At times it's a pretty interesting debut. It tackles the subject of drugs when it was next to taboo to deal with them in movies. Kershner probably got away with it because the movie does portray drugs in a very negative light, from showing the brutal criminals that deal with them to the addicts controlled by the drugs they take. The negative portrayal is a little heavy handed at times, but one must remember the movie was made during a different time. Anyway, as entertainment the movie is certainly not boring, though the plotting is somewhat off - the bad guys after the opening sequence don't really reappear until the last part of the movie, and the youths' plan to sell the heroin seems padded out by today's standards. It also doesn't help that the "youths" are portrayed by actors who obviously left their teenage years many years in the past. In short, this is a flawed movie, but may be of interest to those who have interest in low budget youth-oriented movies from this period.

"Stakeout on Dope Street" is a decent film when it comes to the plot idea, but nothing, I mean NOTHING, makes the film particularly compelling. It should have been a lot more interesting than it was.The film begins with a very gritty shootout--one where two cops are shot as well as one of the criminals. However, in the process, a briefcase full of pure, uncut heroin is lost. And, shortly afterwords, three young men discover the drugs and decide to get rich selling it. Two of the guys have no problem with this--but the third gets cold feet because he's worried about creating addicts just like the guy they hired to sell the stuff. However, once the guys start selling, it's inevitable that the guys who lost it will come looking.... If you want to find out what's next, see the film.While the plot idea sounds interesting, this low-budget film never excited me--and several times I found myself nodding off during the movie. It's not a terrible film--just not a very interesting one. See it if you'd like, but you could do better.