After Broderick Crawford won his Oscar for All the King's Men, Columbia Pictures put him into a potboiler called Cargo to Capetown. AFter that he did the second role that is identified with him on screen in Born Yesterday. After that one, Harry Cohn once again gave him a potboiler noir about a police lieutenant going undercover to clean up the docks.
In the beginning of the film Crawford happens to be on the scene of a murder and when the actual killer flashes a badge at him, Crawford lets him go. Turns out the deceased was a key witness in a mob investigation.
Instead of hanging him out to dry with Internal Affairs which would be what really would happen as all devoted watchers of NYPD Blue know, Crawford is assigned to go undercover to ferret out the mysterious boss of the rackets plaguing the docks.
Call me picky, but I would think the last guy they would send undercover would be another material witness to a homicide. Yet that's what happens here.
The premise is so dumb, I can't give this film a higher rating. But in fact The Mob is blessed with an incredible cast of name players just starting out. Neville Brand, Richard Kiley, Ernest Borgnine, even an easily recognizable Charles Bronson who has only one line of dialog are all in this film. Fifteen years later this cast would have cost Columbia Pictures a small fortune and wouldn't be wasted on a black and white B film, souped up for Broderick Crawford.
If you're expecting On the Waterfront, don't be looking at this film.
In the beginning of the film Crawford happens to be on the scene of a murder and when the actual killer flashes a badge at him, Crawford lets him go. Turns out the deceased was a key witness in a mob investigation.
Instead of hanging him out to dry with Internal Affairs which would be what really would happen as all devoted watchers of NYPD Blue know, Crawford is assigned to go undercover to ferret out the mysterious boss of the rackets plaguing the docks.
Call me picky, but I would think the last guy they would send undercover would be another material witness to a homicide. Yet that's what happens here.
The premise is so dumb, I can't give this film a higher rating. But in fact The Mob is blessed with an incredible cast of name players just starting out. Neville Brand, Richard Kiley, Ernest Borgnine, even an easily recognizable Charles Bronson who has only one line of dialog are all in this film. Fifteen years later this cast would have cost Columbia Pictures a small fortune and wouldn't be wasted on a black and white B film, souped up for Broderick Crawford.
If you're expecting On the Waterfront, don't be looking at this film.