***SPOILERS*** Director Samuel Fuller takes a crack at organized crime in this murder and revenge thriller involving young Tolly Devlin, David Ken & Cliff Robertson when he's all grown up, who was an eye witness to his father's murder.
It's not that old man Devlin was an upstanding and law abiding citizen he was a mobster himself but what happened to him, beaten to death by four hoodlums, shouldn't have happened to a mad and rabid dog much less then to a human being. Young Tolly there and then made up his mind that he'll tack down his dad's killers and exact justice on them if that's the last thing he does!
It took a while for Tolly to find his father's killers but a stint behind bars, for safe-cracking, brought unexpected results. Recognizing one of his father's killers Vic Farrar, Peter Brocco,in the prison hospital dying from cancer Tolly got him to confess his sins so he can die in peace and with a clean slate when he stands before his creator. With his last dying breath a repetitive Farrar reveal to Tolly those hoods who along with him murdered his old man. Tolly later finds out, through a newspaper headline, that the three other hoods who murdered his dad Gela Smith & Gunther, Paul Dubov Allan Gruener & Gerald Milton, are now the top men in the notorious Earl Connors, Robert Emhardt, crime syndicate.
Using his girlfriend-and former hooker- Cuddles, Dolores Dorn, who's life he once saved Tolly gets in on the inside of the Connor's crime syndicate, by posing as a drug pusher, in order to get to those who murdered his father and make them pay dearly! Playing both sides against the middle Tolly works both with the Connor's Mob and the local D.A John Driscoll, Larry Gates, which turned out to be disastrous for him.
***SPOILERS*** Cliff Robertson had a real great time playing Tolly Devlin in the movie using, or copying off, the facial expressions as well as body language of the late great Paul Muni in his blockbuster 1932 gangster epic "Sacrface". Robertson, as well as director Fuller, also did his best to copy the legendary death scene by James Cagney in the 1939 gangland flick "The Roaring Twenties". Besides Cliff Robertson's convincing acting, as a borderline psycho, there's also Beatrice Kay as Tolly's adoptive mom Sandy. As much as Sandy tried she couldn't prevent Tolly from suffering his dad's fate which was preordain the moment he choose to step into his hoodlum father's shoes!
It's not that old man Devlin was an upstanding and law abiding citizen he was a mobster himself but what happened to him, beaten to death by four hoodlums, shouldn't have happened to a mad and rabid dog much less then to a human being. Young Tolly there and then made up his mind that he'll tack down his dad's killers and exact justice on them if that's the last thing he does!
It took a while for Tolly to find his father's killers but a stint behind bars, for safe-cracking, brought unexpected results. Recognizing one of his father's killers Vic Farrar, Peter Brocco,in the prison hospital dying from cancer Tolly got him to confess his sins so he can die in peace and with a clean slate when he stands before his creator. With his last dying breath a repetitive Farrar reveal to Tolly those hoods who along with him murdered his old man. Tolly later finds out, through a newspaper headline, that the three other hoods who murdered his dad Gela Smith & Gunther, Paul Dubov Allan Gruener & Gerald Milton, are now the top men in the notorious Earl Connors, Robert Emhardt, crime syndicate.
Using his girlfriend-and former hooker- Cuddles, Dolores Dorn, who's life he once saved Tolly gets in on the inside of the Connor's crime syndicate, by posing as a drug pusher, in order to get to those who murdered his father and make them pay dearly! Playing both sides against the middle Tolly works both with the Connor's Mob and the local D.A John Driscoll, Larry Gates, which turned out to be disastrous for him.
***SPOILERS*** Cliff Robertson had a real great time playing Tolly Devlin in the movie using, or copying off, the facial expressions as well as body language of the late great Paul Muni in his blockbuster 1932 gangster epic "Sacrface". Robertson, as well as director Fuller, also did his best to copy the legendary death scene by James Cagney in the 1939 gangland flick "The Roaring Twenties". Besides Cliff Robertson's convincing acting, as a borderline psycho, there's also Beatrice Kay as Tolly's adoptive mom Sandy. As much as Sandy tried she couldn't prevent Tolly from suffering his dad's fate which was preordain the moment he choose to step into his hoodlum father's shoes!