The macho head of an urban community center tries to reform juvenile delinquents.The macho head of an urban community center tries to reform juvenile delinquents.The macho head of an urban community center tries to reform juvenile delinquents.
- Mitch
- (as Anthony Curtis)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFilm debut of Peter Fernandez.
- GoofsAll the actors playing teenage members of the Dukes gang were well into their twenties when the movie was filmed.
- Quotes
Drew Pearson: [opening speech] To most of us, the city where juvenile crime flourishes always seems to be 'the city across the river'. But don't kid yourself. It could be your city, your street, your house. Although this story happens in Brooklyn, it could just as well happen in any other large city where slum conditions undermine personal security and take their toll in juvenile delinquency. You may be lucky; you may be living where such conditions don't exist. But for the next 89 minutes, you're a kid named Frankie Cusack, going down a confused road toward gangsterdom, toward murder. You live in Brooklyn, just across the river from Manhattan, where Flatbush meets the slum. You're Frankie Cusack and this is your story. This is the main street of your neighbourhood, where you hang out with your gang. Busy by day, teeming at night. This is your country club, the Happy Times pool room, and this is your street. That tenement over there on the right is 62 years old. You were born there and it's the only home you ever had.
- Crazy creditsFirst credited film appearance of Tony Curtis (as Anthony Curtis).
- ConnectionsFollowed by Girls in the Night (1953)
It's almost kind of quaint, but sadly so in that these kids spend time in shop class making zip guns. Very soon all kinds of weaponry would be available for street gangs right down to today.
And how things have changed. Back then one aspired like Luis Van Rooten and Thelma Ritter to move to a place like Canarsie. Now no one aspires to move to Canarsie.
Van Rooten and Ritter are the parents of Peter Fernandez and Sharon McManus and Fernandez is a member of the Amboy Dukes. Social worker Stephen McNally has some hopes of reaching him. But when he and pal Al Ramsen shoot shop teacher Robert Osterloh with one of those make it yourself weapons they become beyond the reach of social workers. And detective Jeff Corey suspects them from the beginning.
Fernandez and Ramsen had brief careers, but other members of the Dukes did a lot better. Richard Jaeckel certainly had a career of note already and Mickey Knox probably would have, but for the blacklist. And Tony Curtis stands far out in front of all of them. It was clear he was going to be star, in fact the film would have been better had he been in the lead instead of Fernandez.
City Across The River is a somewhat quaint look at Brooklyn when I was only two years old. According to Tony Curtis's memoirs some establishing shots were done there, but the cast filmed in Hollywood. It's one of the first films to deal with post war juvenile delinquency, even before West Side Story. Dated, but it holds up well.
- bkoganbing
- Nov 4, 2013
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $1,500,000
- Runtime1 hour 31 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1