Greenstreet and Lorre

 

 (imdb)

THE VERDICT-1946-English police superintendent Grodman (Sydney Greenstreet) sends an innocent man to the gallows and is replaced by the inferior John Buckley (George Coulouris). After his friend Kendall is murdered in his room locked from the inside, Grodman assists his replacement in finding the murderer. Victor (Peter Lorre) is Grosman's friend who Buckley suspects of the murder. There's also Kendall's dance hall girlfriend Lottie (Joan Loring). Suspicion then falls on Clive Russell (Paul Cavanagh) who's convicted of murder and sentenced to death. But Grodman knows who the real murderer is…

Milton Parsons in one scene as an undertaker. Arthur Shields in one scene as a minister. Ian Wolfe in one scene as a jury foreman. 

Interesting murder mystery with a twist ending directed by Don Siegel in his feature length debut. This is the last of 9 movies Greenstreet and Lorre made together between 1941 and 1946. The screenplay by Peter Milne is based on a novel of which an earlier version was made as THE CRIME DOCTOR in 1934. That version has a far different ending.

Thanks for reading!

Crime

THE LINEUP-1958-Strange little crime drama about 2 psychotic hitmen Dancer (Eli Wallach) and Julian (Robert Keith) trying to retrieve a cache of heroin from some innocent tourist with the help of their alcoholic driver (Richard Jaeckel). Meanwhile two cops (Warner Anderson and Emile Meyer) track him down. This film noir-ish crime film directed by Don Siegel and written by Stirling Stilliphant was actually based on a TV (and radio) series that ran from 1954 til 1960 and also features future Mr. Dysdale (on TV's THE BEVERLY HILLBILLES) Raymond Bailey and familiar character actor Vaughan Taylor as “The Man”. 

Thanks for reading! 

There's A Riot Going On

RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11-1956-In this Allied Artist documentary style prison uprising film, prisoners Dunn (Neville Brand) and Crazy Mike (Leo Gordon) lead a prison revolt for better conditions. A former colonel (Robert Osterloh) helps them with their list of grievances while the warden (Emile Meyer) lock horns with a callous senator (Frank Faylen). When Dunn is injured the sadistic Mike takes over and the cons begin fighting among themselves. Eventually Dunn wins his case with the approval of the governor (Thomas B Henry) but it's overturned and Dunn faces 30 more years in stir. “Still there are small steps forward” says the narrator. 

Alvy Moore, Whit Bissell, Paul Frees, Dabbs Greer and William Phipps are some of the other prisoners. 

 Screenwriter Richard Collins also wrote THE CULT OF THE COBRA and was blacklisted for a while. Later he worked mostly in TV. Director Don Siegel made this 2 years before his classic THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.

Thanks for reading!