Brooklyn

 

 (imdb)

THE CASE AGAINST BROOKLYN-1958-A rookie cop (Darren McGavin) goes undercover to help break the borough's illegal gambling racket protected by some corrupt police officers. He romances a widow (Margret Hayes)) who's husband (Joe DeSantis) committed suicide. He runs afoul of thug henchman Rudi Franklin (Warren Stevens) who works for the big bosses (Nestor Paiva and Thomas B. Henry). Tragedy follows but he eventually succeeds. Emile Meyer is a police captain and Joe Turkel is another thug. 

This was the second film directed by Paul Wendkos after THE BURGLAR in 1957. He went on to make other films (GIDGET (1959) (and some sequels), BECAUSE THEY'RE YOUNG (1960) and THE METHISTO WALTZ (1971) but his major output was on TV.

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1957! What a Great Year!

THE BURGLAR-1957-Dan Dureya leads a small band of criminals who steal a valuable necklace from an eccentric philanthropist. His partners are a jewel expert (Peter Capell), a thug (Mickey Shaunessy) and his adopted sister (Jayne Mansfield) who everyone has eyes for. The quartet hold up in a house and eventually get on each others' nerves. Meanwhile a weird detective tries to crack the case. When things shift to Atlantic City the story takes a mysterious turn and there are some plot twists. Jayne appears in a bath suit in a very short scene. The screenplay is by author David Goodis who also wrote the novel it's based on. He also penned the novels Dark Passage (adapted by director Delmar Daves 10 years earlier) and Down There (the basis for Francois Truffaut's SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER).

THE BURGLAR is no classic but it's a good little film noir which marked the film debut of director Paul Wendkos who later made GIDGET and BECAUSE THEY'RE YOUNG and did tons of TV work.

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Because

BECAUSE THEY'RE YOUNG-1960-American Bandstand's Dick Clark (who died in April 2012 at 82)  is a new high school teacher. His students include a loving couple (Doug McClure & Roberta Shore; 5 years later they would both co-star on TV's THE VIRGINIAN) who want to get married, skinny Warren Beringer (who later became a pudgy TV character actor) who doesn't know his mom's a floozy, bad boy Riff Rimer (Michael Callan) and his ex-girl friend Anne (Tuesday Weld) who has a nagging mother. Chris Robinson (later the lead role in STANLEY) is a toughie who tries to cause trouble at a dance where James Darren and Duane Eddy (who also does the theme song) perform! 


Riff gets involved in a hold up staged by his butcher shop boss. Lying and misunderstandings (and a knife fight) follow but the man who made lip-synching fashionable on music shows straightens out everything in the end. 


Also with Victoria Shaw (who was Maria Van Braun in I AIM FOR THE STARS the same year) as Clark's love interest, Phillip Coolidge, Bess Flowers and John Zaremba. It's based on a novel called "Harrison High". 


The year before BTY director Paul Wendkos had directed the original GIDGET (and would also make its two sequels) but later devoted himself mostly to TV. 


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