刑警大队

Samuel Fuller’s Neo-Noir B-picture, UNDERWORLD U.S.A. is a slick, brisk, straight-forward avenge tale operated by Tolly Devlin (Robertson), who witnessed his father’s murder at the hands of four hoodlums when he was 14, and revenge is a dish better served cold, 20 years later, he exacts his plan to gain on these perpetrators, only now, three of them are affiliated to a crime organization headed by Earl Connors (Emhardt), and eventually, an overhanging question writ large, after getting even for his father, can Tolly’s sense of justice leave the evil Earl behind? Fuller is most competent in economizing the now threadbare plot within the production’s none-too-lavish setting, close-ups within interior spaces are sharply salted with striking chiaroscuro that sufficiently reflects the suspense when a lone wolf Tolly flirts with danger in his infiltrating derring-do, but when he teams up with a crime-fighting district attorney John Driscoll (Gates), and facilely plays Earl off against his unsuspecting targets, the story loses its credibility a bit. However cold-blooded, to consecutively dispatch his two most important henchmen merely on the basis of a (cod) police record and an eyewitness of a curt meeting, for a boss of such import, Earl Connors should have at least burrowed into the evidences deeper before any knee-jerk reaction, perhaps, script writing isn’t Fuller’s strongest suit. There are two important women in Tolly’s life, Sandy (Kay), an old flame of his father, is a mother-figure to him, who is ready to admonish him at the drop of a hat, especially to bolster a kindhearted Cuddles (Dorn, a naturally telegenic and affectionate damsel in distress), who eventually decides to get shot of her past of trick-turning and small-time infraction, and form a family with Tolly, only meets with the latter’s ridicule. It is up to a fiery Sandy to bring him to his senses that he might have a future with Cuddles, however, out of his righteousness (there is a then-shocking sequence of a hitman running over a teenage girl on a bicycle) and a hellbent resolution to go straight after his accomplished payback, he has one last enemy to eradicate, and the outcome, conditioned by Harry Sukman’s rich, imposing score, might not be entirely favorable to him. In the main, UNDERWORLD U.S.A. is a pristine nihilistic tale and Cliff Robertson buoyantly inhabits his role with blistering panache and compassion, which only makes his denouement a mournful regret, there are some pernicious consequences of monomania, with which Fuller should be quite au fait. referential entries: Fuller’s THE CRIMSON KIMONO (1959, 7.1/10); Lewis Allen’s APPOINTMENT WITH DANGER (1950, 6.2/10).