Down Three Dark Streets (1954) User Reviews

Which of the three?

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 25 April 2015]

Before J. Edgar Hoover stopped fogging mirrors in 1972 you would not see a film that did not show the Federal Bureau Of Investigation as less than dedicated and perfect. Stripping the man's paranoia away from him, Hoover did bring a certain order and professionalism to the FBI and when they stuck to crime and criminals as opposed to just amassing files on the world they did a good job. Like any other law enforcement agency when one of their own is killed in the line of duty everything stops until the perpetrator is caught.

Down These Dark Streets is one of the few films you'll see where someone who is a detective will be shown having more than one case. Indeed that is the crux of this plot. Which one of three cases did agent Kenneth Tobey get killed over by a sniper's bullet?

His supervisor Broderick Crawford takes over and the three cases are a case of an organized car theft ring where young Gene Reynolds is about to take a fall in federal prison because he won't rat out the leaders. Maybe it's notorious fugitive Joe Bassett who is armed and dangerous and who already killed a gas station attendant who rather stupidly called the FBI before Bassett was clear from his station. Or there's Ruth Roman who is being extorted for an insurance settlement by a stranger threatening her child on the phone.

Crawford takes on all three cases and systematically solves them and eliminates a lot of suspects. He's as thorough a professional as all big screen FBI men were at the time.

Take note of Martha Hyer who plays Joe Bassett's kept moll. Martha was one of the most beautiful women ever to grace the screen and here she shows some real acting chops in her scenes with Crawford.

Down Three Dark Streets is a crisp and competent police drama with a great ensemble cast. Definitely a must for noir fans.

Should Be Better Known

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 25 June 2015]

When FBI Agent Zack Stewart is killed, Agent John Ripley takes over the three cases he was working on, hoping one will lead to his killer. The first involves gangster Joe Walpo and Ripley finds his hideout through Joe's girl friend, Connie Anderson. Joe is killed but it is established he was 400 miles away when Stewart was murdered. The next involves a car-theft gang which Ripley breaks up by using one of the gang, Vince Angelino and his wife Julie. The last case involves Kate Martell, the victim of an extortionist who threatens to kidnap her child unless she pays him $10,000.

This certainly is an interesting look at FBI cases and procedures, with them using bulky equipment to spy on neighbors, intercept phone calls and make identifications. But this was the 1950s, when such things were primitive and relatively innocent. (The FBI surveillance went too far in the 1960s and was shut down by the courts.) Very interesting film, well worth being better known. And the film quality seems to have held up very nicely over the years. The one on Netflix looks great.

Look familiar?

[dadier55 · 7/10 · 25 August 2007]

DOWN THREE DARK STREETS, with its trio of cases for the FBI to solve, was the template eight years later for EXPERIMENT IN TERROR, reduced down to just the extortion plot. Broderick Crawford is "Agent John Ripley" in the first, Glenn Ford is named the same character in the second. STREETS uses the semi-documentary approach (heavy-handed voice-over narration) and is more of a whodunit, while EXPERIMENT is a real suspense-filled thriller with the villain identified much earlier. But even then, it is much more chilling. Ruth Roman is the fear-filled victim in the original, Lee Remick plays the spunky lady being extorted in the semi-remake. Good Los Angeles locales, especially the "Hollywood" sign usage in the first. But great San Francisco scenes in TERROR, particularly the Candlestick Park shootout following a Giants-Dodgers game. Both are recommended, with STREETS a competent mystery and EXPERIMENT a classic at the end of the Noir cycle.

F.B.I. melodrama stars Broderick Crawford as agent...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 25 August 2007]

Based on a novel by The Gordons called "Case File: F.B.I.", this is a semi-documentary style crime drama from Columbia starring BRODERICK CRAWFORD as a diligent F.B.I. agent John Ripley assigned to crack a few unsolved cases when a fellow agent on the job is killed in the line of duty.

RUTH ROMAN, MARISA PAVAN and MARTHA HYER are the three women connected to the cases, all of whom give good performances but Pavan is particularly touching as a blind woman.

The documentary style is nicely handled and there's a twist at the end that came as a real surprise to me.

Not great, but an interesting example of satisfactory film noir.

The streets are mean and dark.

[michaelRokeefe · 7/10 · 17 September 2012]

This Edward Small Production delivers a high quality Broderick Crawford vehicle directed by Arnold Laven. A crime drama done in documentary style; a 1954 vintage thriller starring Crawford as FBI Agent John Ripley. When fellow agent Zack Stewart(Kenneth Tobey)is murdered, the three cases he was currently working on were assigned to Ripley. Nothing is going to get in the way of Ripley seeking to identify his colleague's killer and bring him to justice. While on the investigation, he stumbles onto an extortion case that involves a crafty widow, Kate Martell(Ruth Roman), who may just be linked to Stewart's death and the cases he was working on. A very strong supporting cast in this 85 minute black and white feature. Notable other players: Martha Hyer, Max Showalter, Gene Reynolds and Claude Akins.

Phone call to murder

[sol1218 · 7/10 · 5 October 2008]

***SPOILERS*** Pretty good FBI crime drama with Broaderick Crawford as FBI Agent John "Rip" Ripley on the trail of an on the loose killer who murdered his friend and fellow FBI Agent Zack Stewart, Kenneth Tobey.

Finding out that the late Agent Stewart was involved in three separate cases it becomes evident that somehow one of the cases he was working on had to involved the man who murdered him. Agent Ripley soon comes to the conclusion that the case involving the extortion of widow Kate Martell, Ruth Roman, is the one that lead to Agent Stewart's murder and may possibly be connected in the two other cases he was involved in; A car robbery ring and the murder of a gas station attendant, William Schallert, on the Nevada Californian border!

Using Mrs. Martell as bait Agent Ripley has her play along with her extortionist who want her to pay him off with the $10,000.00 of insurance money she got when her husband was killed in a fatal car accident. If Mrs. Martell doesn't comply he threatens to murder her nine year old daughter Vickie, Dede Grinor.

It takes both good old fashion police work as well as the most up to date state of the art, circa 1954, police science to finally track down the both killer/extortionist. In the process of doing that Agent Riply also solves the two other cases,the car robbery ring and murder of the gas station attendant, as well. Even though they had nothing at all to do with both Agent Stewart and Brenda Rolles' (Suzanne Alexander), who knew who Stewarts killer was, murders.

***SPOILER ALERT*** The films ending was a real hum dingier with the killer finally revealing himself as he appears out of the blue right under the famous Hollywood sign. It's there where he instructed Mrs. Martell to leave the extortion money. It was also there where Agent Ripley, without Mrs. Mantell knowledge, and his fellow FBI agents and the local police set a trap for him!

P.S Interesting cast of unknowns who went on to bigger and better things later on in their film careers. Both Kenneth Tobey-who also stared in the sci-fi classic "The Thing" back in 1951-and Max Showalter were to make within two years, in 1955 & 1956, the classic bad sci-fi movie epics that were immortalized on TV-on shows like Mystery Science Fiction Theater 3000-in "It Came Form Beneath the Sea" and "The Indestructible Man". The murdered gas station attendant William Schallert was to later play the befuddled and out of touch, to what his zany daughter was doing, father of Patty Duke in the aptly named "Patty Duke Show". And the beefy and booming voiced Claud Akins was to finally make it all the way to top, as President of the United States, playing President Teddy Roosevelt in the 1992, two years before his untimely death of cancer, Sherlock Holmes movie "Incident at Victoria Falls".

Good Premise-- Plodding Execution

[dougdoepke · 27 July 2008]

Moderately interesting programmer made at a time when police procedure was popular on both the big and little screens. The influence of TV's Dragnet is apparent in the stentorian voice-over and the rather feeble attempts at quirky citizen humor. An FBI agent is killed in the line of duty. His chief Broderick Crawford determines that the killer is tied into one of three cases he's investigating. But which one. The narrative follows his sorting through the cases, all the while both he and we wonder which one will lead to the culprit. It's a good premise, but director Laven does little to develop the potential.

Movie gains a lot from location photography in and around a burgeoning LA. The final scene makes effective use of that city's landmark "Hollywood" sign, the only film I know to do that. There's a fine performance from Ruth Roman as a beleaguered mother whose child is under threat of kidnap, along with an unusually restrained Crawford as the head agent, a role I suspect recommended him for for the lead in the following year's hit series Highway Patrol. Note the rather gratuitous cheesecake scenes from Roman and the bosomy Martha Hyer. After all, the movies had to do something to get people away from the novelty of their television sets. Nothing special here. Just an easy way to pass a spare 90 or so minutes.

Wonderfully complex and dramatic, if not quite perfectly formed

[secondtake · 7/10 · 6 July 2011]

Down Three Dark Streets (1954)

An FBI man has been killed, and the suspects are related to the three cases the agent was working one when he died. So all three cases become priorities, thinking that by solving them all, the cop killer will come to light.

The title of the movie is a cue that this is in some ways a three part movie, with three basically distinct, if intertwined plots. But what holds it together is a single character, an FBI agent played by Broderick Crawford. And it's Crawford who holds it together beautifully. He plays his part with cool, somber, and weary reserve (and if you know Crawford in his more famous roles, such as "All the King's Men" or even more in "Born Yesterday").

Each of the three stories is layered up as you go, which makes it interestingly complex, and in each there is one leading woman connected to a suspect. Ruth Roman is the most powerful of these three, though the other two are bit weak. Luckily, the weakest of these, Ruth Hyer, loses relevance so that Roman and Marisa Pavan (playing a blind woman fairly well) carry their shares. And in a way you never quite notice the uneven acting because the events tumble one after another, through lots of changes of location, and from one plot to the next. It's filmed with economy but good drama. And the story, which might lose some viewers because of its complexity, also has the beauty of not being obvious, with lots of good dialog.

Why isn't it quite a classic? There's something awkward about the many parts that have to be connected, and an occasional odd aspect, like the unlikely ruse of a blanket carried as Roman's child into her car (it looks very much like a blanket). Still, there is a lot of suspense throughout, dark alleys, drives at night, phones that ring and aren't answered, all along waiting for something and not knowing what. An intense example is when Roman takes a senselessness lonely walk in a cemetery and a car pulls up.

"I'm waiting for a friend." "Maybe I'm that friend you're waiting for."

This is good movie-making, and it makes for a good movie. Then, to cap it off, it has what is maybe the best vintage use of the famous Hollywood letters on the hill overlooking movieland. Odd to say, but I think the movie is worth watching for that alone. This is exactly when the industry was falling apart (legally and literally), and the letters were no accident. There is also a nice use of that trope of money blowing away in the wind (made more archetypal in "The Killing" in 1958). The last line? "Sometimes you meet some nice people in this business." Perfect.

One of those semi-documentary crime movies

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 5 April 2009]

Broderick Crawford as Agent Ripley takes over three cases for a murdered FBI man in "Down Three Dark Streets," a 1954 film also starring Ruth Roman, Marisa Pavan, Martha Hyer, and Max Showalter.

This is one of those police or FBI films done in semi-documentary style that abounded in the '50s. Each woman is involved in a crime; Roman is being threatened with her daughter's life if she doesn't turn over her late husband's insurance money; Pavan is the blind wife of a man jailed for being involved in car theft, but he won't reveal any information about the ring; and Hyer is the girlfriend of a wanted killer who is on the run. When two murders occur, Ripley is convinced they're tied to one of the cases, but which one? Great '50s LA sites are a highlight of this film, along with a suspenseful ending. The story involving Ruth Roman was done as a suspense movie by Blake Edwards later on as "Experiment in Terror" with Glenn Ford as Ripley.

There is one major plot hole I must point out. One of the FBI men follows a character to a department store, where she takes a girdle to try on and goes into a dressing room. The operative asks if there's an exit behind the dressing rooms and is told yes, there's a staircase leading to a back entrance. Well, all I can say is, that store must have had hundreds of thousands of dollars in shoplifted merchandise yearly if that was the case.

Nicely Done; Would Like To See A DVD Of It

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 28 April 2009]

I enjoyed this early 1950s crime/drama and appreciate the nice job TCM did in restoring the print. The transfer looked outstanding; sharp with excellent contrast. The movie features some fine photography and lighting.

This was one of those semi-documentaries popular among crime stories in the late '40s/early '50s. It usually plugged one of the U.S. law enforcement agencies. Here, it was the FBI and we followed a couple of agents as they tried to tie in several cases in the Los Angeles area. Sometimes these movies were labeled "crime dramas" and sometimes "film noirs." This movie contains a lot of both elements.

Along the way, we see a lot of familiar faces, especially if you grew up watching a lot of television in the '50s and '60s. You may not know all the names, but you'll know the faces.

Names you probably know, however, are Broderick Crawford, Ruth Roman and Martha Hyer. There are three of the half-dozen or so actor who all play a significant part of this story.

Crawford is an FBI agent and lower-key one than you might expect. He's not the gruff lawman of "Highway Patrol" or the loudmouth politician of "All The King's Men." Here, he's gentle with people all the while being an effective FBI guy.

Ruth Roman, as "Kate Martel." plays one of several key female roles, as either crime victim or gangster-girlfriend. Ruth plays a role similar to one Lee Remick played in about 10 years later in a film called "Experiment In Terror." Marilyn Monroe-wannabe Martha Hyer is a hoot as a sexy blonde playing a thug's girlfriend, or should I say "moll." She has some great lines, calling the cops "you dirty crumbs" and the like. Her character is pure film noir.

Marisa Pavan is interesting as the blind "Julie Angelino" and so is a young Claude Akins as a boxer-criminal. Jay Adler, Kenneth Tobey and others all have those familiar TV faces.

Movie buffs will get a kick out of the climactic scene, which takes place at the foot of the "Hollywood" sign on top of a hill. That nostalgia, along with the very cool automobiles of the period, make this a good trip down "memory lane."

Unfortunately, this is one of those classic movies that never made it to VHS or DVD. Hopefully, someone will put it in a DVD classics box-set some day. It's a good film and deserves a DVD of its own.

police drama

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 26 June 2022]

FBI agent John Ripley wants to solve the murder of his partner Zack Stewart. He's digging into three of Zack's cases and hopes to find his killer. Joe Walpo is a murderous fugitive on the run. Kate Martell is being threatened and extorted by a mystery man on the phone. The last case involves a car theft ring.

This is a precursor to the modern TV police procedural. It can be a bit dry and three stories may be one too many. Of the many character actors in this film, I like Claude Akins the most. I love his scar. There is a big time location for the climax. It's great to get so close to the sign. In the end, it's an effective police drama.

True FBI Story

[whpratt1 · 8/10 · 16 September 2007]

Enjoyed viewing this black and white film from 1954 starring some great veteran female actors, namely: Martha Hyer, (Connie Anderson), who looked just like Marilyn Monroe and was being controlled by a mysterious man who keeps sending her all kinds of gifts, but she never goes out of her apartment. Connie is visited by FBI Agent John Ripley,(Broderick Crawford) and flirts with him like she has never seen a man before. Ruth Roman, (Kate Martell) is a fashion designer who is being threatened by a black mailer who wants ten-thousand dollars or he will kill her daughter. Julie Angelino, (Marisa Povan) is another woman whose husband was accused of a crime he did not commit and he refused to tell the police who really performed this crime and was sent to prison. Julie is also a target for this blackmailer and killer. Kenneth Tobey, (FBI Agent Zack Stewart was assigned to these three cases and was killed before he could solve this crime. Agent John Ripley was then assigned to these cases and has plenty of work ahead of him trying to gets leads from these three women. There are some great old time scenes of San Francisco and Los Angeles. Enjoyable old timer from 1954.

The FBI are on the Case

[gordonl56 · 7/10 · 3 July 2016]

DOWN 3 DARK STREETS 1954

This one is based on the novel, CASE FILE FBI by Gordon and Mildred Gordon. The Gordons also wrote the screenplay for the film.

This one starts with the murder of a gas station employee. The man had spotted a wanted killer and was calling in the info to the FBI. The killer, Joe Bassett is heading to L.A. to hook up with his girl, Martha Hyer.

FBI Agent Kenneth Tobey is assigned to track down Bassett. At the same time Tobey is involved with two other cases, a man, Gene Reynolds who has been grabbed up for driving a stolen car. Then there is a case involving a threat of kidnapping. A woman, Ruth Roman, has been called and told her daughter will be taken, if she does not fork over a 10 grand insurance payment she just got.

Broderick Crawford plays Tobey's boss in the FBI chain of command. The deal here is that there could be a link between the last two cases to the first one. It is Tobey's job to unravel the twists. Tobey gets shot and killed during a stake-out for the killer, Bassett.

The FBI now pulls out all the stops as they give all three cases top priority. The film follows Crawford and the various agents as they track down the leads and eliminate them. They solve one case and move on to the next as they look for Tobey's killer.

The women involved in the various story threads, is what makes this film really click. Ruth Roman, Suzanne Alexander, Marisa Paven and Martha Hyer are the female leads. Miss Hyer in particular shines as she keeps thrusting her upper-works at Crawford and crew, as she cracks wise with lines like, "Do you mind if I put something on? I don't like men staring at me before lunch".

This documentary style noir was directed by Arnold Laven. He cranked out several watchable film noir early in his career, WITHOUT WARNING! as well as VICE SQUAD.

Film noir specialist Joseph Biroc handled the cinematography duties on the production. Two time Oscar nominated, and one time winner, Biroc was known for his work on, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, CRY DANGER, THE KILLER THAT STALKED NEW YORK, LOAN SHARK, WITHOUT WARNING!, ATTACK, TENSION AT TABLE ROCK, FORTY GUNS, CHINA GATE, LADY IN CEMENT and THE TOWERING INFERNO.

This one has the odd slow spot but for the most part moves right along. There is some excellent location shooting involved here.

The writers, The Gordons would dust this one off in 1963 and use most of the story to make, EXPERIMENT IN TERROR with Glenn Ford.

Very average crime movie.

[MOscarbradley · 4/10 · 15 July 2019]

Despite a better than average B-Movie cast, "Down Three Dark Streets" is a fairly formulaic crime movie with FBI man Broderick Crawford investigating the murder of his partner, Kenneth Tobey. He doesn't have a prime suspect but there's a link to the three cases Tobey was working on, each with a well-known actress, (Ruth Roman, Martha Hyer, Marisa Pavan), at the centre. It's one of those documentary-like investigative pictures in which a sonorous narrator informs us of what's happening. As the bottom half of a double-bill it's perfectly watchable and both Roman and Hyer are actually quite good. There's also some good location shooting in and around Los Angeles but it's not memorable and Arnold Laven's direction is uninspired.

Standard FBI docudrama featuring three separate crime stories of varying degrees of success

[Turfseer · 6/10 · 8 February 2022]

Personally approved by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, Down Three Down Streets features the usual narrator extolling the virtues of the famed federal crime-fighting organization. If you can ignore all the propaganda, the film settles into a standard but watchable tale involving the investigation of three separate crimes.

When FBI agent Zack Stewart (Kenneth Tobey) is murdered after he and his partner John Ripley (Broderick Crawford) are ambushed answering a seeming domestic complaint at a residential location, Ripley is then assigned the three cases Stewart was working on, in the hope of that the investigation into one of them might lead to uncovering the identity of Stewart's killer.

The first case involves a stone cold killer Joe Wolpo (Joe Bassett) who is wanted for murdering a gas station attendant. We don't see much of him until his girlfriend Connie Anderson (Martha Hyer) leads the FBI to him after she's placed under surveillance. Hyer sounds and looks a bit like Marilyn Monroe and has an enjoyable part as a part-time moll to bad boy Wolpo until she makes the mistake of contacting him in person.

The second case involves a small time hood, Vince Angelino (Gene Reynolds) who has a nice wife Julie (Marisa Pavan) who happens to be blind. Angelino decides to go to prison instead of ratting out a bunch of car thieves he's been associating with. But when the local police bring him down from prison to identify a thug who roughed up his wife, he attacks him and then promptly gives him up. The scene in Angelino is questioned by the police is a good one as at least there's one good citizen who steps up to expose his criminal associates (albeit for obvious selfish reasons).

The third case-which is the main story in the narrative-involves widow Kate Martell (Ruth Roman) who's extorted for her late husband's insurance money by an unknown man who threatens to harm her young child Vicki. While the man threatens Kate over the phone a fair number of times, he never shows up until the climax when she's actually put in jeopardy. Thus we wish the screenwriters here could have ratcheted the suspense up a bit more.

Broderick Crawford does a serviceable job as Agent Ripley which is pretty much a standard role. Roman is convincing as the frightened widow but she too has little to do until the scene in which the killer is caught. He turns out to be a family friend of Kate and is charged not only for murdering Agent Stewart but the woman who initially called the FBI which led to the agent's murder.

Down Three Dark Streets has been mistakenly referred to as "film noir." It actually falls under the purview of "docudrama" focusing on FBI exploits. This is a film that moves along at a fairly brisk pace with a few moments here and there of certifiable interest. I would recommend taking a look but not more than once.

Sometimes you meet some nice people in this business.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 28 February 2019]

Academy award-winning character actor Broderick Crawford has played a variety of characters throughout his career, both honest and dishonest, on the right side of the law and on the crooked side of it. in this intriguing crime drama with three different stories going on, Crawford gives a commanding performance as an honest cop who must take over the cases of his assassinated partner and finds himself involved in some sinister activities. There are three women here, all involved in the individual cases but more as victims, and not your typical femme fatale. Ruth Roman scores as a beautiful Widow who is being blackmailed for insurance money and threatened with the safety of her daughter. Martha Hyer is excellent as the girlfriend of an escaped convict who is questioned by the police and seems intent in cooperating until her boyfriend shows up. Then, there is the deaf Marissa Pavan, a key witness in the search for a nasty mobster. One of the three men was responsible for the death of Crawford's partner, and he is determined to solve these cases to find out who ruthlessly gunned the partner down.

Great location photography in Los Angeles culminates with a gripping finale just below the Hollywood sign. The writers cleverly hide whom the partner's killer is, and don't let on as to the identities of the other bad guys as well until these plot lines wrap up in gripping violent manners. William Johnstone, Max Showalter, Claude Akins, Kenneth Tobbey and Gene Reynolds provide outstanding support, and the intelligence screenplay keeps the audience on the edge of their seat as each of these stories unfolds. Crawford finds an important lesson as a cop, that when you help someone avoid becoming a victim of crime, you usually find, like I state in my tagline, that a job truly is satisfying when you do indeed help decent people.

Good intentions but falls short

[russjones-80887 · 6/10 · 22 April 2020]

An FBI agent is murdered and his partner takes over the three cases he was working on in order to find the killer.

Average crime film despite the best efforts of Broderick Crawford to bring it to life. The narration, whilst only occasional, might be irritating for some viewers.

Unpromising start leads to complex tripartite plot and some memorable shots.

[declancooley · 7/10 · 3 December 2022]

It starts as a police procedural, initially very voiceover-heavy with a dull drone of a voiceover lauding the FBI. Later though, its plot(s) become more convoluted and intertwined with noir undertones, plus moments of real tension and creepiness, occasional action, very sporadic wry humour, and tinged here and there with a mix of sentimentality and hard-nosed realism, all while putting on display the full gamut of society. The plot hinges on the link between one FBI agent and three different cases - which leads to a forest of suspects (and red herrings) for multiple crimes, with the added element of there possibly being something, or someone, connected tenuously to all three case files. Perhaps.

While a typical police procedural in many ways, one thing that is different here is that there are a surprising number of women-centric perspectives coming from the victims' sides of the equation, a deliberate commentary on the dangers that women more than most could be subject to. Still, true to form, here we have a quasi-femme fatale, there a mindless thug, here a weary but dutiful cop, and there occasional voiceovers about how the FBI puts every man on the bureau on these cases, along with documentary style shots illustrating the machination of investigations using fascinating 1950's tech.

The touches of noir come from the dread that some of the crimes evoke, the sense of mystery as to how all these grim crimes are connected (or not) with a feeling of dark forces at play, the desperation of some of the characters, their deceptions and their desperate moves to drag themselves out of their plight, as well as a few wonderful shots, and a memorable angst-ridden ending.

This is the kind of noir one hopes to come across now and again - pretty mundane but also with lots to savour. The crimes are petty, seedy and even grisly at times - and the revolving rogues' gallery of suspects holds one's attention throughout. Well-shot outdoor locations around LA bring another dimension to the movie as well.

It even seems to make a commentary about Hollywood itself: the FBI spins narratives to capture the pursued just as a Hollywood film does to captivate a film-goer. But behind the facade, the reality is in a sorrier state. This streak of cynicism and meta gives this film a bit of extra edge.

Kenneth Tobey got misplaced or lost , got robbed of a worthy role.

[mrmarckline · 7/10 · 30 May 2021]

Good film , except I believe the star of the original Thing , got robbed of a meaty role , instead they killed him off in less then 15 minutes into the film, Kenneth Tobey the original smoker in every film he starred in , started in this film to have three cases , must have been short of feds for 1955. Instead gets blown away in an alley , the girl gets put in a trash can , makes you think who the killer is , but at the end of the film , seems all is fair except Kenneth's sons don't have a dad no more. A young Martha Hyer had a good part , you get to see her travelling in a old street car back in 55" all over Los Angeles and Glendale.

Awfully good...

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 11 December 2011]

While there isn't a lot of spectacular action or twists in this film, it is rock solid throughout--sort of like an episode of "Dragnet" or "The FBI". A very good script and nice attention to law enforcement details make this one worth watching.

The film begins with two FBI agents on an assignment. One is unexpectedly murdered by someone hiding in the shadows. The surviving agent (Broderick Crawford) seems to think that someone on the other agents list of open cases has done the crime, so he looks into the three cases. And so, you see Crawford go from case to case--looking for clues and solving the cases while he's at it. It all leads to a dandy final set at the Hollywood sign.

As I said above, the show is big on realism and police procedures. I also appreciated how ordinary and ugly some of the cast were--like real life. Overall, it's a lot like a tidier version of film noir--with a strong infusion of realism and good acting.

By the way, if you do watch, look for the guy with his home-made 'spy detector'!

Better Than Average Noir - Down Three Dark Streets

[arthur_tafero · 6/10 · 15 November 2019]

This film is far from perfect, but it does have Broderick Crawford, and that is what makes it better than average. Crawford is perfectly capable of holding a film together by himself, and he does so in ths FBI yarn. One can see the formulation of the character he would become famous for playing in years to follow in the policeman for Highway Patrol. Check it out; there are some supremely creepy moments when the extortionist threatens an innocent child.

3 for the price of 1

[nickenchuggets · 9/10 · 3 July 2022]

For some reason, I find myself time and time again enjoying movies that others seem to have a mediocre opinion of. I can sense if a movie is something to write home about because the well written characters, storyline, and everything else all come together to create something impressive. The story in this film might not be that memorable, but for whatever reason, I hold Down Three Dark Streets in high regard compared to other, lackluster movies I've seen lately. Like always I'll start with the plot, which is centered around an FBI agent named John (Broderick Crawford), whose associate, Zack Stewart is murdered one night by a gunman hiding in a shrub. Zack had his hands full and was working on three separate cases for the Bureau, and these cases are taken up by John, thinking that by solving them, it will point him to his partner's killer. This basically means the film contains three story arcs in one. The first one has to do with John attempting to track down a criminal named Joe, who shot a gas station worker early in the film. Arguably the most interesting one has John attempting to find out who is blackmailing a department store worker named Kate (Ruth Roman). The man on the phone says he'll kill Kate's young daughter if she doesn't comply. The last plot has to do with John trying to catch some hooligans who steal cars for a living. Concerning the first plot, John tracks down Connie Anderson (Martha Hyer), an attractive woman who used to be Joe's lover (and still receives gifts from him). Although she plays dumb at first, the truth soon comes out and John discovers through a recording that she has known Joe. John takes Zack's replacement along with him to Joe's hideout, which they were able to locate because they shadowed Connie and followed her there. Joe is shot to death, and this case is solved. The second case gets solved last, so I will cover it later. The car hijacking case has John paying a visit to the wife of a criminal named Vinnie Angelino (Gene Reynolds). Mrs. Angelino is told her husband, who is technically innocent, will get out of prison if he'll simply cooperate and tell the cops who wanted him to steal cars. Meanwhile, Julie (Vinnie's blind wife) is being intimidated by a thug named Matty who doesn't want her husband to give the names to the cops. He eventually beats her, and when both Matty and Vinnie are brought in for questioning, the latter goes berserk. Now feeling no pity for him, Vinnie agrees to tell the cops who Matty really is and what he did. Finally, the third plot involves Kate, who is being tormented by anonymous phone calls saying that if she doesn't give up insurance money, her daughter will be murdered. She tells the FBI, and it's up to John to try and protect her. He seems to think the suspect can be one of several people, including Dave (her boyfriend) or even the mailman. Eventually, after analyzing all the tapes and recordings the FBI has saved, they're confident the killer is within their grasp, but the caller phones Kate again and says she better not squeal to the feds anymore. He also tells her to leave the insurance money in a box under the letter W in the famous Hollywood sign. When she arrives there, she finds out the anonymous caller was actually Dave the entire time. John shows up just in time and makes him flee, causing his arrest. While I thought this movie was quite good, a lot of people didn't seem to think so. Most notably was J Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI himself. For what reason, I can't imagine. The FBI is actually portrayed positively in it, with John managing to bag three criminals throughout the runtime. Speaking of which, I really liked the acting on display here. Crawford is shown to be a highly depended and dedicated agent, who places the well-being of his clients above everything else, even his own life. Ruth Roman's section of the story probably interested me the most, because she puts on a moving performance as a mother who faces the possibility of losing the one thing that means the most to her. It's a really dark but convincing part of the plot and should be shown to anyone who thinks old movies can't be macabre or violent. Overall, even though this movie is criminally (no pun intended) underrated, I think it's a worthy addition to the list of noir movies I've seen so far.

Three cases, one murder

[greenheart · 6/10 · 14 November 2019]

A bit of a propaganda film 'bigging up' the FBI. Touching on criminal profiling and forensics, it was a little like the birth of CSI and Criminal Minds. Once an FBI agent is shot and killed, the three cases are gently woven together. We have burglary, bribery, a blind woman and plenty of damsels in distress. Amusing to see the early technology with a video camera and sound equipment that needed a crane to lift it. With three stories in one, this was a little like a buffet. Enjoyable, but left you wanting a little more of your favourite storyline.

down 3 dark streets

[mossgrymk · 5/10 · 25 February 2022]

If it seems more like three undistinguished episodes of an undistinguished 50s TV series than a movie perhaps it's because the producers and director birthed an undistinguished 60s TV baby called "The Big Valley".

Feels kind of far fetched but with a satisfying conclusion

[jordondave-28085 · 7/10 · 20 September 2023]

(1954) Down Three Dark Streets CRIME DRAMA

Adapted from the novel "Case File: FBI" by "The Gordons" or Gordon Gordon and Mildred Gordon (who also credited for the screenplay). After an FBI agent Zack Stewart (Kenneth Tobey) gets shot and killed after attempting to solve three different cases, FBI Agent John 'Rip' Ripley played by Oscar winner, Broderick Crawford then gets assigned by his superior to take over. We find out that the murdered FBI agent also happens to be Ripley;s partner, who's investigation involves gangsters, extortion and car thieves. Far fetch plot topping it off with a satisfying conclusion.