MOVIEmeter
SEE RANK
Up 4,514 this week

Rogue Cop (1954)

6.7
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 6.7/10 from 538 users  
Reviews: 14 user | 5 critic

Detective Chris Kelvaney has a brother, Eddie, who also is a policeman. He witnessed a murderer running away from the scene of the crime. Chris has contacts with the gangster Beaumonte, who... See full summary »

Director:

Writers:

(screen play), (based on the novel by)
0Check in
0Share...

Related News

Top 10 Best Rogue Cop Movies
| Reelzchannel.com
Anne Francis obituary
| The Guardian - TV News
Anne Francis obituary
| The Guardian - Film News

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 250 titles created 23 Apr 2011
 
a list of 76 titles created 8 months ago
 
a list of 872 titles created 16 Jan 2012
 
a list of 426 titles created 5 months ago
 
a list of 7998 titles created 10 months ago
 

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: Rogue Cop (1954)

Rogue Cop (1954) on IMDb 6.7/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of Rogue Cop.
Nominated for 1 Oscar. See more awards »
Edit

Cast

Complete credited cast:
...
Det. Sgt. Christopher Kelvaney
...
Karen Stephanson
...
Dan Beaumonte
...
Eddie Kelvaney
...
Nancy Corlane
...
Det. Sidney Y. Myers
Robert F. Simon ...
Ackerman
Anthony Ross ...
Father Ahearn
...
Johnny Stark
Peter Brocco ...
George 'Wrinkles' Fallon
...
Joey Langley
Olive Carey ...
Selma
Roy Barcroft ...
Lt. Vince D. Bardeman
Dale Van Sickel ...
Manny
...
Patrolman Mullins
Edit

Storyline

Detective Chris Kelvaney has a brother, Eddie, who also is a policeman. He witnessed a murderer running away from the scene of the crime. Chris has contacts with the gangster Beaumonte, who is willing to pay $15,000 if Eddie withdraws his testimony. But Eddie is an honorable cop and refuses. Beaumonte makes sure that Eddie is killed. After his death, Kelvaney starts to track down his brother's killer. Written by Mattias Thuresson

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Genres:

Film-Noir | Crime | Drama

Certificate:

Approved | See all certifications »
Edit

Details

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

17 June 1955 (West Germany)  »

Also Known As:

Kelvaney  »

Company Credits

Production Co:

 »
Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

(Western Electric Sound System)

Aspect Ratio:

1.75 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

The first feature of Robert Ellenstein. See more »

Goofs

When Father Ahearn comes to the police station to talk to Chris, he puts his right hand on Chris's left shoulder in the over-the-shoulder shot, but the cut to the master reveals his left hand on Chris's right shoulder. See more »

Quotes

Det. Sidney Y. Myers: Do me a favor will ya crud? When homicide questions ya get stuffed... show 'em how tough ya are: make em beat it outta ya, eh?
See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.

User Reviews

 
Robert Taylor rises to a personal best in grim look at urban corruption in mid-20th century America
29 August 2004 | by (Western New York) – See all my reviews

By 1954, the noir cycle had already sounded most of its dissonant themes. Audiences had seen the crooked cop with the straight-arrow younger brother (The Man Who Cheated Himself); the shantoozie with a past (Gilda, Dead Reckoning, The Last Crooked Mile); the slick mobster beyond the reach of the law with his alcoholic, trophy mistress (Key Largo, Railroaded,The Big Heat); the street-savvy old jane who passes on scuttlebutt for a price (Pickup on South Street). But, as Roy Rowland's Rogue Cop demonstrates, there were still changes to be rung on those themes, jazzed up with fresh casting and pithy writing.

Here, the cop gone sour isn't a homicidal brute like Edmond O'Brien in the same year's Shield For Murder (both movies were adapted from books by William McGivern, as was Fritz Lang's The Big Heat). He's dapper, laid-back Robert Taylor, known by his `brothers' on the force to be on the take but given a wide berth despite it (it's the thin blue line's equivalent of omertà).

When his younger brother Steve Forrest, also a policeman, identifies a connected hit-man, Taylor receives a summons from his paymaster, crime boss George Raft. Either Forrest recants his testimony, in return for a $15-grand payoff, or he'll be killed (the accused knows too much and might sing if convicted). Upon delivering the ultimatum, Taylor gets rebuffed by Forrest; he then tries to blackmail his brother's fiancée Janet Leigh, a nightclub singer, into trying to change his mind. Taylor doesn't really want Forrest to go bad, he just doesn't want him dead.

But Raft plays tougher than Taylor imagines. Lulling Taylor into thinking he still has time, Raft has Forrest shot in the back. And so the worm turns: Using both Leigh and Raft's discarded moll Anne Francis as his allies, Taylor swears vengeance....

Crisply photographed by John Seitz, Rogue Cop burrows snugly into its rotten urban core – a city of dreadful night. With its large and aptly chosen cast, it nonetheless rests squarely on the shoulders of its central character, Taylor, who comes through with the performance of his career. At age 42, he passes muster as a burnt-out cop who's sold out for easy money – in this urban jungle, corruption is just another perk passed up only by fools -- but still has the wits and the will to spring a few surprises when cornered.

There's plenty of brutal, even sadistic, action, but Rogue Cop is less an action picture than a character study that Taylor, somewhat surprisingly, manages to pull off. With its siblings The Big Heat and Shield For Murder, Rogue Cop makes up a grim tryptich of big-town America in the mid-20th century.


24 of 26 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
What do you like about this film? pdpiechocki
The Skipper and The Professor in the Same Movie barneyo
Why is sign obsured in scene? peter-alissa
Discuss Rogue Cop (1954) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?