The Toughest Man Alive (1955) User Reviews

Top Notch - Likely Lost

[Blue_Sage · 6/10 · 14 July 2005]

Saw this film on first Run in '55 at the age of twelve and for some odd reason its been with me ever since. Something to do I suspect, with setting a mark to shoot for. Simple film really and not all that different except for action and intensity, from other crime-thrillers of its time, and the only reason I'm commenting at all (my only such BTW) is that I can't bear its entry remaining completely unremarked.

Memory wanes, but surely B/W, 1:33 to 1, and no names beyond Clark & Caruso. Clark's the undercover agent sent to bust up BadGuy Yankee gun-runners in Latin America. Clark joins the mob & bulls it out till his number's up, something about a girl, big climax at the docks (HUGE FIGHT). Plenty of fistfights, gunplay, and I swear... at twelve I thought Dane Clark really WAS the toughest man alive... short, like me, but takin' nuthin' from nobody.

Caruso delivers his best Mob-Boss persona, Clark was never tougher-yet-sympathetic, even frequently sporting a pet spider-monkey which gambols lovingly about his shoulder.

Never to my knowledge on TV, Cable, Disc, or Tape, and most likely a "Lost Film". Odds are overwhelming it will never resurface. Saw a few 16mm reels of it for sale on Ebay some time back, but didn't seem worth the effort. Evidently I'm not the only one with a significant interest in this crime thriller, judging from the number of requests for it lodged with firms who specialize in locating & providing otherwise unavailable titles for the home-video market. In their professional opinion, as of this writing, no copies are known to exist.

Pity is, it ranks (in memory of course) as among the best of the 'tough-undercover-guy battles wicked-criminals' genre produced during the decade. I think maybe its impact even got me through a few tough scrapes of my own.

But, unfortunately, I guess you'll just have to take my word for it.

Dane Clark goes Undercover

[gordonl56 · 6/10 · 20 May 2016]

THE TOUGHEST MAN ALIVE 1955

This Allied Artists production stars Dane Clark, Lita Milan, Ross Elliott, Anthony Caruso and Thomas Browne Henry.

Dane Clark is a Federal Agent sent undercover to get the goods on some big time arms dealers. Clark is posing as a man, Anthony Caruso, who is being held on charges in an un-named South American country. The film is set on the San Pedro waterfront. The Feds fake an arrest of Clark and have him make a break for it. This action is to set him up as the real deal. The man Clark is posing as is Anthony Caruso. Caruso is a gunrunner who supplies weapons to anyone with cash. The Feds want the men supplying Caruso. Clark's Government contact is fellow agent, Ross Elliott.

Trouble soon comes a calling when two thugs show up to rub out Clark. The rub out is over a deal Caruso had welshed on. The gunmen don't know that Clark is not the real deal. Clark though ends the threat by hiring the pair. He then does a tour of the dock area. There he pretends to bump off a trailing Fed. This helps establish his bona fides even more with the underworld types.

Clark is soon mixed up with lounge singer, Lita Milan. Milan is the daughter of a deposed South American dictator. Milan wants Clark to help her acquire guns and ammo for a counter revolution. Also in the mix here are several Secret Service types from Miss Milan's home country. They are here to stop Milan from getting her hands on any weapons.

Now Thomas Browne Henry puts in an appearance. Browne is the front man for just the kind of big time weapons dealer Clark is after. A deal is struck for Clark to be the middleman on a half million dollar weapons sale to Miss Milan.

Now several flies in the old ointment pop up. First is that Anthony Caruso has gotten out of jail in South America. Clark's Fed contact, Ross Elliott wants to shut down the sting. The second fly is the fact that Miss Milan ends up having no cash. She wants Clark to front her the guns. Clark thinks fast and has the Feds deposit the needed cash in the bank.

Clark wants the deal to happen, and the quicker the better. The Feds figure that they have 4-5 days before Caruso might show up. Caruso, however, has heard through pals that somebody is doing business in his name. After he flies into town, he makes contact with Miss Milan. It turns out that Caruso had dealt with Milan's father back in the old days.

Matters now move quickly with Caruso planning on double dealing the Feds, Miss Milan and the weapon's dealers. We soon have cash and phony checks going in and out of the bank with Caruso getting the long green. Clark soon tumbles to Caruso's play. What follows is the mandatory amount of guns drawn, and fistfights that seems required in these low budget films. The bad guys are all rounded up with Caruso being beaten senseless first.

This low renter tries hard, but misses the mark for the most part. A better story and director would have helped. The story, by the normally reliable Steve Fisher, has no real pace to it. It relies far too often on the Clark character's narration to move the film along. Fisher, a one-time Oscar nominated writer was involved in the story or screenplay for the noir, DEAD RECKONING,LADY IN THE LAKE, THE HUNTED, ROADBLOCK, JOHNNY ANGEL, I WOULDN'T BE IN YOUR SHOES and HELL'S HALF ACRE.

Director Sidney Salkow seems to just be going through the motions here. The man had talent, which he displayed in several western and adventure films. These include, THE GOLDEN HAWK, JACK McCALL DESPERADO, SITTING BULL and THE IRON SHERIFF.

routine cliché undercover agent story....

[happytrigger-64-390517 · 5/10 · 20 July 2019]

... saved by dynamic Dane Clark. But that's not enough, the direction by Sidney salkow is absolutely flat, so is the cinematography, there's nothing inventive. All we really see is Dane Clark, explosive and tense. It seems that the director didn't prepare the movie which seems to have been shot very fast, without research. The casting is almost invisible, except Anthony Caruso and his animal Victor who have a very special scene which is the only original surprise of this quickie. You want to see a good Dane Clark? Jump on "Deep Valley", this is great work.

Actually Saw This Film In College Class In Early 80's

[jtmonty46 · 8/10 · 23 March 2007]

While a film student at Cal State Northridge, where its director Sidney Salkow taught courses, I saw this film. It was a 16mm print. The professor, Dr. John Schultheiss (now Chairman of the department) ran the fight scene that takes place in the diner and works its way into the rail yard. I remember Sidney talking about the film and another that he had directed (a "noirish" film that I can't remember the name of). It was definitely memorable. Sidney Salkow worked on Broadway before he started in film but, definitely knew how to move the action along.

Dr. Schultheiss might know whether the film is still available.

a low-budget attempt at the G-Man thriller

[Howard_B_Eale · 23 March 2009]

Dane Clark is always interesting to watch. His perpetual hangdog expression and droll line readings clash with his fairly diminutive size, making for strange anti-heroes in the films he's in (Borzage's MOONRISE being one of the very best).

And he does his best in this straightforward, occasionally pedestrian thriller about the Feds on the trail of munitions thieves, who are selling their purloined goods to resistance fighters in an unnamed South American country. Along the way, it manages to be both pro and anti-populist revolution, and almost pro-gangster, making for interesting viewing. As a thriller, it works some of the time; the best scenes involve hoods trying to outwit other hoods, with an undercover Federal man (Clark) impersonating a gun runner who plays both sides against each other if there's a dollar in it. But the cinematography and staging tends toward the pedestrian, there's not enough crackle in the screenplay, and the casting of the pneumatic Lita Milan as a torch singer/gun-buying revolutionary is ludicrous (though she provides the finest scenery in the picture). The film is buoyed by a decent amount of location photography in San Pedro, CA where the film is set, and there's a few nice character touches (the gun runner's best friend is a marmot-like creature named Victor who accompanies him everywhere).

But THE TOUGHEST MAN ALIVE leaves you hungering for something a little meatier. HOUSE OF BAMBOO it isn't, but as a low-budget time filler, it works. And I did see a print projected, so it's not an entirely lost item, though I can't imagine there are good 35mm materials left on the title.