Portland Exposé (1957)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Harold D. Schuster

Writer:

Jack DeWitt (original screenplay)

Release Date:

11 August 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Tagline:

The Whole Scorching Story...BRIBE by BRIBE...SIN by SIN...SHOCK by SHOCK!

Plot:

A tavern owner in Portland, Oregon gets involved in a struggle for power between two gangs attempting to control the unions...

Plot Keywords:

1950s | Oregon | Pedophile | Police Officer | Police

Cast

Ed Binns	...	George Madison (as Edward Binns)
Carolyn Craig	...	Ruth Madison
Virginia Gregg	...	Clara Madison
Lawrence Dobkin	...	Garnell (as Larry Dobkin)
Frank Gorshin	...	Joe
Joseph Marr	...	Larry (as Joe Marr)
Rusty Lane	...	Tom Carmody
Richard Bellis	...	Jimmy Madison (as Dickie Bellis)
Lea Penman	...	Mrs. Stoneway
Jeanne Carmen	...	Iris
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kenner G. Kemp

Runtime:

72 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Bonneville Dam, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, USA

Company:

Lindsley Parsons Picture Corporation

Hard-as-nails little low-budget noir

This is a tough look at the difference between unions and criminally controlled protection. Portland is a peculiar setting for a film noir. It works well, though: The opening narrative begins like a travelogue and gradually shifts into comments on the city's corruption.

The cast is excellent. It's not always the most beautiful looking group. The ingénue, who is pretty, wears her hair slicked back with what looks like Brylcreme. Virginia Gregg, the notable radio actress playing her mother, looks a little old for the role and tired.

It's a twisted movie, though. Catch this: Frank Gorshin, of all people, plays a hit man who is also a pedophile! That's a new one on me -- though child molestation does figure in that great classic of weirdness, film noir, and beauty "The Naked Kiss" a few years later.

The bit players add a lot. There's a scene, just a throwaway, in which a blonde playing a slot machine yells "Jackpot!" and goes into paroxysms of glee as the camera moves away and dumps her.

And the portly older gal imported to Portland to oversee the b-girl business is fabulous. We meet her as she gets off a plane and totters along in her high heels, fur stole wrapped defiantly around her. Her description of her "girls" is priceless: It prefigures the introduction Melanie Griffith provides herself in "Body Double" decades later.

Make no mistake: This is a serious movie. It was obviously done on the cheap. But it's done with great style.