"Private Hell 36" is a no-frills crime thriller written by Ida Lupino and producer Collier Young which was made by their independent company "The Filmmakers". The story about temptation and police corruption is well paced and provides evidence of Don Siegel's considerable directorial skills at an early stage in his career. A particularly impressive example of this is the sequence early on in the movie in which an off duty cop interrupts a drugstore robbery and gets involved in a shoot out. The depiction of what follows is stylish and tense and provides the story with an extremely gripping introduction.
When the LAPD links a $50.00 bill recovered in the attempted drugstore burglary to a major robbery carried out in New York a year earlier, further enquiries lead to a singer at a local night club. Police detectives Cal Bruner (Steve Cochran) and Jack Farnham (Howard Duff) interview the singer, Lilli Marlowe (Ida Lupino) but she's unable to provide them with a precise description of the customer who gave her the money as a tip. Soon, more of the marked bills come to light at the Hollywood Park Racetrack and this leads Captain Michaels (Dean Jagger) to assign Bruner and Farnham to accompany Lilli to the track to see if she can identify the wanted man. A number of days pass without the man being seen and during this time, Cal and Lilli become close. She's very materialistic and despite her attraction to Cal isn't convinced that a long term future with a police detective would enable her to achieve her financial aspirations.
One day Lilli sees the man they're searching for leaving the track by car and Cal and Jack follow him. After a high speed chase, the car they'd been following leaves the road and crashes and the driver is killed. The two detectives recover a metal box full of money from the vehicle and Cal, without hesitation, starts to put bundles of bills into his pockets. Jack is very nervous about being a party to what has happened but Cal subsequently takes him to a trailer park where the money is hidden (in trailer number 36) and Jack agrees to go along with the scheme, although he remains very anxious and is consumed with guilt.
Captain Michaels tells the two detectives that only $200,000 of the $300,000 stolen in New York had actually been recovered from the crashed car and deduces that the dead man must've had a partner. Shortly after this, a man claiming to be the partner telephones Cal to demand his money back. Jack doesn't want to proceed with paying the partner and suggests they hand the money in to the police and confess what they've done. Cal pays lip service to agreeing and they both go to get the money from trailer 36, where some unexpected developments bring the story to its all action climax.
"Private Hell 36" is one of those movies that certainly punches above its weight. Despite an obviously low budget and a very straight forward, pulp fiction type story, "The Filmmakers" produced an end product which turned out to be far greater than the sum of its parts. This is down to the director's skills and also some fine performances from a talented cast. Steve Cochran and Howard Duff are particularly good as the two men who both recognise the dangers of their jobs and who, for different reasons, are desperate to be better rewarded. When they discover the metal box full of money, both men are strongly tempted to steal its contents but their reactions are ultimately quite different to each other. Cochran is confident and focused as his character readily seizes the opportunity to realise his ambitions and seems totally unconcerned by any thoughts about guilt, duty or the legality of what he's doing. Duff on the other hand looks convincingly anxious and full of guilt. Dean Jagger also provides a well measured interpretation of his character's rather benign and avuncular manner which doesn't make it obvious just how well he's attuned to everything that's going on.
When the LAPD links a $50.00 bill recovered in the attempted drugstore burglary to a major robbery carried out in New York a year earlier, further enquiries lead to a singer at a local night club. Police detectives Cal Bruner (Steve Cochran) and Jack Farnham (Howard Duff) interview the singer, Lilli Marlowe (Ida Lupino) but she's unable to provide them with a precise description of the customer who gave her the money as a tip. Soon, more of the marked bills come to light at the Hollywood Park Racetrack and this leads Captain Michaels (Dean Jagger) to assign Bruner and Farnham to accompany Lilli to the track to see if she can identify the wanted man. A number of days pass without the man being seen and during this time, Cal and Lilli become close. She's very materialistic and despite her attraction to Cal isn't convinced that a long term future with a police detective would enable her to achieve her financial aspirations.
One day Lilli sees the man they're searching for leaving the track by car and Cal and Jack follow him. After a high speed chase, the car they'd been following leaves the road and crashes and the driver is killed. The two detectives recover a metal box full of money from the vehicle and Cal, without hesitation, starts to put bundles of bills into his pockets. Jack is very nervous about being a party to what has happened but Cal subsequently takes him to a trailer park where the money is hidden (in trailer number 36) and Jack agrees to go along with the scheme, although he remains very anxious and is consumed with guilt.
Captain Michaels tells the two detectives that only $200,000 of the $300,000 stolen in New York had actually been recovered from the crashed car and deduces that the dead man must've had a partner. Shortly after this, a man claiming to be the partner telephones Cal to demand his money back. Jack doesn't want to proceed with paying the partner and suggests they hand the money in to the police and confess what they've done. Cal pays lip service to agreeing and they both go to get the money from trailer 36, where some unexpected developments bring the story to its all action climax.
"Private Hell 36" is one of those movies that certainly punches above its weight. Despite an obviously low budget and a very straight forward, pulp fiction type story, "The Filmmakers" produced an end product which turned out to be far greater than the sum of its parts. This is down to the director's skills and also some fine performances from a talented cast. Steve Cochran and Howard Duff are particularly good as the two men who both recognise the dangers of their jobs and who, for different reasons, are desperate to be better rewarded. When they discover the metal box full of money, both men are strongly tempted to steal its contents but their reactions are ultimately quite different to each other. Cochran is confident and focused as his character readily seizes the opportunity to realise his ambitions and seems totally unconcerned by any thoughts about guilt, duty or the legality of what he's doing. Duff on the other hand looks convincingly anxious and full of guilt. Dean Jagger also provides a well measured interpretation of his character's rather benign and avuncular manner which doesn't make it obvious just how well he's attuned to everything that's going on.