The title of the picture is short and to the point, the film is appropriately crafted for viewers with a disciplined attention span who just want to get it over with. Lawrence Tierney is all menace here as Vincent Lubeck, freed on parole after a five year stretch against the better judgment of a warden and parole board who've allowed themselves to be influenced by the convincing sob story of a mother who's duty it is to stand up for her son. We'll see how this relationship turns out later, but for now, real life brother Ed Tierney rides to the rescue with a job offer at his filling station with the kind of upward mobility that comes with being located across the street from a bank. I had a sense that pumping gas wasn't Vince's forte when he doused a customer's car with a couple of gallons when he complained about the service. It would have been a worse career move had he been a smoker.
Vince does his level best to convince us that he has no redeeming qualities whatsoever by chewing up and spitting out his brother's girlfriend, leading her to suicide following a rape resulting in pregnancy. As an equal opportunity womanizer, he moves in on a bank secretary (Marjorie Riordan) to firm up plans for the big heist. I always get a kick out of these era films where the crime in progress is the subject of newspaper headlines in real time, a feat that took at least another half century to realize with the advent of the internet.
You can do better than "The Hoodlum" if masterful crime drama is your thing, but for pure sleaze factor, it doesn't get much better than this. Had the elder Tierney cracked a smile even once I would have been disappointed. This one is pure hard boiled and as gritty as they come, and even though it may not stand up to serious scrutiny, how bad can a film be when it winds up at the city dump.
Vince does his level best to convince us that he has no redeeming qualities whatsoever by chewing up and spitting out his brother's girlfriend, leading her to suicide following a rape resulting in pregnancy. As an equal opportunity womanizer, he moves in on a bank secretary (Marjorie Riordan) to firm up plans for the big heist. I always get a kick out of these era films where the crime in progress is the subject of newspaper headlines in real time, a feat that took at least another half century to realize with the advent of the internet.
You can do better than "The Hoodlum" if masterful crime drama is your thing, but for pure sleaze factor, it doesn't get much better than this. Had the elder Tierney cracked a smile even once I would have been disappointed. This one is pure hard boiled and as gritty as they come, and even though it may not stand up to serious scrutiny, how bad can a film be when it winds up at the city dump.