Underworld U.S.A. (1961)

A teenager who witnesses the murder of his father vows to exact revenge on the four mobsters involved in the killing.

Director:

Samuel Fuller

Writer:

Samuel Fuller

Stars:

Cliff Robertson, Dolores Dorn, Beatrice Kay

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Cliff Robertson	...	Tolly Devlin
Dolores Dorn	...	Cuddles
Beatrice Kay	...	Sandy
Paul Dubov	...	Gela
Robert Emhardt	...	Earl Connors
Larry Gates	...	John Driscoll
Richard Rust	...	Gus Cottahee
Gerald Milton	...	Gunther
Allan Gruener	...	Smith
David Kent	...	Tolly - Aged 14
Tina Pine	...	Woman (as Tina Rome)
Sally Mills	...	Connie Fowler
Robert P. Lieb	...	Police Chief Fowler
Neyle Morrow	...	Barney
Henry Norell	...	Prison Dr. Meredeth

Storyline

Fourteen-year-old Tolly Devlin sees four hoods beat his father to death. Twenty years later, the killers have risen to the top of the crime syndicate and Tolly has a plan for revenge.

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Plot Keywords:

syndicate | death | revenge | loss of loved one | clenched fist | 

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Taglines:

The Facts...The Faces...The Film That Cracks America's Organized Crime Syndicate Wide Open!

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

March 1961 (USA)

Also Known As:

Underworld U.S.A.

Filming Locations:

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Globe Enterprises

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Hanging on the wall in Driscoll's office is a certificate bearing the symbol of the U.S. Army's First Infantry Division - the unit that Samuel Fuller served in during World War II and depicted in The Big Red One (1980). The same type style for the infantry's numeral "1" is also featured in a reading campaign poster in front of National Accounts, the gangster headquarters building.

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Goofs

[All goofs for this title are spoilers.]

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Quotes

Sandy: Why don't you take a good look at yourself. What do you see? A doctor? A scientist? A businessman? You see a scar-faced ex-con. A two-bit safecracker. A petty thief who don't know when he really made the big time. Where do you come off to blast her? No matter what she's been, what she's done. She's a giant! And you wanna know why? Well, I'll tell ya. Because she sees something in you worth saving. If only one tenth of one percent of all the good in her could rub off on you, you'd be a giant, ...

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Connections

Featured in The Best of Film Noir (1999)

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Soundtracks

Auld Lang Syne
(uncredited)
Written by Robert Burns
Heard as a theme when Tolly's father's body is taken away; played by one of Sandy's dolls; also heard when Tolly's body is in the alleyway

User Reviews

Raw and Ruthless Samuel Fuller Masterpiece

From its brisk opening, this dark and seamy underworld drama moves like a well-oiled machine, laying out and glorifying Cliff Robertson's revenge tactics to punish the men who killed his father.

Not unlike John Boorman's "Point Blank" which also featured an almost cyborg-natured Lee Marvin punishing the bigshot criminal overlords who did him wrong, here the pursuit is more humanized but suffers no slack as Robertson gives an extraordinary performance.

With a glinty-eyed, crooked smile and a gleeful look which seems to creep into his face as he torments his victims, Robertson suggests a little of Mel Gibson's instability in the first "Lethal Weapon", but without the looniness. His more understated moments are not only very realistic, but are the epitome of cool. Robertson can definitely smoke cigarettes better than anybody.

Fuller's direction is taut, featuring plenty of creative cinematography and a lot of sequences which are far more ahead of their time than the majority of crime films being made around 1961. As always, Fuller manages to tell his story with both hysteria and pathos. This is definitely a must-see for fans of Don Siegel's work or the crime films of Phil Karlson and Anthony Mann. "Underworld USA" could very well share a double bill with John Flynn's "The Outfit" as well. Superb stuff.