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:

Two Billion Dollar Crime Dynasty! An Evil Empire Exposed In a Blistering New Motion Picture!

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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:

La ley del hampa

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--he 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 Typewriter, the Rifle & the Movie Camera (1996)

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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

one of those finite definitions of a gritty B-noir, done just right

Writer/director Samuel Fuller is not personally attached to the material he presents in Underworld USA in the sense of it being autobiographical. But it is pretty likely, from listening to interviews with him and just from seeing his other work in the noir-esquire realm of motion pictures, that he knew at least the world these characters are in. Or at least he knows what kinds of emotions and what lies underneath certain aspects of lesser pulp fiction- and has a kind of journalistic sensibility that is all his own, telling it like it is from the mean streets of who-knows. It's got an assured eye working the gears, and it by-passes some usual clichés to get at some more interesting bits within some of the conventions. This is in the bones just a tale of revenge, but Fuller wants the little things and moments that make up such a tale, and how the characters can be more realized than might usually be. I liked, for example, early on when Tolly Devlin is 14 and makes a comment to his mother about something in the middle of their conversation- the mother doesn't say anything, but there's a quick, tight close-up of her face to catch the moment. It actually stuck with me longer than I expected, even as the main parts of the scene went along.

Another part that really, really impressed me was when Devlin (Cliff Robertson, not bad at all in a part that gets to stretch his skills somewhat), nearing the end of his prison term, and finally finds one of the men who beat his father to death when he saw when he was 14. The scene is very tense, but somehow very human too, as Tolly has to contend with a dying man that he has to kill with his own hands. Soon, Fuller gets the gears of the story going further, as he vows revenge against the others who committed the crime, making him pull an undercover act to infiltrate the mob to get close to them, particularly Earl Conners (Rober Emhardt, a plum role for him considering all of his TV parts). But he also falls for a woman, Cuddles, played by Dolores Day, and like Fuller's Crimson Kimono, the weight of the main thrust of what Tolly needs is balanced against what he could also have with his possible romantic interest, caught up in the emotional bog he's in.

I liked a lot how Robertson tapped well enough into the character to make him plausible, even sympathetic. He understands what Fuller is going for, a slightly more realistic- or more powerful kind of representation in the midst of the hard-boiled dialog and more complicated scenes- as he's playing a character who actually has a past, a childhood shown as shattered and made as the complete context that he has to contend with as an adult, despite women around him telling him otherwise. I still remember plenty of shots in the film too (not the gun-shots, the camera-work I mean), and this is after having seen the film months ago, and the driving musical score from Harry Sukman (a solid Fuller collaborator). That Fuller extracts a good deal of compelling entertainment out of a premise that seems pretty standard and even slight is remarkable, and ranks among the other fine superlative B-movies he was doing at the time.