A corrupt waterfront union, an informer pushed to his death, a carefully coached court witness pointing the crime away from guilty labor bosses: Delusions of ON THE WATERFRONT/’54 from tv director Sidney Salkow on this one; and three years too late to catch any wake. It does start well, with glistening afternoon & nighttime urban Chicago locations as a ‘white collar’ informer is trapped by mob guys before he can drop those incriminating ledgers on the lap of State’s Attorney Brian Keith. Too bad the rest of the film can’t stay in the dirty streets where someone (second-unit director Milton Carter?, soon after working NIGHT OF THE HUNTER and THE KILLING) manages to put out film noir images rather than the compressed grey-scale of apartment & office interiors seen in most of the rest of the film. Dull, dull, dull . . . when the plot doesn’t strain credulity.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: See low-budget stylist Joseph Lewis pull off this sort of thing in THE BIG COMBO/’55. Lewis makes it look easy, but as CONFIDENTIAL shows, it ain’t. And Sam Fuller might have given the exciting paperback cover (see above) a run for its money.
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