(Some Spoilers) San Francisco boat shop owner Dennis O'Brien hasn't been doing any business lately due to the sagging post-war economy on the docks. Supplementing his day job as a private dick Dennis get's a lot more work and action, as well as women, that he ever expected in that deary and empty shop of his.
The film "Pier 23" has our hero Dennis together with his constantly drunk companion Prof. Shicker get involved and eventually solve two different murder cases. The first has to do with an escapee from the "Rock"-Alcatraz Island Federal Penitentuary-who ends up dead in a shoot-out at the swanky Nubian Club in downtown San Francisco. The escaped convict was out to get some $5,000.00 in bookie money that the manager of the Nubian Club ripped him out off while he was in prison.
The second murder case involves Dennis solving the mystery of why a professional wrestler-Willie Klingle-was not only allowed to wrestle despite having a serious heart condition but then purposely murdered in the ring by his opponent the guerrilla-like Ape Danowski. It later comes out that Willie was assured by the wrestling promoter Nick Garrison that the "Fix" was in and that Ape was going to throw the match.
In both cases, or episodes, Dennis is constantly harassed and badgered by SF police inspector Lt. Bruger who's more interested in pinning the murders on Dennis, without any proof whats so ever, instead of finding the actually perpetrators!
The film is very hard to follow since you have no idea that your watching two, not one, movies at the same time until its just about over. Dennis is so cool at his job as a private detective that he comes across as if he's totally detached from reality. Only once did Dennis, in all the tight spots he found himself in the movie, show any real fear or emotion. That's when Ape Danowski grabbed Dennis in a python-like headlock almost squeezing the life out of him.
Dennis' good friend and leg-man or the guy who dug, or drank up, all the information for him Prof. Shicker ,who's always chasing out the bars in the neighborhood, was the obviously comedy relief in the movie. Alaways on target with his tips Prof. Shicker's ability to stay lucid, in spite of him always being drunk, and on top of things made him a valuable asset in Dennis' unique and unorthodox crime solving methods.
The film "Pier 23" has our hero Dennis together with his constantly drunk companion Prof. Shicker get involved and eventually solve two different murder cases. The first has to do with an escapee from the "Rock"-Alcatraz Island Federal Penitentuary-who ends up dead in a shoot-out at the swanky Nubian Club in downtown San Francisco. The escaped convict was out to get some $5,000.00 in bookie money that the manager of the Nubian Club ripped him out off while he was in prison.
The second murder case involves Dennis solving the mystery of why a professional wrestler-Willie Klingle-was not only allowed to wrestle despite having a serious heart condition but then purposely murdered in the ring by his opponent the guerrilla-like Ape Danowski. It later comes out that Willie was assured by the wrestling promoter Nick Garrison that the "Fix" was in and that Ape was going to throw the match.
In both cases, or episodes, Dennis is constantly harassed and badgered by SF police inspector Lt. Bruger who's more interested in pinning the murders on Dennis, without any proof whats so ever, instead of finding the actually perpetrators!
The film is very hard to follow since you have no idea that your watching two, not one, movies at the same time until its just about over. Dennis is so cool at his job as a private detective that he comes across as if he's totally detached from reality. Only once did Dennis, in all the tight spots he found himself in the movie, show any real fear or emotion. That's when Ape Danowski grabbed Dennis in a python-like headlock almost squeezing the life out of him.
Dennis' good friend and leg-man or the guy who dug, or drank up, all the information for him Prof. Shicker ,who's always chasing out the bars in the neighborhood, was the obviously comedy relief in the movie. Alaways on target with his tips Prof. Shicker's ability to stay lucid, in spite of him always being drunk, and on top of things made him a valuable asset in Dennis' unique and unorthodox crime solving methods.