For some reason, I find myself time and time again enjoying movies that others seem to have a mediocre opinion of. I can sense if a movie is something to write home about because the well written characters, storyline, and everything else all come together to create something impressive. The story in this film might not be that memorable, but for whatever reason, I hold Down Three Dark Streets in high regard compared to other, lackluster movies I've seen lately. Like always I'll start with the plot, which is centered around an FBI agent named John (Broderick Crawford), whose associate, Zack Stewart is murdered one night by a gunman hiding in a shrub. Zack had his hands full and was working on three separate cases for the Bureau, and these cases are taken up by John, thinking that by solving them, it will point him to his partner's killer. This basically means the film contains three story arcs in one. The first one has to do with John attempting to track down a criminal named Joe, who shot a gas station worker early in the film. Arguably the most interesting one has John attempting to find out who is blackmailing a department store worker named Kate (Ruth Roman). The man on the phone says he'll kill Kate's young daughter if she doesn't comply. The last plot has to do with John trying to catch some hooligans who steal cars for a living. Concerning the first plot, John tracks down Connie Anderson (Martha Hyer), an attractive woman who used to be Joe's lover (and still receives gifts from him). Although she plays dumb at first, the truth soon comes out and John discovers through a recording that she has known Joe. John takes Zack's replacement along with him to Joe's hideout, which they were able to locate because they shadowed Connie and followed her there. Joe is shot to death, and this case is solved. The second case gets solved last, so I will cover it later. The car hijacking case has John paying a visit to the wife of a criminal named Vinnie Angelino (Gene Reynolds). Mrs. Angelino is told her husband, who is technically innocent, will get out of prison if he'll simply cooperate and tell the cops who wanted him to steal cars. Meanwhile, Julie (Vinnie's blind wife) is being intimidated by a thug named Matty who doesn't want her husband to give the names to the cops. He eventually beats her, and when both Matty and Vinnie are brought in for questioning, the latter goes berserk. Now feeling no pity for him, Vinnie agrees to tell the cops who Matty really is and what he did. Finally, the third plot involves Kate, who is being tormented by anonymous phone calls saying that if she doesn't give up insurance money, her daughter will be murdered. She tells the FBI, and it's up to John to try and protect her. He seems to think the suspect can be one of several people, including Dave (her boyfriend) or even the mailman. Eventually, after analyzing all the tapes and recordings the FBI has saved, they're confident the killer is within their grasp, but the caller phones Kate again and says she better not squeal to the feds anymore. He also tells her to leave the insurance money in a box under the letter W in the famous Hollywood sign. When she arrives there, she finds out the anonymous caller was actually Dave the entire time. John shows up just in time and makes him flee, causing his arrest. While I thought this movie was quite good, a lot of people didn't seem to think so. Most notably was J Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI himself. For what reason, I can't imagine. The FBI is actually portrayed positively in it, with John managing to bag three criminals throughout the runtime. Speaking of which, I really liked the acting on display here. Crawford is shown to be a highly depended and dedicated agent, who places the well-being of his clients above everything else, even his own life. Ruth Roman's section of the story probably interested me the most, because she puts on a moving performance as a mother who faces the possibility of losing the one thing that means the most to her. It's a really dark but convincing part of the plot and should be shown to anyone who thinks old movies can't be macabre or violent. Overall, even though this movie is criminally (no pun intended) underrated, I think it's a worthy addition to the list of noir movies I've seen so far.
Review of Down Three Dark Streets
