New faces in gloomy programmer
1 August 2024
Of the four title guys, Frank Sutton and James Franciscus are interesting to watch at the beginning of their careers. None of the four get decent billing, however.

Writer Philip Yordan is an enigma: writing famous Oscar-winning or nominated movies like 'Broken Lance", later massive 1960s epics like "El Cid' and "King of Kings", and ending up cranking out complete trash, mainly unreleasable junk like "Night Train to Terror". Here he's working with B-movie veteran William Berke on a '50s crime melodrama for United Artists, as double-feature fodder.

It begins with a robbery at a boxing arena that goes haywire, resulting in cop Joseph Campanella being killed, and the boys quickly rounded up. Rest of the picture depicts flashbacks of what led them astray -not stereotypical juvenile delinquents but boys loaded with hard luck. It makes for a dreary, downbeat hour-plus.

J. Burgi Contner delivered quality black & white photography; he later set the visual style for the TV series "Naked City". Of the other two boys, distinctive little Bill Hinnant, wearing glasses and looking sorrowful, ended up typecast; I recently saw him in a 1964 Kraft Suspense episode playing a meek killer not unlike his role here. Tarry Green as Eddie is a nonstarter: a boring performance as a selfish complainer.
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