GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Steineded How sad is this?

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

XoWizIama Excellent adaptation.

evanston_dad John Bromfield, unknown to me, plays Joe, a drunken veteran who becomes the chief suspect in a series of murders plaguing his home town. The nominal back story implies that he was a once-promising golden boy gone a little bad; still, it seems implausible that everyone would so quickly be willing to turn against one of their own and assume him to be the guilty party on the flimsy evidence the police collect from the crime scene. That evidence consists almost entirely of a school ring, so everyone immediately assumes that the killer must be someone from Joe's graduating class -- apparently the idea of planting evidence never occurred to anyone. Indeed, this plot point becomes an unintentional joke, as suspect after suspect is asked "Where's your ring?" and if they're able to produce it, or merely say they still have it, everyone assumes they can't possibly be the murderer. That's some cracker jack detective work. "Crime Against Joe" has no discernible directing style and no apparent reason for existing other than as a program filler. The screenplay is just too weak, and there's not enough style in the filmmaking to compensate for the story's failings. Julie London is the film's best asset, though mostly because she's so pretty, not because her character, that of Joe's reluctant love interest, generates much interest.There's also a bizarre and somewhat inexplicable story line about a sleepwalking girl and her father's efforts to cover up his daughter's affliction, and how this cover up affects the case against Joe. Was sleepwalking something to be that ashamed of back in 1956?Grade: C

secondtake Crime Against Joe (1956)The point of seeing a B movie like this isn't always to find a great masterpiece in the rough. There are the moments or originality, the bit performances, the style of photography or writing. But there is also the glimpse into a time period that sometimes seems more real exactly because it isn't all polished up and idealized.And this is a pretty interesting, not so bad movie. It's set and shot in Tucson in 1955 (there's a calendar on one wall), a very low point for Hollywood movies, and this is coming from the fringes of that (one of the producers was the "third writer" in "Casablanca). There is one star, of sorts, a white crooner (and looker) named Julie London, who is lovely and sincere and not half bad..John Bromfield is the centerpiece, and if he's a hair clunky, this makes him kind of more believable as a good-looking guy named Joe Manning on the outs. He's an ex-soldier who thinks he's an artist but knows not a very good one. He drinks too much. He wants a woman in his life, and the movie begins with him kissing his wise mother goodnight and he goes out on the town. "Well, I'm looking for a girl," he says to the singer from the bar (another torch singer, Alika Louis, who appears here in her only movie).One of the social revelations of the movie is attitudes toward drinking and driving. Joe gets hammered while sitting in his car, drives to a diner, and is visibly drunk as a couple of cops say hello to him (one even chuckles, as if it's kind of funny). More chilling encounters with the cops come later. A killer is bumbling around town, and it looks like it's either Joe (and we don't know it) or the cops are going to think it's Joe (and it's not). It's a pretty tense situation held back only by some occasional awkwardness.What makes it work, though, is the down to earth acting because it builds up the Hitchcockian mood of a wrong man under suspicion. Witnesses misinterpret things, evidence gets piled up based on presumptions. It's good stuff. And then Joe has to figure out the crime for himself, which he applies himself to with intelligence. (His acting gets better as he sobers up.)And by the end you see why the movie has its title. It's no masterpiece, but it has enough going on to keep a movie lover glue, I'm sure.

Movie Critic B minus... I watched this only because Julie London was in it...unfortunately the movie revealed that she is not nearly as pretty as her record album covers suggest...she has sort of a wedge shaped head what looks like a bad nose job. It didn't help that she was too old for the part she plays. I now understand why she never became a film star of note.Movie: Joe is a 30s something semi-loafer who lives off his mother and paints pictures...some sort of psychopath has been killing women in the small town he lives in. He is suspected of these murders by circumstantial evidence--his year high school pin is found near one of the victims. Julie London is in a love with him (he didn't know) and supplies him with an alibi. The quack psychiatrist who over reads things into poor Joe's past is the most realistic thing that happens in this plot.A sort of living nightmare murder rap against Joe closes in around him. Believable to a degree to any one with experience in these things.In the modern world with DNA evidence and such none of this would have happened (we hope).--but I would not count it out.I suspected the fat cab driver about mid way through the thing although at this point didn't really care as this script is so lame.There is a subplot about a sleep walker and her incestuous father that leads no where. Why was it even put in--to eat up some film time maybe? = B double minus. However gets a 5 because these kinds of judicial/police malpractice and psychiatric nonsense do happen. Also witnesses lying and distorting things. If not for that it deserves a 1. One reviewer said it was filmed in 5 days; I believe it and written on the fly.OK for a quick 60 minute watch.

zardoz-13 Director Lee Sholem's "Crime Against Joe" is a modest but entertaining crime thriller about a wrongly accused guy who spends about 45 minutes in this hour long epic struggling to prove that he didn't kill a woman. Competently made, with solid production values, and polished performances, this low-budget, black & white, B-movie is a gem if you have the time. The formulaic script contains enough red herrings and provocative characters to keep you interested when it isn't distracting you from the real killer.Joe Manning (John Bromfield of "Rope of Sand") is an amiable lush who spends his time searching for a wise, funny, but innocent girl when he isn't trying to capture them in oil on canvas. Joe doesn't work for a living and lives off his mother. One evening Joe is too drunk to drive his convertible; a black & white patrol car blocks his withdrawth from a drive-in restaurant, so he continues cruising courtesy of a friendly taxi cab driver. At a bar, Joe flirts with a singer Irene Crescent (Alika Louis) and then threatens her with bodily harm before the bartender, Harry Doran (John Pickard), ushers him outside and clobbers him. George Niles (Rhodes Reasons) watches Doran as he punches Joe. George is a tall man in a cowboy hat who lost his ranch. He makes an extremely suspicious character who lurks on the periphery of the screen. Joe ambles home and encounters a beautiful woman, Christine 'Christy' Rowen (Patricia Blake), walking the streets late at night. Later, we learn that she is a sleep walker. The next day the police arrest Joe for the murder of Irene Crescent. When our protagonist tries to account for his whereabouts, the man who could clear him, Philip Rowen (Joel Ashley), refuses to oblige, because he fears the social stigma that attach to his name.Psychiatrist Dr. Louis Tatreau (Mauritz Hugo) questions Joe to determine his mental abilitr. Joe served in Korea and was the only man in his platoon to survive a battle. Joe was diagnosed with battle fatigue and learned how to paint as therapy. The outcome is pretty incriminating as far as the authorities as concerned. They produce a witness, Gloria Wayne (Joyce Jameson of "The Gauntlet") who testifies that Joe assaulted her from behind. Joe's faithful mother searches for an attorney to represent her son, but she cannot persuade one of Joe's former classmates to take his case. Everything looks bleak for our hero. Surprisingly, a car hop at a drive in (Julie London) gives Joe an alibi that springs him from jail. However, the police know that Slacks is lying to protect Joe because she loves him. Everybody in the community turns against Joe and even his doting mother suspects him.