BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

edwagreen After breaking a news-story about someone talking to the government about the mob leads to an assassination of the would-be stool pigeon, the reporter, Dan Duryea, who leaked the story is fired and goes to a small-town to a newspaper run by Gale Storm whose father had just died. He immediately takes over and soon becomes involved in a murder mystery when the daughter-in-law of wealthy paper magnate, Herbert Marshall, is murdered.We immediately find out who has carried out the dastardly deed and the link is there when the murderer turns to help from the same mobster who had killed the man Duryea had exposed.Marshall shows his usually icy veneer and one wonders what was really going on between himself and the daughter-in-law.For myself, the ending came too quickly.

lrrap One might choose to ponder the social messages that this film supposedly contains---witch hunts, HUAC investigations, etc---but I'd recommend that you just sit back and enjoy a terrific, well-plotted and fast-moving film.Not to ignore any social issues that the film might have intended to address, but you're really spinning yer' wheels over very little if you spend too much time looking for them. True, the innocent black maid is framed for murder (and, indeed, Gar Moore's despicable character even utters the "N" word), but it strikes me as just another compelling element in this very intense drama (and if they wanted to make a big social point, why didn't they hire an actual black actress for the part, I wonder?)Dan Duryea was born to play the role of Mike Reese; he totally dominates the film, and brilliantly. Gale Storm is pretty and has a nice, simple charm about her, but she's totally out of her league alongside Duryea, Herbert Marshall, Howard da Sylva, and Michael O'Shea.Speaking of da Sylva's role, several other reviewers have cited his "scenery chewing"; I disagree, and strongly. DaSylva, a first-rate actor, is a model of control: suave, witty, affable...a facade which barely manages to conceal a razor-sharp hostility just beneath the surface. It's a masterful, if fairly brief, performance. Also, it's fascinating to watch "Underworld Story" and discover why the classic "Night of the Hunter" (1955) looks the way it does. Stanley Cortez's bleak, stylized cinematography adds immensely to the atmosphere of "Underworld", especially the near-expressionistic look of the streets and buildings of the town where most of the action takes place."Underworld Story" should be regarded as a stand-out example of classic, late 40-s noir.

clore_2 Mike Reese is a reporter who is about as sleazy as they come. He must be, he's played by Dan Duryea in the Cy Endfield noir gem. Chuck Tatum of ACE IN THE HOLE has nothing on Mike - except that he probably makes a bigger salary.Mike's lost his job because given some confidential info about a mobster's secret testimony, Mike runs it in the paper that employs him which causes the bad guys to know just where to ambush the man testifying. Sure, the paper is equally at fault, but they'll get off by printing an apology, Mike's the scapegoat.With a stake provided by the local New England gangster who benefited most from the silenced witness, Mike buys into another suburban newspaper. Shortly thereafter, the murder of the daughter-in-law of a prominent publisher and the cover-up, as well as the innocent black woman accused of that murder, has Mike manipulating all in his path to make his way back to the top and a few bucks on the side.As the guilty person says of the accused: "She's a n-word, who is going to take her word over ours?" This one is that gritty, but it moves with B movie speed not trying to make a social statement. Or is it? What happened to director Endfield, having to relocate to England owing to HUAC, has some reviewers reading "witch hunt" into the narrative. But if one didn't know the personal history, it's a riveting tale anyway that reveals the levels and layers of corruption and also of the depths of sacrifice. Subtext is just as often the baggage one brings to a film as opposed to what the director installs.Gale Storm, Herbert Marshall, Harry Shannon, Michael O'Shea and Howard da Silva in what seems to be a return to the kind of character he played in THE BLUE DAHLIA all figure prominently. Mary Anderson plays the accused black woman and there's a bit of irony now in that casting (beyond her being Caucasian) - her brother James Anderson played the vicious Bob Ewell in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. She would also play Duryea's wife in CHICAGO CALLING a couple of years later. Both films are highly recommended.

bmacv Deceptively titled, The Underworld Story boasts only tenuous connections to organized crime. It's a newspaper story that centers around a high-profile murder with racial overtones. But its crusading tone and topical allusions never grow strident and don't overwhelm some adroit plotting and incisive character study.Big-city reporter Dan Duryea finds himself in a jam that makes him persona non grata to his newspaper, the district attorney's office and underworld boss Howard Da Silva. Broke and blacklisted, he buys himself a partial stake in a struggling community paper, The Lakewood Gazette, owned by Gale Storm, who's put off by his brash ways and temporizing ethics. But a headline story breaks right there in the idyllic New England town: The daughter-in-law of press baron Herbert Marshall has been murdered, and Duryea seizes the chance to run with the scoop.It's not a whodunit, though; the killer, it's clear from the outset, is Marshall's snivelling son (Gar Moore, who sounds like HAL the computer). But when the murdered woman's black maid (Mary Anderson) goes missing, Marshall sees opportunity to whip up public sentiment against her. Storm, who knew the maid, trusts in her innocence; Duryea, on the other hand, waits to see which outcome might profit him most. When The Gazette starts a defense fund for Anderson, Marshall and his son start running scared and seek a favor from Da Silva to put a stop to the tenacious Duryea, who's been won over by Storm....The Underworld Story's a modest movie that's well put together (it looks great, too, photographed by Stanley Cortez, who also shot The Magnificent Ambersons and Night of the Hunter). But it belongs to Duryea, who could play affable but slithery better than anybody, and his twists and turns keep us guessing. Reminiscent of ‘30s socially-conscious cinema more than film noir, The Underworld Story also shows that decade's story-telling verve. It's been purged of preaching, so when one character remarks `Looks like they're burning witches again,' we suddenly recall that its release came in the midst of the Hollywood anti-Communist witch hunt, and that at least two of its principals – director Cy Endfield and Da Silva – were among its victims.