fwdixon
"Vice Squad" starts out just fine with a promise of noir-ish crime action but quickly descends into just another so-so cop melodrama. Edward G. Robinson does his best with the poor script but his character is completely unlikeable. Paulette Goddard appears as the proprietor of an "escort service", which is a 50's euphemism for a bordello and turns in a credible performance. You'll have some fun spotting the various 40's/50's character actors that make up the rest of the cast. My biggest problem with this film is the incredibly high-handed antics of the police, who apparently never heard of the US Constitution. They consistently violate just about every article in the Bill of Rights in their pursuit of a cop killer. Poor old eyewitness Porter Hall is harassed and framed on the orders of Eddie G. When the cop killer (Ed Binns) is finally cornered, the cops save the taxpayers the cost of a trial by the simple expedient of filling him full of lead. View at your own risk!
sol1218
(Some Spoilers) On location in L.A crime drama involving a gang of hoods planing a bank robbery that's to put them on easy street for the rest of their lives.Right from the start the two head men of the bank robbery team Al Barkis, Edward Binn, and Pete Monty, Lee Van Cleef, make the big mistake of gunning down a cop-Officer Kellogg-who caught them in the process of hot wiring a car just hours the robbery was to take place. Wih Officer Kellogg later dying from his wounds you would expect both Barkis & Monty to cancel their plans in them facing a trip to the San Quentin gas chambers if caught! Instead they plan to go on with the bank robbery but keep their fellow bank robbers in the dark in their responsibly in Offcer Kellogg's murder!Unknown to both Barkis & Monty there was indeed an eye witness to the Kellogg killing the meek and secretive, in him having an affair behind his battle ax wife's back, undertaker Jack Hartkampf, Porter Hall. At the time of the Kellogg shooting Hartkampf was spending the evening at his girlfriend Vicki Webb, Joan Vosh, apartment. It was Hartkampf that LAPD Captain Barnie "Bulldog" Barnaby, Edward G. Robinson, keyed in on in breaking the case in the Kellogg killing in getting him to identify his killers. What Capt. Barnaby didn't at the time realize is that the Kellogg shooting was just to tip of the iceberg to what was to happen later in the film.Somewhat over-plotted with a lot of side stories that made the main plot, the cop killing and bank robbery, of the film a bit hard to follow but the top rate acting, especially by Eddie Robinson, and on location filming made "Vice Squad" more then worth watching. There's also Paulette Goddard as the second billed model escort agency owner Mona Ross who also happens to be an old flame of Capt. Barnaby. Goddard was on the screen for such a short period of time that you wondered why she was credited at all! With most of the cast members, not being credited, having more screen time then she did.There's' also the movie title "Vice Squad" which had nothing really to do with the film since vice was almost nonexistence, with Capt. Barnaby being in the homicide division of the LAPD, in the entire movie. The only vice I could spot in the film was that of the greasy looking gigolo Count Al Fredo Glovannie Mortova, John Verros, who was actually a con man from Cleveland. It's the "Count" who tried to marry, for her money, widow Mrs Lawson under false, in him being a European blue-blood, pretense's.***SPOILERS*** With Capt. Barnaby getting the jump on Barkis' plan to rob the bank from chickened out, in him scared of being charged with Kellogg's murder, bank robber Marty Kusalich, Adam Williams, the stage was set for a police ambush at the bank robbery site. The plan worked to perfecting with only one slight hitch; Bank teller Miss Easton, Christie White, ending up being kidnapped by Barkis & Monty the only survivors of the blotched bank robbery team. That set things up for Capt. Barnaby and his men to track down the two escaped bank robbers who were only caught with the help of their escaped kidnapped victim the almost legally blind, after accidentally breaking her glasses, Miss Easton.
Alex da Silva
The film follows a day in the life of policeman Captain Barnaby (Edward G Robinson). The main story deals with the shooting of a policeman and a bank robbery that are linked in that the same people are involved in both incidents, ie, Al (Edward Binns) and Pete (Lee Van Cleef). Jack (Porter Hall) witnesses the shooting and is continuously released and re-arrested throughout the film in order to make him talk. He doesn't want to say anything as it may mean that his wife will find out that he was visiting another woman.The title is a bit misleading as it suggests that there are brothels and prostitutes involved in the bulk of the film. In fact, Mona (Paulette Goddard) as the owner of a call girl service has a relatively small part to play in the story. I don't know why the film is called "Vice Squad". It has a few other story lines running simultaneously but the whole effect is rather weak and a bit haphazard as we keep breaking from one story to follow another - Jack of all stories but master of none. The film feels a bit empty while you are watching it.
ctosangel-2
Veteran TV series director and producer (The Rifleman, Law of the Plainsman, Gunsmoke...) Arnold Laven give to the USA fifties cinema story the first movie showing clearly a call girls house activity and that is why this picture will remain in the spectator mind. The madam is a mature Paulette Goddard at may be one of his best roles on the screen. Edward G. Robinson plays with his usual professionalism police officer Captain Barnaby. Good supporting actors, including Italian born Lee Van Cleef much before meet Sergio Leone and his famous spaghetti-western series.
