Sadly Over-hyped

Load of rubbish!!

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

I am a great lover of Phil Karlson's movies, always a lot of tension, tough fights, and he often studies corruption in USA (remember the true story in "the Phenix City Story"). "99 River Street" is certainly one of his best movies thanks to a tense script with lot of twists. The casting is fabulous : John Payne is tougher than ever. There are some sex scenes quite unusual. I really don't understand why there isn't any book on Phil Karlson, he is one of the true masters of B movies.

An ex-boxer struggles to get his life back on track in this gritty, hardboiled drama that's fast-moving, realistic and sometimes brutal. His efforts are constantly frustrated, however, by the hand that fate deals him and then things get even worse when his bitterness and self-pity make him bad-tempered and dangerously violent. This movie opens strongly with a well-filmed boxing match and closes impressively with a memorable climax. In between, its no-nonsense style, sharp dialogue and shadowy locations are perfect for this type of material and contribute enormously to its edgy atmosphere.Ernie Driscoll (John Payne) is the ex-pug who was leading on points and desperately close to winning the world heavyweight title when an eye injury brought an end to his challenge and his career. A few years later, he works as a cab driver and saves what he can to buy his own gas station but his acquisitive wife Pauline (Peggie Castle) sneers at his aspirations. She works in a flower shop and is having an affair with a thief called Victor Rawlins (Brad Dexter) who, after stealing some diamonds, takes her with him to a pet shop owned by his fence Christopher (Jay Adler). Unfortunately, Christopher doesn't believe in doing business where women are involved and so refuses to pay Victor the $50,000 he was expecting and thwarts the couple's plan to use the money to go and live in style in Paris.Ernie regularly frequents a drugstore where he has coffee with his long-time friend, Stan Hogan (Frank Faylen) who's a dispatcher at the cab company and also sees Linda James (Evelyn Keyes) who's an ambitious young actress. One day, when Linda tells him she's in trouble because she'd accidentally killed a theatre producer who was being too forceful in making advances to her, he agrees to help. Linda takes him to the theatre where he sees the body lying on the stage and Linda goes on to explain precisely what happened. Ernie offers to help her to dispose of the body, but at that point, the house lights come on and it becomes obvious that the whole incident is a hoax. Ernie becomes furious and after punching a few guys to the ground, leaves the premises.A little while later, an apologetic Linda tells Ernie that the stunt at the theatre was set up as her audition for a part in an upcoming play and that the police are looking for him because the theatre people had reported the assaults hoping that the resultant publicity would translate into higher ticket sales. Ernie's troubled by this but matters get much worse when he and Linda discover Pauline's dead body in the back of his cab and the couple have to set off on a search to find the real culprit before Ernie gets apprehended for the crime.One of the main strengths of this movie is the convincing way in which the fight sequences are executed as effective camera angles and realistic sounds add greatly to the power of these brutal encounters. John Payne is also very believable as a tough guy who, after suffering the huge disappointments involved with the way his boxing career ended, was betrayed by his wife, provoked into a series of assault charges and then framed for his wife's murder. These attributes plus the movie's excellent supporting cast and a script that's overflowing with quotable lines are just some of the reasons why "99 River Street" is an above average crime drama that's extremely enjoyable to watch.

Payne is a boxer-turned-cabbie married to Peggie Castle but falling in love with Evelyn Keyes. Castle plays the unfaithful wife who has hooked up with crook Brad Dexter; and Keyes is an aspiring actress who gets Payne involved in a murder plot. The two stories gradually become intertwined, and once more we have Payne trying to clear himself of wrong-doing. This film features several standout performances from character actors in supporting roles. In addition to Dexter, we have Jay Adler playing a clever crime boss, and Frank Faylen as Payne's boss at the local cab company. The action culminates in a tense standoff along a pier located at a dangerous address referenced in the title.

Like Powell before him, John Payne got a second wind in gritty noir films like "99 River Street". Apparently, their boyish charm, and maybe their voices, began to fail them and renewed their careers as hard-boiled tough guy heroes. The only difference is that, unlike Powell, Payne's characters are usually losers (The Crooked Way, Kansas City Confidential).Here, Payne is a prize fighter who loses his last bout and also his unfaithful wife (Peggy Castle), and matters go downhill from there. He becomes enmeshed in robbery and murder, as misfortune piles upon misfortune in a classic noir scenario. Brad Dexter has a good role as the villain and the picture was directed by Phil Karlson, who directed Payne's previous film (KC Confidential), and keeps the picture moving at a good clip.The only drawback I felt was Evelyn Keyes, who plays Payne's newfound girlfriend. She tended to overact and seemed too fragile in the midst of a good deal of action, more than normally found in a film of this type. This is one of the better films of the genre, not far behind "Out Of The Past", my personal favorite.