What makes it different from others?

That was an excellent one.

Good concept, poorly executed.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This United Artists release in 1957 was certainly a timely one for the headlines. I well remember back in the day the Labor Racketeering hearings in the US Senate headed by John McClellan with Robert F. Kennedy as the counsel and his brother and next president also sitting on the committee. Organized crime's involvement with labor unions was a big news at the time.In the fictional union talked about in this film which we never learn what it is or what industry it is for, honest president Dick Foran is framed for the murder of his friend whom he was sending to the state's attorney with information. The mobbed up vice president Douglas Kennedy then takes over and the strong arm tactics against the membership and the businesses begin.Fortunately for Foran the state's attorney is Brian Keith who is a man of conscience who actually wants to see justice as opposed to rolling up convictions. Even though he's being mentioned for governor Keith starts questioning his own conviction first with a voice identification of Foran.Said identification was bogus the product of comedian Buddy Lewis who works in mob clubs. Also derelict Elisha Cook, Jr. after giving perjured testimony is killed. It's a race against time as the mob starts plugging up potential leaks in their usual fashion.Besides those mentioned three women have prominent roles. Phyllis Coates as Keith's wife and Beverly Garland and Beverly Tyler as a pair of B girls who are witnesses against Foran.Chicago Confidential is a well paced B picture with an impressive cast giving a good ensemble effort. A historical curiosity as well given the time the film was made.

I'm really glad that crime movies of the B or lower grades are showing up. Hence the six stars. But this movie felt flat. It never drew me in.It's one of those in which an unseen narrator tells us about the crime that was sweeping big cities and the police/government officials/fill in the blank who were wiping it out.Brian Keith could be a fine noir hero but his performance feels uninspired. The movie boasts some great actresses of the tough-girl school. They too seem underused.The narration is almost a self-parody. It is so stern and humorless it presages the announcer on "Laugh-in" and some later intentional funny movies.I didn't buy this movie. Not sure why. But thanks for bringing it out of the vault, anyway. And keep 'em coming!

The "Confidential" part was meant to piggy-back on the popular appeal of the lurid magazine of the same name, while the labor racketeering theme tied in with headline Congressional investigations of the day. However, despite the A-grade B-movie cast and some good script ideas, the movie plods along for some 73 minutes. It's a cheap-jack production all the way. What's needed to off-set the poor production values is some imagination, especially from uninspired director Sidney Salkow. A few daylight location shots, for example, would have helped relieve the succession of dreary studio sets. A stylish helmsman like Anthony Mann might have done something with the thick-ear material, but Salkow treats it as just another pay-day exercise. Too bad that Brian Keith's typical low-key style doesn't work here, coming across as merely wooden and lethargic. At the same time, cult figure Elisha Cook Jr. goes over the top as a wild-eyed drunk. Clearly, Salkow is no actor's director. But, you've got to hand it to that saucy little number Beverly Garland who treats her role with characteristic verve and dedication. Too bad, she wasn't in charge. My advice-- skip it, unless you're into ridiculous bar-girls who do nothing else but knock back whiskeys in typical strait-jacketed 50's fashion.

There's nothing particularly original about this story of corrupt unions on one side and the "chief attorney" on the other. The stark but unimaginative lighting and photography stems from the fagged out noir cycle. The story could easily have been out of a Warner Brothers drawer with George Raft in the lead. The performances are routine, the direction flat, and even the set dressing perfunctory. (An alley is shown by a single plaster wall of simulated brick. It has one poster on it. The poster says, "Post No Bills.") We are introduced to the story and some of the characters by a portentous narrator who informs us that, while most unions work hard and honestly to advance the causes of their members, a few are corrupt. But we don't really get to know much about the unions or how they operate, although I suppose they were fair game after the success of "On the Waterfront" a few years earlier. Here they're just a peg to hang the tale on. The real ring leader is a disbarred lawyer who runs things through three or four thugs. The District Attorney (or whatever he is) finds out, like Dana Andrews did in "Boomerang," that the wrong man (Dick Foran) is charged with a murder and he spends the rest of the film almost alone, digging up evidence of Foran's innocence. He gets into fist fights and shoot outs like any inexpensive movie private eye.Brian Keith is the D.A. He's shown some insinuating displays of talent elsewhere, but here he spends most of the time speaking quietly and staring at the floor. Elisha Cook, Jr., is a likable rummy but can't do a good drunk. Beverley Garland is okay but is undermined by the direction, which has her gawking in a night club when she should be furtive. The remainder of the cast would be suitable for a TV series.And nobody is helped by the writing. When a "B girl" is about to be shipped by the union mob to the Filippines, someone advises her that she only has to learn a few words of Spanish. "I only know one word," she says, "Si. Yes." The writers have not trusted the audience to know that "si" in Spanish means "yes." The plot is clumsy and has holes in it. Keith visits a witness in her flat over a night club. He enters the door and has a gun shoved in his back by a yegg, but he outwits the heavy and knocks him out. Then the orders someone to call the police. The rest of the scene, played out at some length in the night club downstairs, forgets all about the police and they never show up, nor are they expected by anyone.It's nothing to be ashamed of, and some people might enjoy it, but there is similar stuff, better done, elsewhere.