A Disappointing Continuation

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Crime Against Joe is a modest noir thriller with much to be modest about. Red herrings as murder suspects are fine, but in this case too many were created in the story leaving a lot of loose ends in what should have been a more coherent script.The title character is John Bromfield a returned Korean War veteran with a severe drinking problem. That's how we first meet him, living with mom Frances Morris and trying to become a painter. Another Toulouse L'Autrec, taller, less talented and as big a boozer.But one night when Bromfield has had a snootful and gets a ride home from buddy Henry Calvin a cab driver, there's a murder of a woman and he's the number one suspect. Back in high school he was a big man on campus, but he's a flop now.Here's where it goes completely haywire. From the town drunk he sobers up real fast and with the help of Julie London a rollerskating server and singer at a fast food place he puts the pieces together.I knew Henry Calvin was in the cast. But the man with the girth best known as the rabblerouser from Ship Of Fools, the Wazir in Kismet and most of all Sergeant Garcia in Zorro is absolutely unrecognizable. That deep bass voice is not employed at all. Granted this was a program filler, but little care was taken with the preparation of Crime Against Joe.

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

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.

John Bromfield is Joe in "Crime Aganst Joe" a 1956 B film also featuring Julie London, Patricia Blair, Joyce Jameson, Alika Louis, Rhodes Reason and Henry Calvin. Bromfield plays an artist who lives off of his mother (Frances Morris) and laments not being able to find the perfect woman. When a bar singer (Louis) winds up dead after he's left the bar dead drunk, his high school pin is found next to her body. He then becomes a person of interest to the police. Joe has an alibi - he actually ran into a sleepwalker (Blair) and returned her to her home, but her father lies to the police about it. Joe is then arrested. Joe's waitress friend Slacks (London) lies to the police about seeing the singer with someone else, and Joe is released. He's determined to find out the identity of the killer - someone from his high school class.Supposedly the story was by Decla Dunning and the script was by Robert C. Dennis. I'd love to know which one was responsible for the sleepwalker bit and that whole subplot of the overly possessive father who discourages his daughter's dates - it's a riot. That plot line just sort of died out and wasn't fully resolved. And that business of the high school pin...well, this is a pretty flimsy film, and I figured it out fairly quickly. It's made very cheaply, too - the sound in all the interiors has an echo. Julie London is slightly miscast as the waitress friend - if the singer hadn't gotten killed after just one song and a few lines, London would have been perfect for that role, and it would have given her a chance to be her usual glamorous self. The murdered singer, however, played by Alika Louis, is very attractive and a great type. Blair as the poor repressed sleepwalker is very pretty in full makeup and perfectly coiffed hair as she sleepwalks in her nightgown. Bromfield's acting is loud and not very good or believable, but I liked Frances Morris, who played his mother. Nice of her to support him, but from the looks of those canvasses, he wasn't going to be making much of a living painting.Not very good.