Instant Favorite.

Expected more

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

"Crime Wave" is a rock solid little crime melodrama with a cracking pace and a time honoured theme of an ex-con trying to go straight. Its characters are tough and memorable and there are some great moments for not just the leads but the other performers as well. It doesn't have a lot of action but it's just as moody as the best films of its kind and fairly brutal at times. The cast is excellent right down the line; you come to admire Steve Lacey (Gene Nelson) for attempting to get his life back in order and hate his scummy associates for drawing him right back into the crime game.Sterling Hayden is enjoyably cranky, hard-boiled detective Lt. Sims, who subscribes to the idea that "once a con, always a con", and applies it to Lacey, who is visited by thugs including "Doc" Penny (Ted de Corsia), Ben Hastings (Charles Bronson), and Gat Morgan (Nedrick Young). Soon Lacey realizes that he's going to have to go along with Penny and his plans to rob a bank as the gang threatens Lacey's wife Ellen (Phyllis Kirk).This eclectic cast also includes Jay Novello, in a standout supporting performance as slimy veterinarian Otto Hessler, who's tired of humanity and now prefers to tend to the needs of animals, as well as James Bell as Lacey's parole officer, Dub Taylor in a typically hearty turn as a jovial gas station attendant, and legendary eccentric Timothy Carey in a deliciously creepy portrayal of lowlife Johnny Haslett. Bronson is fun as swaggering punk Hastings. Keep an eye out for Hank Worden and Iris Adrian as well.Efficient direction by Andre De Toth (who'd previously worked with Bronson on the horror classic "House of Wax"), impressive hand-held camera-work and use of real L.A. locations all aid in the storytelling in this taut and stylish production.Eight out of 10.

Andre De Toth directed this film noir, shot on real locations. Sterling Hayden stars as no-nonsense police detective Lt. Sims, who is on the trail of three recent prison escapees known to be in the area, since they held up a gas station and shot a motorcycle patrolman. A former con now trying to go straight(played by Gene Nelson) is contacted by both the fugitives and Sims for his help, but all he wants to do is live a quiet life with his new wife(played by Phyllis Kirk), which neither side is willing to do... Marginal film has effective location shooting but a bunch of mostly unsympathetic characters that it is difficult to care about. Charles Bronson costars as one of the hoods.

By the mid-fifties Film-Noir was changing. Most became more Crime Movies than pure Noir. But the sensibility was still around and the style was dieing hard. In the Conservative Decade there tended to me more emphasis on Cops and Police Stations and Police procedures.But, sometimes if handled with respect the Noir genre was given its due and flavored what could have been routine into something that was more remarkable and memorable. Here we have one of the best of the late Film-Noir entries that is a low-budget Movie that is priceless.Hard Boiled with sharply defined Characters and great unconventional Cinematography, the seedy sets and night shoots are impressive. Only Riff-Raff would use a cardboard box as a lamp shade. The Film was influential in many ways. This was once neglected but is now becoming touted as a fine example of the genre.This is a violent and visual treat packaged with so many Artistic touches that it remains a worthy and welcome detour from so many forgettable and less accomplished puff pieces from a Film industry that was very inconsistent in the 1950's.

Andre de Toth directed this 1954 noir, Crime Wave, starring Sterling Hayden, Gene Nelson, Phyllis Kirk, and Charles Buchinsky, who later became Charles Bronson. Nelson plays Steve Lacey, an ex-con, now married to the beautiful Kirk. He's gone straight, but he is consumed by his past, and former inmates keep calling him for help. When three guys escape from prison and one is injured, they crowd in on Lacey. Holding his wife hostage, they force him to drive the getaway car in a planned robbery.Very neat, gritty, short noir, with Hayden as the tough, no-nonsense cop. de Toth doesn't spare us the mean streets or violence, either, in this fast-moving flick. Recommended for noir/crime fans.