terrible... so disappointed.

Sorry, this movie sucks

Really Surprised!

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Powerful, and i would say even more so, when it first came out drama. A ll the more remarkable in that for most of the time, it takes place on one set, a police station. Almost like a filmed play, which it was based upon.The acting from almost every one in the cast is good, especially Kirk Douglas who gives one of his ultimate trademark " Angry young man"portrayals and Eleanor Parker is nearly as good as his wife with a secret or two. I may be a little biased as i am a big Kirk Douglas fan, nobody could do the " simmering anger bubbling beneath the surface" part like him.A very under rated actor,a very good film, that can still pack a punch.

I really felt that Detective Story was unbalanced in that the first hour or so was filled with seemingly gratuitous slapstick comedy. In fact, the purse-snatching, husband-seeking woman and the duo of "four-time losers" reminded me, respectively, of Laverne and Shirley, and their regrettable counterparts Lennie and Squiggy. After about an hour, the production suddenly morphed into an intense, almost painful investigation into the morality of forgiveness and redemption. Wow, what a metamorphosis. The opening seemed to be just another good-humored crime story filled with flawed detectives hunting down despicable scoundrels. But by the end the whole story had become as serious as Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. I'm not sure how this could have been improved except by eliminating all of the slapstick. Of course, then it would no longer have been entertainment. Were movie-goers in 1951 really ready for this sort of hard-hitting moral didacticism?I am quite sure that the issues treated, abortion and the mistakes made by the young women who seek out abortionists, were daring for the time. Remarkably, still today, more than sixty years later, people are arguing about whether women who become pregnant have a right not to bear a child. Wyler clearly sides with Roe v. Wade (twenty years ahead of its time...), while simultaneously airing reservations about the potential for unscrupulous abortionists who terminate late-stage pregnancies and sometimes the would-have-been mothers as well.

Cutting edge for its time. Events never really leave the station house in what's supposed to be typical day for the detectives. More importantly, the cops bear little resemblance to Dragnet's fast-talking (1951-59) Joe Friday, which came along at about the same time. The movie's a clear attempt to inject more realism than usual into urban policing. The characters come and go as expected in a city station house. By and large, the cops are reasonably efficient but none too friendly as could also be expected. On the other hand, the arrestees range from a helpless shoplifter to savvy thieves to a big time doctor with influence.Of course, the drama centers on Detective McLeod (Douglas) who's got personal problems that mean not giving suspects an inch, no matter how sympathetic they might be. Surprising for the time are hints of his sometimes brutality in treatment of prisoners. Also unusual are circumspect hints that Dr. Schneider (MacReady) is an abortionist grown wealthy from his practice. Both topics were generally shunned by Production Code Hollywood in the Code's effort to protect audiences from reality.Can't help noticing the movie features two of Hollywood's sweetest innocents, Cathy O'Donnell and Lee Grant. O'Donnell is again redeeming a heck-bent boyfriend as in the transcendent They Live By Night (1948), while Grant registers as the helplessly naïve shoplifter, shortly before being blacklisted. I guess my one reservation is with the contrived nature of Douglas's histrionic downfall. It's theatrical nature contrasts strongly with the film's generally low-key realistic approach. Nonetheless, Wyler keeps things moving on the single set, while the characters continue to hold audience interest. The movie may have lost much of its edge over time. Still, the characters remain cross-generational in their appeal.

William Wyler directed this police film, based on a stage play, that stars Kirk Douglas as detective James Macleod, a no-nonsense New York cop who is beset with all kinds of suspects on an eventful day, like a shoplifter(played by Lee Grant) and a burglar(played by Joseph Wiseman) but has his sights set on a callous abortionist named Schneider(played by George Macready) whose lawyer objects to James, and insists he has a personal reason for persecuting him, which is denied, but it turns out that his wife Mary(played by Eleanor Parker) has a dark secret she's withheld from James, with tragic consequences... William Bendix costars as a fellow detective and concerned friend. Though melodramatic, it contains powerful acting and skillful direction that make up for it.