99 River Street

99 River Street (1953)

Runtime: a lean and mean 83 minutes

Directed by: Phil Karlson

Starring: John Payne, Evelyn Keyes, Brad Dexter, Frank Faylen, Peggie Castle

From: Edward Small Productions

Here's another film noir I saw and reviewed. This one is obscure and that is unfortunate as it deserves to be better-known, I say. I try to explain why below in my Letterboxd review without engaging in spoiling anything. By the way, the title of this refers to an important location in the movie.

This is another film noir that TCM showed last night; it'll be on again July 17. The reason for them playing it on Saturday was that they showed several films of Evelyn Keyes, who here played a friend of the hero. I hadn't heard of this until a few days ago but I knew that the star (John Payne) and director (Phil Karlson) both did the famous noir Kansas City Confidential, which I will watch one of these days. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this.

I don't want to reveal too much of the plot as it's one of those stories that has surprises and twists & turns but I'll say it's about a boxer (Payne) who has a big fight-the way it's shot may remind you of Raging Bull-but injures his eye and can't box no more so he has to become a taxi cab driver, must to the consternation of his nagging wife, who is cheating on him with a criminal. Most of this film is set during the span of one long night and throughout you get your share of cops, shady characters and some violence. This well-plotted and complex movie is a brutal and hard-hitting film noir, both literally and figuratively.

More than a few times throughout the movie engages in misdirection, and all I'll say about that is that it's either done amusingly or to creatively advance the plot. It's never done to be annoying and it's not a hindrance. This is a well made movie, with quality performances, the expected lighting and shadows, and a grim but interesting world view, where the protagonist is really a victim of circumstances, although him being a loose cannon and easily angered to the point of being violent (it may not have been intended but it did amuse me) did not help either. He really was haunted by that one big fight.

The fact that this is a movie which has fallen through the cracks and has become obscure even within its genre is a shame, as I say it deserves to be compared maybe not with the tippy-top movies but it should be with the likes of Kansas City Confidential, The Killers or Detour, to give but a few random examples. At least it can be ordered via on demand and burned onto a blank DVD-R disc or it can be streamed on Amazon.