Underworld U.S.A. (1961)

Description: As a teenager, Tolly Devlin sees several hoodlums beat his father to death in an alley. Some 20 years later, the killers have risen to the top of the underworld rackets, and Devlin, bent on revenge, sets out to kill each one of them. What could be a fairly routine crime/revenge drama is given the full Sam Fuller treatment. As Tolly, Cliff Robertson is one of Fuller's most shabby antiheroes, a cold, brutal automaton consumed with a single-minded hatred. He stops at nothing to get his pound of flesh, even strong-arming a man on his deathbed. He cooperates up to a point with a government agent, but only to see his own ends. Tolly rescues Cuddles (Dolores Dorn) from being roughed up and earns her gratitude, but he's too emotionally damaged for her to help him in the long run. The conflicts and strategies in Underworld U.S.A. play out like one of Fuller's war movies, with a protagonist declaring war on an entire organization while finding himself outside the legal means to defeat them. The movie is littered with ruined people and unsavory situations, with the syndicate heavily involved in the heroin trade. It may not have the narrative economy of some of Fuller's other movies, but Underworld, U.S.A. is still a prime example of his tabloid sensibilities and in-your-face storytelling.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Gangster
• New
• Year's
• Eve
• Revenge
• Child
• Murder
• Independent
• Film

[BadMoJos]

I find the best stuff at that was TCM.

[BadMoJos]

I find the best stuff at TMC

[MadScout]

Cool film.

[spacepatrolman]

@mothgirlwings this is the way it really is the police dont do anything so you have to slug gangstrs in the head [ a student in john j. college of criminal justice wrote a report that the fbi wasnt doing anything about the mafia so they through him out ].

[ObediahFults]

Beatrice Kay...so under-rated! Thank goodness we have her recordings and some radio transcriptions since she made far too few film appearances. This is Film Noir at its best, IMO.

[mothgirlwings]

This film is amazing - highly recommended!

[DarkCityFilmNoir]

this looks like a brilliant Film Noir classic...i'm dying to see it!