Directed by:
Robert ParrishScreenplay:
William BowersCinematography:
Joseph WalkerComposer:
George DuningCast:
Broderick Crawford, Betty Buehler, Richard Kiley, Otto Hulett, Neville Brand, Ernest Borgnine, Walter Klavun, Ralph Dumke, John Marley, Charles Bronson (more)Plots(1)
Broderick Crawford plays Johnny Damico, a detective who suddenly finds himself up to his neck in trouble and his career on the line. Going home in the rain one night, he finds himself just a few feet from a shooting on a dark street, where the gunman claims to be a detective from another precinct, flashing a real badge -- and then slipping away. Damico discovers that the victim of the shooting was a witness who was to have appeared before a grand jury investigating waterfront crime, and that the same man who shot him also murdered the chief investigator on the case just a few hours earlier (which is where the badge came from). Damico could lose his job, but instead he's given the chance to redeem himself -- he's sent undercover and given a new identity as New Orleans tough-guy Tim Flynn, who insinuates himself onto the New York waterfront when he arrives on ship. He manages to hook up with union thug Joe Castro (Ernest Borgnine) and his strong-arm man Gunner (Neville Brand), who try to frame him for a murder that also gets a potential stoolie out of the way and that hooks Damico up with crooked police sergeant Bennion. After following one blind alley involving a federal agent (Richard Kiley) working as a longshoreman, Damico manages to get an intro to Blackie Clegg (Matt Crowley), the man working behind Castro, Gunner, et al, who's as cool and slippery as they come and as sadistic as he is vengeful. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Broderick Crawford
USA
Best movies:
Producers' Showcase (1954) (series)
Beau Geste (1939)
Scandal Sheet (1952)
Betty Buehler
Best movies:
The Mob (1951)
Richard Kiley
USA
Best movies:
Jurassic Park (1993)
If Tomorrow Comes (1986) (series)
The Name of the Game (1968) (series)
Otto Hulett
USA
Best movies:
Carbine Williams (1952)
Ambush at Tomahawk Gap (1953)
The Phenix City Story (1955)
Neville Brand
USA
Best movies:
Stalag 17 (1953)
Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
Ernest Borgnine
USA
Best movies:
Gattaca (1997)
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Jesus of Nazareth (1977) (TV movie)
Walter Klavun
USA
Best movies:
The Boston Strangler (1968)
The Mob (1951)
William Friedkin's The Brink's Job (1978)
Ralph Dumke
USA
Best movies:
The Desperate Hours (1955)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Daddy Long Legs (1955)
John Marley
USA
Best movies:
The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980 (1992) (TV movie)
The Godfather: A Novel for Television (1977) (series)
The Godfather (1972)
Charles Bronson
USA
Best movies:
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
The Great Escape (1963)
Richard Irving
USA
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Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Raw Deal (1948)
Too Late for Tears (1949)
Lawrence Dobkin
USA
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North by Northwest (1959)
The Defiant Ones (1958)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Diana Barrymore
USA
Harry Lauter
USA
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White Heat (1949)
The Big Heat (1953)
Showdown (1963)
Frank DeKova
USA
Best movies:
The Ten Commandments (1956)
American Pop (1981)
The Jayhawkers (1959)
Paul Bryar
USA
Best movies:
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Vertigo (1958)
Ric Roman
USA
Best movies:
The Ten Commandments (1956)
The Desperate Hours (1955)
The Big Heat (1953)
David McMahon
USA
Best movies:
Strangers on a Train (1951)
The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)
Storm Warning (1951)
Tom Greenway
USA
Best movies:
North by Northwest (1959)
Westward the Women (1951)
High Noon (1952)
Ethan Laidlaw
USA
Best movies:
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
The Last of the Mohicans (1936)
Pressure Point (1962)