Some things I liked some I did not.

Overrated

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

This is a great little crime movie. It has a truly sleazy feel and is very well directed. Fred Sears! That guy knew how to turn out these trashy but effective crime exposes! Dennis O'Keefe, who seems a little down-at-the heels, is the lead. He goes undercover to blow the lid off a syndicate run by mama's boy Paul Stewart. With his eyes sunken and dark, Stewart is a highly effective villain (albeit a suave one.) His current girlfriend sings at a club he runs. We hear her sing, and she is pretty darn good. That's because she's played by Abbe Lane. Lane had a good vocal style and she knew how to be sewn into a glamorous dress. Real-life husband Xaviar Cugat is on-hand, too: He's her band-leader and is pining after her.Though she gets lower billing, the main female is really Allison Hayes. Yes: The star of the immortal "Attack of the 50-Foot Woman." Hayes does a fine job. She's an interesting presence: She looks like a meaner version of Jane Russell.The only distracting part of the movie is the O'Keefe character's name: Barry Amsterdam. It kept reminding me of a certain comic on a classic TV show about writers for a TV comedy ...O'Keefe had the goods, though. He is one of the best of all noir actors.

Because this film starred Dennis O'Keefe (who was wonderful in his Film Noir appearances), I was sure to see it. And fortunately, the overall effort was exciting and engaging--making it a decent later example of the genre. While not as bloody and earthy as many Noir films, due to the head of the mob priding himself on being a well-spoken gentleman, nevertheless is a decent film of this type.The film begins with a contract killing so stop an accountant from spilling his guts about organized crime. A citizen's group decides that they need to try a new way to infiltrate the mob--send in a freelance agent who isn't a cop or part of the Treasury or Justice Departments. So Dennis O'Keefe is recruited and he is able to eventually rise very high in the ranks--and leading to a wonderful showdown.I think the reason I like O'Keefe in these films is because he's so ugly--or at best ordinary looking. For Noir, this is great, as pretty boys and the like are NOT something you'd expect. So, when Edmund O'Brien isn't available, O'Keefe is a good substitute.Full of excellent intrigue, an interesting and unusual plot and sure to please fans of the genre, CHICAGO SYNDICATE nearly earns an 8--it's that good.FYI--It is interesting that in one scene where they are standing outside a movie theater, the picture listed on the marquee is ON THE WATERFRONT--another film about mobsters which came out at about the same time as CHICAGO SYNDICATE.

Has anyone else noticed that Charles Lane appears with his back to the camera in the scene where Paul Stewart warns his syndicate partners about not cheating him? The voice also seems to be his. He doesn't show up anywhere else in the film. I have not been able to find him associated with it on any credit listings, including the abbreviated IMDb cast list. I thought this was a pretty good genre film. It's always nice to see Paul Stewart in a bigger role. Don't recall ever seeing Abbe Lane in a film before. I really thought she was better than the other female lead, despite having less to do. Although her acting ability cannot really be assessed from this single role, I am surprised she did not have a lengthier career.

(Some Spoilers) With an iron clad grip on the "Windy City" the criminal organization known as "The Syndicate" run by Arnie Valent seemed untouchable until one of it's accountants Nelson Kern got a bit religious and went to the local newspaper the Chicago Telegraph to expose it's criminal operations.Getting the editor of the newspaper David Healey to agree to publish his story, under an assumed name, Kerns is shot on the street as soon as he leaves the building. With the police as well as the editors of all the city's newspapers agreeing that "The Syndicate" is to be put out of business before it becomes any more entrenched that it already is it's agreed to get Internal Revenue auditor, and WWII combat hero, Barry Amsterdam to do the job for them.Barry at first is anything but interested in taking on "The Snydicate" but when he's offered $60,000.00, by the city fathers, he's more then willing to stick his neck out. With that $60,000.00 Barry can open up his own accountant agency something he's been dreaming about since he got out of the service. With the knowledge, that he got from the Chicago PD, of who it was that gunned down Kern, a hit-man named Burke, Barry get's in touch with Valent in an attempt to blackmail him in the fact that Berke works for him. Barry putting on an act that he's disenchanted with his job as an IRS auditor instead ends up getting the very job that the late Nelson Kern had looking after and accounting for all of Valent's, and his syndicate's, holdings and transactions.The movie moves at a snails pace with Barry Amsterdam trying to get the goods on Valent and his criminal activities but the old timer, the last of Chicago's Al Capone Gang, is just too slick and slippery to get nailed in a Federal tax evasion, like his former boss "Big Al" Capone, rap. Just at one point when Barry thought he had Valent caught red handed at his mothers tenement apartment with the goods, his secret ledgers, Valent burned them moments before the cops, tipped off by Barry, came crashing into the place.Barry uses the two women in the cast singer Connie Peters and the late Nlson Kern's daughter Joyce to uncover what Kerns had on Valent's by a number of secret rolls of microfilm, containing the contents of the destroyed ledgers, that Kern had made just before he was gunned down.When Valent realizes that his moll Connie had the microfilm hidden as a life insurance policy for herself instead of destroying them like he told her he completely loses it. Having his henchmen work Connie over to find out where the microfilm is it's Connie's friend, as well as lover, band leader Benny Chico who tells Valent where the rolls of film is; Hidden in a violin case that's being held for him, for safe keeping, at a local pawn shop. Benny had no idea what was in the case until he found out that Connie, who gave it to him, had made as well as kept the very incriminating, for Valent and his syndicate, microfilm.Despite being both cool calm as well as collective all throughout the movie Arnie Valent loses himself when he realizes that for once he's about to be busted, with none of his flunkies taking the rap for him! Valent overreacts when Barry, who was at the pawn shop with him and his hoods, pulled the rolls of film right out of his hands before, like he did with the ledgers earlier, he could burn them.Instead of letting his hood chase down Barry and both murder him and get the film back Valent decides to do the job himself. This leaves him open to being both arrested by the police, who were tailing Barry, or ending up getting shot and killed by them. Barry badly wounded, from being shot in the leg by Valent, ends up making it to the Chicago slums where Valent's mother resides and it's there, outside his mom's tenement, that Valent life of crime, as well as "The Syndicate", came to a sudden and violent end.