Perfectly adorable

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

***SPOILERS*** Going undercover as a disgraced policemen Sgt.Joe Geary, Arthur Kennedy, by him punching out his boss Chief Sprague, Jonathan Hale, in the police station in front of a dozen witnesses gets his chance to crack the biggest crime ring in the city. Actually working with not against Chief Sprague Geary becomes a member of the notorious Lockland Gang as an enforcer. It's then that Geary finds out that there's a strong police connection with the gang in that police Captain Reddick, Cliff Clark, and his top man Det. Let. Pagle, Stanley Andrews, run it!As things turn out the only person who knows that Geary is clean not dirty, Chief Sprague, is gunned down in a shootout with the Lockwood Mob leaving him without an alibi as well as getting framed for the Chief's murder. With only on the lamb and near death, from alcoholism, hood who was at the scene of the shoot-out Benny McKaye, Joe Downing, nowhere to be found Garey is left high & dry with a 20 year sentence, for murder,behind bars! That's until he crashes out of prison with his fellow inmate Tex, John Ridgely, and starts making thing hot for both Capt. Riddick & Let. Det. Pagle the persons who framed him!***SPOILERS**** It takes a dead man the late Benny McKaye who died drinking to prove Geary's innocent. It also took the State Governor Phelps, Charles Trowbridge, whom if you can believe it Geary kidnapped out of his hotel suite to prove that he was framed by the Lockwood Mob. That by him tricking Reddick's hoods into killing the already dead Benny McKaye a second time around. This with Governor being an eye witness at the "Murder" scene! When confronted with the evidence a deranged Let. Det. Pagle, knowing that the JiJ was up, attempted but failed to shoot Geary as well as Governor Phelps only making the case against him that much stronger! As for Sgt. Geary he got a full pardon from the "Gov" in not only proving that he was framed but by putting the Lockwood Mob out of business and being put in charge, with a promotion and hefty pay raise, of the police Internal Affairs Department!

When the film begins, an informer is about to turn evidence on the mob. Soon, however, he is murdered and the cops catch the man responsible. But, the murderer is found hung in his cell--and the leads as to who is in charge of the mob have all dried up.The scapegoat for this 'accidental suicide' is Sgt. Joe Geary (Arthur Kennedy). When he's confronted for this, Geary shows he's a hot-head and slugs his superior--and is thrown off the police force for insubordination. However, in one of the oldest plot devices known to gangster films, it turns out Geary has done this in order to work undercover for the police Chief. And, in the second oldest plot device known to gangster films, the Chief is killed--and no one can prove that Geary is working undercover as the Chief neglected to leave any evidence to this effect (oops!). Even worse, Geary is assumed to be guilty for the killing and is sentenced to life in prison. What is next for the mug? See the film.The big plot hole is that anyone would go this far undercover and not have some sort of backup plan for if the ONLY one who knows he's undercover dies! This is pretty silly, though fortunately the film, despite some clichés, is pretty exciting. Much of it is that Warner Brothers had a real knack for these sort of films--even if it only had a B-movie budget like "Strange Alibi". Worth seeing even if the plot is less than brilliant because it is fast-paced, exciting and slickly produced.

Arthur Kennedy is a police sergeant who goes undercover to root out crooked cops, only to get framed by those very cops for the murder of the police chief he was working for, and winds up being sent to prison. Kennedy, in an early role, is quite good and the film is chock full of the great character actors that pop up in these neat old Warners "B"s--guys like Jonathan Hale, Dick Rich, John Ridgely, Ben Welden and, in a scene-stealing role, Howard Da Silva as a sadistic prison guard. Director D. Ross Lederman, an old hand at these kinds of pictures, keeps things moving at lightning speed, and it has the sneering thugs, tough cops, gun molls with a heart of gold, screaming sirens, screeching tires, breakneck car chases and everything else that made so many of the Warners "B" pictures of the '40s worthwhile. Check it out.

Often ridiculous but breathlessly paced and mostly entertaining. It's got all of the Warner Brothers staples: quick pace, lots of gun play, average looking leading man with above average acting ability (in this case a very young Arthur Kennedy) and a convincing rough and tumble feel. (You sometimes fear for the actors' safety.) It also has the great Howard Da Silva stealing every scene he's in as a sadistic prison guard.Sacrifices logic for speed. Hey, plausibility slows things down. A standard undercover-cop-stuck-in-prison flick, though a bit more interesting because of its cast.