Deeper than the descriptions

Best movie ever!

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Director Don Siegels editorial chops are well in evidence as he opens The Line-Up with a brilliantly montaged chaotic scene at the San Francisco Pier. Well paced with two quirky villains the film is a sleek stripped down cops and robbers that purrs smoothly with a chilling violence from start to finish.Out of towner thugs Julian (Robert Keith) and Dancer (Eli Wallach arrive in San Francisco to collect a shipment of heroin from various unsuspecting sources. Things get ugly with the volatile Dancer during transfers and murder ensues. More complications ensue when they cannot account for the entire shipment.The Line-Up is an impressive piece of film craftsmanship by Director Don Siegel. Making the most of the San Francisco backdrop he covers a lot of ground in no nonsense detail with the twisted Julian and psycho Dancer as our tour guides to the famous city as well as cold blooded mayhem. Keith and in particular Wallach effectively convey their warped take on life in economical terms with few words that allows the chase to maintain its healthy stride. Building his story to a fevered pitch through judicious editing he saves the best for last in this film where the pace never wavers and done brilliantly in under 90 minutes compared to revered hacks like Mann and Tarantino who cannot get it right in over two hours. Along with his Body Snatchers a masterwork of minimalist film making.

The Tag Film-Noir is associated with this Don Siegel Film because of the Psychopathic, Sociopathic Criminals, Atypical Brutality for its Time, and the Unflinching Underbelly of a Heroin Syndicate.The Shadows of First Wave Noir were mostly Gone by the Turn of the Decade Replaced with Gleaming Daytime Milieus containing Freeway Infrastructures that Reflected Eisenhower Era Optimism as Backdrop. But if it was a Noir, it was a Road to Nowhere.This is another of Director Siegels Unforgettable Forays into Crime, Presenting Powerful Punctuating Murders committed by the Psychologically Disturbed but Pathologically Interesting and the Criminally Insane.Eli Wallach is the Totally Bonkers "Dancer", a completely Detached Personality that like an Animal can only Track One Thing at a Time. If You Cross His Path an Upset His Method of Attaining the Task at Hand, it's Curtains. He can be Restrained by His "Handler", if in Close Proximity, but Otherwise.For 1958, these Characterizations were not found on TV Shows and this kind of thing was Rare even for the Movies. "The Lineup" was based on a Long Running Series but it was brought to the Big Screen with a Bravado of Realism. There are many Set-Pieces that are Striking and Unforgettable, one Involving a Mother and Child in Peril that is Gut-Wrenching.One of Don Siegel's Best Efforts containing a Good Sterling Silliphant Script and Impressive Cinematography.

THE LINE-UP 1958 This 1958 Columbia Pictures release is a film version of the popular police series of the same name. The series ran between 1954 and 1960 and was a no nonsense police procedural along the lines of, DRAGNET.Don Siegel directs with Eli Wallach as a hit-man slash muscle type with Robert Keith as his handler. Richard Jaeckel plays the pair's local driver. There has been a foul up with a shipment of heroin being smuggled into San Francisco. Wallach and Keith have been brought from out of town to trace the "misplaced" product and retrieve said item.Wallach is a man who loves his job and is only kept in check by the older Keith. There is soon a string of bodies left littering the city as Wallach and Keith do their stuff.Called in at the start are San Francisco Detectives, Warner Anderson and Emile Meyer. They are of course one step behind the hit-man and his handler. Once the bodies and clues fall into place the chase picks up steam. Needless to say there are going to be more bodies along the way before Anderson and Meyer can close the matter.This is top flight noir which moves along at a nice pace. Director Siegel keeps things on an even keel as he goes back and forth between the crooks and the pursuing Detectives. Siegel really has a firm grip on what is needed for this kind of film. His work included, THE VERDICT, RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11, THE BIG STEAL, PRIVATE HELL 36, CRIME IN THE STREETS, EDGE OF ETERNITY, THE GUN RUNNERS, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, THE KILLERS (1964), THE SHOOTIST, CHARLIE VARRICK, TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA and DIRTY HARRY.Handling the look of the picture is the talented cinematographer, Hal Mohr. The three time Oscar nominated, and two time winner, Mohr, worked on films such as, DESTRY RIDES AGAIN, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, WOMAN ON THE RUN, THE WILD ONE and BABY FACE NELSON.This one is well worth the time invested to watch it. Wallach is fantastic as the off kilter in the head killer.

Tightly scripted, excitingly staged, and brilliantly acted by Eli Wallach, this is a real sleeper. It could have been just another slice of thick-ear on the order of the Dragnet movie (1954). But thanks to writer Stirling Silliphant, director Don Siegel, and actor Wallach, The Lineup stands as one of the best crime films of the decade.Someone in production made a key decision to shoot the film entirely on location in San Francisco, and rarely have locations been used more imaginatively then here, from dockside to Nob Hill to the streets and freeways, plus lively entertainment spots. The producers of 1968's Bullit must have viewed this little back-and-whiter several times over, especially the car chase.Colorless detectives Warner Anderson and Emile Meyer (standing in for Tom Tully of the TV series of the same name) are chasing down psychopathic hit-man Wallach and mentor Robert Keith, who in turn are chasing down bags of smuggled narcotics. Dancer (Wallach) is simply chilling. You never know when that dead-pan stare will turn homicidal, even with little kids. Good thing his sidekick, the literary-inclined Julian (Keith), is there as a restraining force, otherwise the city might be seriously de-populated. Cult director Siegel keeps things moving without let-up, and even the forces of law and order are kept from stalling the action. My favorite scene is where Dancer goes slowly bonkers at the uncooperative Japanese doll. Watch his restrained courtship manners with the lonely mother (Mary La Roche) come unraveled as he reverts to psychopathic form, while mother and daughter huddle in mounting panic at the man they so trustingly brought home. It's a riveting scene in a film filled with them.The Line Up is another of those unheralded, minor gems that has stood the test of time, unlike so many of the big-budget cadavers of that year or any year.