I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

In the 1940s and 1950s in Alabama, the notorious Phenix City is a town ruled by the organized crime and prostitution and gambling are the main economical activities. The police department is corrupt and the criminal Rhett Tanner (Edward Andrews) is the big boss. When the famous lawyer Albert "Pat" L. Patterson (John McIntire) welcomes his son John Patterson (Richard Kiley) that has just returned from Germany with his wife and children, he intends to keep his calm life in a neutral position and work with his son. However, there are serious and violent incidents and Albert Patterson accepts to run the elections to become the Attorney General of Alabama to clean Phenix City. He wins the election but is shot when he is leaving his office and dies. Now John seeks revenge but using the law instead of violence."The Phenix City Story" is a different and violent film-noir based on the true story of the assassination of Albert "Pat" L. Patterson. The film has great performances and the violence is impressive for a 1955 Hollywood film. The beginning with the documentary style is boring, but after the initial credits, the film becomes great. In the end, this story proves that one person can make the difference in a story of a country. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Cidade do Vício" ("City of the Vicious")

Based on actual events, this gritty drama looks at how the citizens of a crime-ridden Alabama city eventually become compelled to take a stance against the mobsters who run their town through intimidation and bribery. The film is ambitiously structured with thirteen minutes of pre-credits documentary footage in which actual citizens of the town are interviewed - a technique that gives a sense of authenticity to all the reenactment segments to follow. For all its ambition though, 'The Phenix City Story' is never quite as engaging as it sounds. The violence is shockingly brutal, however, the dialogue is wooden (lots of rambling about doing the right thing), Harry Sukman's music score is loud and overbearing, and the quality of the acting is uneven at best. John McIntire is very decent as a local attorney who finally decides to stand up for what is right and Edward Andrews is appropriately menacing as a local mob figure, however, the rest of the performances vary from bland to overwrought. The overall film is inescapably melodramatic, which never quite sits right given the project's push for realism; then again, this approach at least ensures that the film's themes and issues are always at the forefront, and the movie offers a potent reminder of the power of perseverance in the face of crime and corruption. Interestingly, this is one of Martin Scorsese's favourite films.

The Phenix City Story (1955)Wow, this one came from nowhere and blew me away. It's a rough and tumble, unbelievably violent, true story of a block in a little town in Alabama where gambling and corruption ruled and where some local people were failing to fight back.It begins with a very long (too long) series of interviews of real people involved in the very real story of Phenix City, on the border with Georgia. I would actually recommend skipping it--almost twenty minutes that was not in the original release of the movie--and start with the drama, which is dramatic above all. This is no film noir, but it's shot in that moody, graphic style, which is perfect. The bad guys--including both a ruthless mob leader with no class at all and a tough and reactionary henchman who gets away with murder--are a classic Southern good old boys network. The cops are in on the whole scheme, and this mini-Vegas runs with impunity, thriving mostly off the money of soldiers from a nearby army base. It's all extremely convincing, small time crookery.The good guys--and women, one woman working at a gambling joint being a key insider witness--are equally convincing and small time. There is no Bogart or Mitchum or Lancaster in the leading role, though the father son lawyer pair who eventually lead the resistance are familiar faces: John McIntire and Richard Kiley (Kiley had been doing a lot of early t.v. but was also in "Pickup on South Street"). You might expect a familiar battle between the forces of good and evil, with tensions and violence and the eventual triumph of justice. And while the end of the gambling joints (after 80 years) is a matter of history, it takes so many really awful and gut wrenching turns it's riveting. I mean, this movie is like no other in terms of facing the facts--sometimes that person who would never get bumped off in a Hollywood script does actually die in real life.And this is real life, scripted and filmed and acted and edited with the vigor of a great drama, but based on the ugly truth of it, and not looking the other way. Don't miss it.

**SPOILERS** Shocking yet true story of the horror that befell the Alabama/Georgia border town of Phenix when it was taken over by a gang of organized hoodlums who turn it into the Sin City of the South.With crime skyrocketing and no one to turn to a group of concerned citizens get well respected Phenix lawyer Albert Patterson, John McIntire, to run for the office of State District Attorney. With the criminal element of Phenix doing everything, from intimidation to outright murder, to keep the voters form getting Patterson the nomination he still wins with the other 86 counties of the state, not including Phenix's Russell County, giving him the nod by just over 1,000 votes.Terrified in what Patterson would do when he takes office head of the Phenix Mob Rett Tanner, Edward Andrews, has a hit put out on him. Patterson is gunned down while driving to his office but his killers are spotted by Ellie Rhodes, Kathryn Grant, who soon becomes, through an informer in Patterson's office, Tanner's next person in line to be targeted for murder. What Tanner & Co. didn't expect is that the late Albert Patterson's son John, Richard Kiley, got the news from Ellie about his dad's murder before his boys could shut her up! That major miscalculation on Tanner's part will end up putting an end to both his criminal organization as well as his freedom!Powerful documentary-style crime movie with the actual persons involved in the events given some 15 minutes, at the start of the film, to tell their stories. This despite the fact that they were still in danger of being murdered by the Tanner Mob that was still at large at the time their interviews were filmed!Finishing what his brave dad started John Patterson single handedly brought the story of Phenix City to the front pages of both the state and national newspapers giving Tanner the very negative publicity that he tried so hard to avoid. With the now Alabama National Guard flooding into Phenix City the blood-thirsty and gutless, in not willing to stand up to people with guns in their hands, Tanner Mob evaporated from sight like a morning mist after the sunlight hits it! And with John Patterson now taking the place of his murdered dad as the state of Alabama's new Attorney General you can be sure that the Patterson Mob has seen its last days of pushing people around as well as murdering them. The only thing that they'll see now in the future is the gray prison walls and bars that will be their home sweet home for the rest of their rotten and miserable lives!Very probably the most graphically violent movie to come out of Hollywood up to that time "The Phenix City Story" didn't pull any punches in showing how a group of lawless and powerful criminals can turn a quite American city into living hell for everyone in it. No one was speared from these ruthless gangsters who didn't even think twice when it came to murdering even women and children if that's what it took to keep them in power! As for the Phenix City Police Departmentn they had better thing to do then enforced the law that they were sworn and paid to uphold. They were out having coffee and donut's while their city was being burned to the ground by the gangsters like Tanner who had them in their hip pocket!