| Crime Wave | |
|---|---|
 Crime Wave aka The City is Dark movie poster |
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| Directed by | André De Toth |
| Produced by | Bryan Foy |
| Written by | Bernard Gordon Crane Wilbur Richard Wormser |
| Starring | Sterling Hayden Gene Nelson Phyllis Kirk |
| Music by | David Buttolph |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | January 12 1954 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 73 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Crime Wave is a 1954 movie, in film noir style, directed by André De Toth. The film is also known as The City is Dark. It was adapted from a Saturday Evening Post short story, "Criminal Mark" by John and Ward Hawkins.
Contents |
Plot
'Doc' Penny (Ted de Corsia) and his gang rob a gasoline station and in the process a police officer is killed and one of the gang members is wounded. The wounded thug imposes himself on Steve Lacey (Gene Nelson), an ex-con trying to start a new life, and demands he call a disreputable doctor for help. The doctor arrives, but too late. The gang member is dead. After his death, Lacey calls his parole officer who involves a a hard-nosed cop, Detective Lieutenant Sims (Sterling Hayden), who doesn't think he can reform. Later, the remaining gang members show up at Lacey's apartment. Fearing for his wife's (Phyllis Kirk) safety, he decides to let the men stay. Subsequently, Penny forces Lacey to rob a Glendale, CA, bank with them, but Lacey alerts the police (by planting a note in his medicine cabinet) who staff the entire bank with police officers and ambush the robbers. In the end, most of the gang is killed, but Lacey and his wife are safe.
Main cast
- Sterling Hayden as Detective Lieutenant Sims
- Gene Nelson as Steve Lacey
- Phyllis Kirk as Ellen Lacey
- Ted de Corsia as 'Doc' Penny
- Charles Bronson as Ben Hastings (Bronson is credited as Charles Buchinsky)
- Timothy Carey as Johnny Haslett
Production notes
- Much of the film was shot on location in Los Angeles and Glendale, California.
- Shooting completed December 3, 1952, but the film was not released until 1954.[1]
- Besides The City is Dark, another working title for this film was Don't Cry Baby.
External links
References
- ^ Blake Lucas, Crime Wave, in Silver, A., Ward, Elizabeth (1992), 67, Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, The Overlook Press, Woodstock, New York ISBN 0-87951-479-5
