711 Ocean Drive
Encyclopedia
711 Ocean Drive is an American crime
film noir
directed by Joseph M. Newman
. The drama features Edmond O'Brien
, Joanne Dru
and Otto Kruger
.
police is out to get him.
Knowing how much Granger likes to bet on the horses, small-time bookmaker Chippie Evans proposes a scheme in which Granger's expertise at the phone company would provide gangster Vince Walters with race results in advance.
Granger accepts the offer and also takes an interest in Walters' attractive assistant, Trudy, but she is arrested. Granger volunteers to be Walters' new partner, then takes over when Walters is killed.
East Coast mob boss Larry Mason wants a piece of the action. He travels west and uses his own wife Gail as bait to distract Granger, who isn't aware he is being cheated until Trudy returns and tells him.
Granger is in love with Gail anyway and incensed when Mason beats her. He hires a man named Gizzi to kill Mason but is blackmailed instead, so he runs Gizzi's car off a pier.
Using his telephone know-how, Granger places a call to Lt. Wright that makes it appear he is in Palm Springs
and has an alibi. He is actually in Las Vegas
, where he, Gail and Chippie try to get Mason's money with a swindle. Chippie is recognized and killed.
Granger and Gail flee, but at Boulder Dam they are cornered by police. Granger is killed and Gail is placed under arrest.
film critic, Bosley Crowther
, panned the film, writing, "Despite some considerable advertising of 711 Ocean Drive as a daring and courageous revelation of the big bookmaking and gambling syndicates, this modest Columbia melodrama, which came to the Paramount yesterday, is no more than an average crime picture with some colorful but vague details thrown in. Certainly no one who reads the papers with a fairly retentive eye can have any less comprehension of the gambling racket than is illustrated here...In short, this little picture, conventionally written but well photographed, does no more than any gangster picture in reminding us that gangsters are crooks."
However, the staff at Variety
magazine wrote well of the film: "Operations of the syndicates are given a realistic touch by the screenplay, and Joseph M. Newman's direction keeps action at a fast pace. O'Brien is excellent as the hot-tempered, ambitious young syndicate chief."
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
directed by Joseph M. Newman
Joseph M. Newman
Joseph M. Newman was an American film director most famous for his 1955 film This Island Earth. His credits include episodes of The Twilight Zone and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour....
. The drama features Edmond O'Brien
Edmond O'Brien
Edmond O'Brien was an American actor who is perhaps best remembered for his role in D.O.A. and his Oscar winning role in The Barefoot Contessa...
, Joanne Dru
Joanne Dru
Joanne Dru was an American film and television actress, known for such films as Red River and All the King's Men.-Career:...
and Otto Kruger
Otto Kruger
Otto Kruger was an American actor who began his career in 1915. His career was most prolific during the 1930s and 1940s.-Career:...
.
Plot
Mal Granger somehow rises from telephone repairman to head of a major illegal gambling operation and Lt. Wright of the Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
police is out to get him.
Knowing how much Granger likes to bet on the horses, small-time bookmaker Chippie Evans proposes a scheme in which Granger's expertise at the phone company would provide gangster Vince Walters with race results in advance.
Granger accepts the offer and also takes an interest in Walters' attractive assistant, Trudy, but she is arrested. Granger volunteers to be Walters' new partner, then takes over when Walters is killed.
East Coast mob boss Larry Mason wants a piece of the action. He travels west and uses his own wife Gail as bait to distract Granger, who isn't aware he is being cheated until Trudy returns and tells him.
Granger is in love with Gail anyway and incensed when Mason beats her. He hires a man named Gizzi to kill Mason but is blackmailed instead, so he runs Gizzi's car off a pier.
Using his telephone know-how, Granger places a call to Lt. Wright that makes it appear he is in Palm Springs
Palm Springs
Palm Springs is a desert city in CaliforniaPalm Springs may also refer to:* Palm Springs, Florida* Palm Springs, Hong Kong, a residential development in Yuen Long, Hong Kong* Coachella Valley, also known as the Palm Springs area...
and has an alibi. He is actually in Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
, where he, Gail and Chippie try to get Mason's money with a swindle. Chippie is recognized and killed.
Granger and Gail flee, but at Boulder Dam they are cornered by police. Granger is killed and Gail is placed under arrest.
Cast
- Edmond O'BrienEdmond O'BrienEdmond O'Brien was an American actor who is perhaps best remembered for his role in D.O.A. and his Oscar winning role in The Barefoot Contessa...
as Mal Granger - Joanne DruJoanne DruJoanne Dru was an American film and television actress, known for such films as Red River and All the King's Men.-Career:...
as Gail Mason - Otto KrugerOtto KrugerOtto Kruger was an American actor who began his career in 1915. His career was most prolific during the 1930s and 1940s.-Career:...
as Carl Stephans - Barry KelleyBarry KelleyBarry Kelley was an actor on Broadway in the 1930s and '40s and in movies during the 1940s, '50s, and '60s. The heavy-set actor created the role of Ike in Oklahoma! on Broadway....
as Vince Walters - Dorothy PatrickDorothy PatrickDorothy Patrick, was an American film actress and a John Robert Powers model.-Early Life:...
as Trudy Maxwell - Don PorterDon PorterDonald Porter was an American actor who appeared in a number of films in the 1940s, including Top Sergeant and Eagle Squadron, but is perhaps best known for his role as Russell Lawrence, the widowed father of 15-year old Frances "Gidget" Lawrence in the 1965 ABC television series...
as Larry Mason - Howard St. JohnHoward St. JohnHoward St. John was a Chicago-born character actor who specialized in unsympathetic roles. His work spanned Broadway, film and television...
as Lieutenant Pete Wright - Robert Osterloh as Gizzi
- Sammy WhiteSammy White (actor)Sammy White was an American vaudeville song-and-dance comedian who appeared in a few films. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island. He appeared with Lew Clayton, as Clayton and White, in the Broadway show Schubert Gaieties of 1919.With his first wife, Eva Puck, White appeared in vaudeville as...
as Chippie Evans
Reception
When the film was first released, The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
film critic, Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
, panned the film, writing, "Despite some considerable advertising of 711 Ocean Drive as a daring and courageous revelation of the big bookmaking and gambling syndicates, this modest Columbia melodrama, which came to the Paramount yesterday, is no more than an average crime picture with some colorful but vague details thrown in. Certainly no one who reads the papers with a fairly retentive eye can have any less comprehension of the gambling racket than is illustrated here...In short, this little picture, conventionally written but well photographed, does no more than any gangster picture in reminding us that gangsters are crooks."
However, the staff at Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
magazine wrote well of the film: "Operations of the syndicates are given a realistic touch by the screenplay, and Joseph M. Newman's direction keeps action at a fast pace. O'Brien is excellent as the hot-tempered, ambitious young syndicate chief."
External links
- 711 Ocean Drive at Film Noir of the Week by Glenn EricksonGlenn EricksonGlenn Erickson is an American film editor and film critic. He started in the film industry in 1975 as an editor of low budget films and later worked in minor technical crew capacities in such major films as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 1941...
- 711 Ocean Drive film clip
- 711 Ocean Drive film at CrackleCrackleCrackle is a digital network and studio, featuring commercially supported streaming video content in Flash Video format. It is owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, and its content consists primarily of Sony's library of films and television shows...
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