Crime Wave (1954 film)
Encyclopedia
Crime Wave is a 1954 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 André De Toth
André De Toth
André de Toth was a Hungarian-American filmmaker, born and raised in Makó, Csongrád, Kingdom of Hungary Austro-Hungarian Empire. He directed the 3-D film House of Wax, despite being unable to see in 3-D himself, having lost an eye at an early age. He is known for his gritty B movies in the western...

. It was adapted from a short story which originally appeared in The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...

 - Criminal Mark by John and Ward Hawkins.

Plot

'Doc' Penny (Ted de Corsia
Ted de Corsia
Ted de Corsia was a radio and movie actor.He is probably best remembered for his role as a gangster turned state's evidence in The Enforcer...

) 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
Gene Nelson
Gene Nelson was an American dancer, actor, screenwriter, and director.-Biography:Born Leander Eugene Berg in Astoria, Oregon, he moved to Seattle when he was one year old. He was inspired to become a dancer by watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films when he was a child...

), 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 hard-nosed cop, Detective Lieutenant Sims (Sterling Hayden
Sterling Hayden
Sterling Hayden was an American actor and author. For most of his career as a leading man, he specialized in westerns and film noir, such as Johnny Guitar, The Asphalt Jungle and The Killing. Later on he became noted as a character actor for such roles as Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Dr...

), 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
Phyllis Kirk
-Early life and career:Born Phyllis Kirkegaard in Syracuse, New York , she contracted polio as a child which resulted in health problems for the rest of her life. As a teen, she moved to New York City to study acting and changed her last name to "Kirk"...

) safety, he decides to let the men stay. Subsequently, Penny forces Lacey to rob a 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
    Sterling Hayden
    Sterling Hayden was an American actor and author. For most of his career as a leading man, he specialized in westerns and film noir, such as Johnny Guitar, The Asphalt Jungle and The Killing. Later on he became noted as a character actor for such roles as Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Dr...

     as Detective Lieutenant Sims
  • Gene Nelson
    Gene Nelson
    Gene Nelson was an American dancer, actor, screenwriter, and director.-Biography:Born Leander Eugene Berg in Astoria, Oregon, he moved to Seattle when he was one year old. He was inspired to become a dancer by watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films when he was a child...

     as Steve Lacey
  • Phyllis Kirk
    Phyllis Kirk
    -Early life and career:Born Phyllis Kirkegaard in Syracuse, New York , she contracted polio as a child which resulted in health problems for the rest of her life. As a teen, she moved to New York City to study acting and changed her last name to "Kirk"...

     as Ellen Lacey
  • Ted de Corsia
    Ted de Corsia
    Ted de Corsia was a radio and movie actor.He is probably best remembered for his role as a gangster turned state's evidence in The Enforcer...

     as 'Doc' Penny
  • Charles Bronson
    Charles Bronson
    Charles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series...

     as Ben Hastings (credited as Charles Buchinsky onscreen)
  • Timothy Carey
    Timothy Carey
    Timothy Agoglia Carey was an American film and television actor....

     as Johnny Haslett

Production notes

  • Much of the film was shot on location in Los Angeles
    Los Angeles, California
    Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

     and in nearby Burbank
    Burbank, California
    Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....

     and Glendale
    Glendale, California
    Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...

    . At least one 1952 location, Sawyer's Pet Hospital at the corner of San Fernando Road and Alma Street in Glendale, is still standing and still a pet hospital, albeit with a different name. Several locations seen onscreen, like the Bank of America on the southwest corner of Brand Boulevard and Broadway in Glendale (where the film's big robbery attempt takes place), as well as the distinctive dental building across Brand Boulevard, have been torn down and replaced. The final chase scene from the bank in Glendale to Chinatown in downtown Los Angeles, though edited, follows the actual route, including Brand Boulevard and the Glendale Boulevard fork on the Hyperion Viaduct, until Steve Lacey reaches the house (possibly on Maple Street, just east of Los Angeles Street in the Chinatown district) where the crazed Johnny Haslett is holding Lacey's wife. The gas station in the film's opening scene was on Wall Street just south of East 3rd Street, near Boyd Street, but has since been demolished. Other specific downtown Los Angeles locations include Los Angeles Union Station and the L.A. City Hall Building
    Los Angeles City Hall
    Los Angeles City Hall, completed 1928, is the center of the government of the city of Los Angeles, California, and houses the mayor's office and the meeting chambers and offices of the Los Angeles City Council...

     (including interiors of the Homicide Bureau). The final scene, where Lt. Sims sends Steve and Ellen home, was shot on the 200 block of North Main Street, with Sterling Hayden leaning against the side of the City Hall Building.
  • This film's cinematography may have influenced Robert Aldrich
    Robert Aldrich
    Robert Aldrich was an American film director, writer and producer, notable for such films as Kiss Me Deadly , The Big Knife , What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? , Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte , The Flight of the Phoenix , The Dirty Dozen , and The Longest Yard .-Biography:Robert...

     to shoot Kiss Me Deadly
    Kiss Me Deadly
    Kiss Me Deadly is a 1955 film noir drama produced and directed by Robert Aldrich starring Ralph Meeker. The screenplay was written by A.I. Bezzerides, based on the Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer mystery novel Kiss Me, Deadly. Kiss Me Deadly is often considered a classic of the noir genre. The film...

    on location all over L.A. in 1954. It certainly had an effect on Stanley Kubrick
    Stanley Kubrick
    Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...

    , who hired Hayden, Carey and de Corsia for The Killing and used locations to capture the same realism.
  • Shooting completed December 3, 1952, but the film was not released until 1954.
  • Besides The City is Dark, another working title for this film was Don't Cry Baby.



External links

Glendale On Film: Crime Wave at Tropico Station: The Glendale Blog
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