Cinema, Stick It In Your Queue

Crime Wave

Posted by: Ryan Allen on April 17, 2008 at 4:00 pm

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Crime Wave (André de Toth, 1954)

“Once a crook, always a crook,” is the belief of Lieutenant Sims (Sterling Hayden), the tough-talking cop who’s convinced ex-con Steve Lacey (Gene Nelson) has his hands in a filling station heist that went awry. Despite Sims’s suspicions, Lacey has been on the straight and narrow since he got out of the joint. He’s got a wife, a steady job, and a parole officer who swears to Lacey’s fidelity.

When one of his former cellmates comes knocking on his door in the middle of the night — bleeding out from a bullet wound — Lacey tries to do the right thing and refuse him hospitality. Within moments, however, Lacey’s got a corpse on his hands and a drunken veterinarian knocking on his door. Can’t an honest guy get an even break? Sims is on him like white on rice. He puts the screws to Lacey but the pigeon won’t budge.

Soon Lacey has two house guests: ‘Doc’ Penny (Ted de Corsia) and Ben Hastings (Charles Bronson, still going by Charles Buchinsky). They’re keen to use Lacey as the getaway driver for a daring midday heist at the local Bank of America. To make sure that Lacey agrees, they use his wife for collateral, and put her in the care of Johnny Haslett. Talking through his teeth, Timothy Carey brings a tangible menace to his small role. He keeps audiences on the edge of their seats.

Directed by André de Toth (House of Wax), Crime Wave suffers at times from the wet blanket performance of Gene Nelson. But the film is saved by Sterling Hayden, who delivers his juicy dialogue in his patented rapid fire style. Hayden and Carey would share more scenes in Stanley Kubrick’s seminal heist film The Killing in 1954. Unavailable in any home format for decades, Crime Wave was finally released to DVD as part of the “Film Noir Classic Collection” in mid-2007. — Mike White

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[tags]Crime Wave, The Killing, Sterling Haden, Andre de Toth, Stanley Kubrick[/tags]

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