Sunday 8 April 2018

THE STREET WITH NO NAME (1948) Directed by William Keighley.


Post WW2 Twentieth Century Fox produced a series of semi-documentary style thrillers that promoted the work of the F.B.I and the U.S. Secret Service. These included THE HOUSE ON 92ND STREET, 13 RUE MADELEINE and THE STREET WITH NO NAME. The first two were directed by Henry Hathaway, while STREET WITH NO NAME was helmed by William Keighley whose name springs to mind as the co-director of the Errol Flynn ROBIN HOOD film. Lloyd Nolan appears as F.B.I man, Briggs (who first appeared in 92nd STREET) who picks a young agent (Stevens) to go undercover to entrap a notorious gangster (Widmark).  Mark Stevens was a useful, if somewhat inexpressive actor, who appeared in a few notable film noirs, was a sort of low-rent Dana Andrews (and I do not mean that disrespectfully) and gives his best performance hear. Lloyd Nolan is an actor that I admire more every time I see him, whether it be in his Michael Shayne private eye B-movies or as the ruthless gangster, Mickey Dwyer, in JOHNNY APOLLO, but here his involvement in minimal. For me, this is the best of the trio. Rating ***

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