A Few More Notes and Comments to Conclude Favorite Quote Message

One very interesting choice of an actor is the man who plays the jazz musician Roy Cleaver who makes a point about his status by breaking a bread stick. That man was actual trumpeter Dick Cathcart, best known for his years with the Lawrence Welk orchestra and as husband to one of the Lennon Sisters.

Actor Ross Elliott makes a rare screen appearance here sans toupee. Elliott was best known as a semi-regular on I Love Lucy as Ricky's publicity man and on The Jack Benny Show, playing Jack's director.

One other thing I noticed was that while the actual names of the criminals were not used as usual, the character of Max Troy reminded me very much of L. A. mob hit man Jimmy, the Weasel, Fratianno. And in looking up something else about another character I found out that the Weasel was indeed the inspiration for the Max Troy character, who however was someone else. Fratianno was well known for complaining about his stomach trouble, but did survive until 1993.

Another unusual occurrence was the use of the phone number for the Red Spot being so prominent and realistic. It would become a practice on TV and in movies to use phone numbers beginning with 555 as only information numbers use that prefix. That is done because silly viewers often try to call up numbers used in movies and such and that can be a great annoyance to anyone unfortunate enough to actually share a phone number with one seen on the screen.

And watching the movie on TV recently, the Cozi TV channel has recently begun showing this film, I was intrigued by seeing notes on the cards of the suspects. By freezing the frame it could be seen that at least 2 of the mob members were listed as narcotics users. That would have been very out of character for the mob whose hierarchy was deeply distrustful of hooked members.

And lastly I just wanted to mention the acting. Most of those seen were "only TV actors", but I found a number of performances moving and very well played. Virginia Gregg was particularly sympathetic as the widow of Miller Starkie. A disabled woman, her dream in life was to be a true wife to a husband who cared for her. Her shock and sadness so well expressed when she says that someone threw away her husband and never asked her. And at the other end of the spectrum there was Georgia Ellis as Belle Davitt striking just the right tone as a vicious assistant to her hit man husband being so contemptuous of the police.

And just the whole story line was so dead on. Starkie who had no compassion for anyone, save his wife, is disposed of by his so called friends with no regret. And then we have Willard Sage as the robot like Chester Davitt so coolly pumping first 2 barrels of his shotgun into Starkie and then 2 more just to be certain. And then later he himself is murdered only because he has become a concern, and he pleads emotionally for mercy. With far less funding and star power, one really got the whole idea of what it meant to be a member of organized crime and how there are is truly no trust and no real friendships in such a life.