Just saw the movie Rogue Cop, made in 1954 by Roy Rowland. While the title may promise a vigilante-style cop going off the books to bring down the bad guys, that's not initially what it's about. The title character Sgt. Chris Kelvaney is in the pocket of a powerful mobster. His younger brother Eddie is an honest cop and brings in a lowlife killer in said mobster's organization. The mobster and his partner lean on Kelvaney to lean on his brother to tank the case, but then they lose patience and the brother loses his life. That's when Kelvaney gets around to going off the books etc.
This movie doesn't sugarcoat anything. The fights genuinely look like people are getting hurt and many situations seem like they could boil over into murder. Some do.
In the lead, Robert Taylor brings a dark charisma to a rather dislikable character. Janet Leigh does okay as the dumb honest brother's fiancée, although she gets saddled with a number of "we don't trust the audience" speeches. The real revelation is Anne Francis, playing the young girlfriend of gangster George Raft. The character is quite similar to Gloria Grahame's from The Big Heat, but Francis brings her own twist to it. And man, can she put it away!
There are some fun secondary characters too. Character actor Peter Brocco is amusingly smug as the felon who starts the whole mess. There's a little old lady who runs a newsstand and is also an underworld information broker, played by Olive Carey. And Alan Hale, Jr. plays a mob strongarm years before sailing away to Gilligan's Island.
Overall it held my attention pretty well.
2 comments:
Thanks for the recommendation, that was good fun. We watched Rogue Cop tonight on archive.org, a site I usually forget about but shouldn't.
Taylor made the most of his role as a crooked cop whose past actions made him largely responsible for his brother's death. George Raft was very effective as the mobster who doesn't have to say much to get his point across. Janet Leigh and Ann Francis were both good, even if Ann Francis went beyond being merely good in her role as moll to Raft.
Of course it was great fun to see so many actors we remembered from long ago, Alan Hale Jr. (Skipper), Vince Edwards (Dr. Ben Casey). We looked for Russell Johnson (the Professor) but couldn't catch him among the police officers.
The film ultimately is about redemption and forgiveness. Was Robert Taylor dying on that ambulance ride and was that why he asked Sid to forgive him? That was my take but maybe his boss could get him out of trouble by saying he was undercover all along. Maybe not.
Archive.org is a nice site to have around. There are times when you're not sure you'll be able to find something at all, and it turns out they haven't.
Interestingly enough I saw another movie with Taylor this week. Didn't go out of my way to see him, but liked him. I'll tell one or both of you about it tomorrow. Raft was apparently reluctant to play another gangster at this point (despite hanging out with some in real life) but he pulls it off. Leigh and Francis are both good omens for a movie being enjoyable.
I missed Russell Johnson too. His character was a patrolman, apparently, so he'd probably be in uniform. Funny that he and the Skipper were in the same movie. I recently saw a Columbo where William Shatner was the killer and Walter Koenig played a cop, but this was well after Star Trek.
The movie seems to have an old-style Catholic morality to it, right down to the priest who shows up a few times. In that context it's interesting that his confessor in that last scene is Sid, who's pretty clearly Jewish. It is ambiguous over whether he's dying or can be saved. The important thing is that he does the right thing and tries to atone.
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