....that's the way this movie hits you!! For all people who think that Edward G. Robinson's 1950s movies were only rehashes of his earlier hits - then they just haven't seen this film!! Robinson has an explosive performance in him as the brutal Vince Cannelli (the way Little Caesar may have ended up if he had lived)!!! And something you don't see every day - Jean Parker (she of the sentimental "Little Women" and "Sequoia") playing Cannelli's hardened gun moll and the one who masterminds the last minute escape!!Like caged animals, the prisoners pace their cells to the singing lament of "Black Tuesday". Vicious thug Cannelli is due to be executed that morning, along with another prisoner (Peter Graves) who has $200,000 hidden away in a fool proof hiding place!! But Cannelli is not looking nervous - his girl has hatched an escape plan which includes kidnapping the daughter of one of the guards over seeing the execution so he has no choice but to fall in with the plan. Which also includes taking Manning along as Cannelli hopes to get his hands on that hidden loot. One by one people are appalled by Vince's psychotic behaviour - leaving most of the people who helped him escape by the side of the road with only a lonely gun to help them in a shootout to the death when they are captured by police!! By the time they arrive at the hideout, the kidnapped daughter finds her father has already been killed and when Cannelli springs the old "if you don't give us our demands, a person is going to be killed every half hour"!! - from what the movie has revealed, you know he is not joking!! Problems start when Manning is shot and when forced to leave his sick bed to retrieve the money from a safety deposit box, leaves his calling card - a bloody finger print on the desk!! The finale features a blazing shoot out between the police and the gangsters, with innocent people fleeing flying bullets (not always successfully) - almost out bigging "The Big House"!! Highly Recommended!!

This little known and little seen Edward G. Robinson film takes Eddie back to the days when he was playing some quite serious gangster roles. Caesar Enrico Bandello and Johnny Rocco don't have a patch on his Vince Canelli in Black Tuesday.Imagine if Little Caesar or Johnny Rocco being captured and on death row with bank robber Peter Graves both sentenced to die that day. Only Robinson has a very well conceived plan to escape at the last minute. He takes Graves along and the rest of those on that Green Mile, the others to throw confusion and buy time and Graves because Graves has hidden $200,000.00 from his last bank job and Robinson wants to flee the country in style with lots of spending loot. Graves is no fool either. When he says the money is well hidden and only he can get to it, he's not kidding. Black Tuesday was shot on a shoestring budget and I'm sure what money they had was spent for a really good supporting cast of familiar faces. Standing out are Warren Stevens as one of the hired guns that helps Robinson crash the joint, Jack Kelly as a cub reporter who is one of many taken hostage and Milburn Stone as the prison padre taken hostage as well.Both the prison escape scene and the final gun battle are well staged and brutal for the time. The film looks like it's in need of restoration and I hope it gets it.

Finding a print of Black Tuesday is still quite impossible. And it's a long time mystery : written by Sidney Boehm (The Big Heat and a dozen films noirs), directed by Hugo Fregonese (The Raid, Apache Drums and the unknown Six Convicts), photographed by Stanley Cortez (Night Of The Hunter and so many more) and with EG Robinson as Vincent Canelli, a fast violent happy trigger killer, getting real mad all around his escape. This dream team of film noir have shot a truly desirable one. And yet, I feel slightly disappointed. Certainly not by Stanley Cortez photography, the master still being inventive with lights and shots. Certainly not by EG Robinson, his character is one of his best in his career and he is strongly supported by Peter Graves (his friend then his victim) and Jean Parker as his girlfriend. I think Sidney Boehm's script is not enough worked, lacking nervous speed and more complexity, especially in the first two parts : the escape from jail and the hold-up bank. The third and last part is more atmospheric with police forces attacking the gangsters in their refugee with a storm of bullets and gas. I find Black Tuesday yet very interesting and we need to see a remastered print to get the ultimate opinion on one of the rarest film noir (after Incident by William Beaudine). Time will tell.

An interesting and surprisingly obscure prisoner-on-the-run crime drama, BLACK TUESDAY is perfectly suited for Late, Late Show viewing in the wee small hours of the morning, when much of the action takes place. Like KEY LARGO (also featuring Edward G. Robinson), THE DESPERATE HOURS and the PETRIFIED FOREST, the second half turns into a confined space stageplay. The large cast holed up in the even larger safehouse is game, however, and despite a few unintentionally funny and seemingly out of place romantic interludes, things otherwise generally remain taut. It's like old TV home week as no less than three players from the Desilu stage (Vic Perrin and William Schallert from Star Trek guest appearances, Peter Graves from Mission: Impossible right next door on the lot) get significant screen time. Also look for Russell (The Professor) Johnson in a minor part. Graves in particular has a much more emotive adult part than he customarily got (other than Stalag 17) and he goes for it with gusto, if not much panache. Still, Robinson is at his melodramatic "Where's your messiah now?" best here, blithely slapping broads, torturing gunshot victims and going out in a Little Caeseresque hail of bullets / blaze of glory.Seasoned noir veteran Sydney (SIX BRIDGES TO CROSS, ROGUE COP, UNION STATION, THE HIGH WALL and most notably, THE BIG HEAT) Boehm's script is not brain surgery (the prison breakout is dazzlingly improbable) and is frankly a bit derivative of movies like Cagney's KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE and Bogey's HIGH SIERRA. Also, they obviously didn't spend much on production values. Still, there is no one more iconic in this kind of capo titti capi role than Edward G. Robinson and given the lack of exposure this movie has had in the last 40 years, seeing Robinson's performance is akin to unearthing buried noir treasure. Any fan of Edward G. should immediately seek out this elusive screener because his vicious performance is nothing short of breathtaking, and trumps any of the limitations of this movie.