Peter Falk is Abe Reles, a small time gangster turned notorious hitman in this fact-based crime story about the East-coast syndicate and its affiliate "Murder, Inc.", a loosely organised group of killers for hire in the early 1930's. Most of the characters are historic, and the story revolves around attempts to indict mob boss 'Lepke' Buchalter (David J. Stewart) despite disappearing witnesses and corrupt cops. Stuart Whitman plays a singer indebted to Reles who gets pressured into setting up one of the victims and May Britt his lounge act wife, both of whom end up 'knowing too much'. Falk is very good as the quick tempered, street-smart killer (similar to roles played by Joe Pesci decades later) and the rest of the cast is fine albeit in not particularly challenging roles. The films suffers a bit by resembling a late 1950's TV crime show ("Dragnet" (1951) comes to mind), partly because of the occasionally expository voice-overs, partly because of the music, which was scored by Frank DeVol, remembered for many 1960's and 1970's TV themes, and partly because of a number of anachronisms (commented on elsewhere). Despite these minor weaknesses, the film is a good, tough, crime melodrama about an interesting time in the history of organised crime.

How much truth there is in this "true story" with "real people" is a question best left to historians of organized crime. The subplot of Stuart Whitman ("Joey") and May Britt ("Eadie") as a loving couple caught up in nasty doings certainly seems like the stuff of fiction. In any case, this is a low-budget "B" picture with limited resources for portraying the 1930s setting and documenting the historical events with authentic detail.The one extraordinary element in the movie is the performance by Peter Falk as a contract killer. He is not only completely believable in the role but downright original, giving us a character who is merciless and vicious yet quick to take offense if anyone finds this objectionable. He can sound plaintively sincere even as we quickly come to see that he is incapable of sincerity. He has a host of minor quirks and tics that are fun to watch.Face it, evil can be fascinating and even attractive, in a disturbing way. Another example in this movie is the portrayal of crime kingpin Louis "Lepke" Bucholter by David J. Stewart. While certainly not achieving the high level of Falk's performance, Stewart shows real style as the milk-drinking mobster.There is one other bonus in this film: Sarah Vaughan, looking young and pretty, sings a nice song with that inimitable voice.

This doesn't pretend to be a documentary-style drama of Murder, Incorporated, the 1930s organization that accepted murder contracts, although the Introduction tells us, "ThIs Story is True. The People are Real." A good guess is that Peter Falk's character, Abe Reles, was a real historical figure, along with some ancillary characters, but I don't believe Mai Britt's character, as the innocent schlub Stewart Whitman's wife, had its genesis in anything but the writers imagination. She embodies the anima of the film, the tender-hearted part designed to appeal to the women in the audience, while the men are wringing their hands in anticipation of the next homicide. And the truth is, if you have to have a female victim in the movie, Mai Britt will do as well as anybody else. She may not be much of an actress but her beauty is practically extraterrestrial. Each of her wildly slanted blue eyes seems to look in a direction of its own choosing, like a chameleon's. She's stunning.So is Peter Falk, but in an entirely different way. He may be wearing a fedora and a suit and tie, or even evening dress, but he still looks as seedy as Lieutenant Columbo. There the resemblance ends. He's a cold-blooded merciless killer (he uses an ice pick) and he's first-rate at scanning other people for their emotions. If, for instance, a gangland lawyer like Vincent Gardenia rescues him from the cops (Simon Oakland) with a writ of habeas corpus and then, when Falk tries to shake his hand, remarks, "I wouldn't be caught dead with you," Falk knows right off the bat that Gardenia doesn't like him. But Falk is not only perceptive, he's sensitive. He's HURT when someone insults him. The problem is that he's the kind of guy who's chagrin can express itself in only one way -- violence. It's a nasty trait, and this is probably Falk's best dramatic role, not that there were that many of them.Stewart Whitman, alas, is stuck with the part of the innocent guy who agrees to do a few small favors for Falk in order to work off the money he's borrowed, but then discovers he's been swept up in some nefarious doings. You know, along the lines of Marlon Brando's Terry Malloy in "On The Waterfront." "Geeze, Charlie, I thought you was just gonna LEAN on him a little." This true story of real people turns Abe Reles into a sadistic rapist as well as a hit man, so the ending isn't inappropriate. Any sorrow one might feel at Abe Reles' passing, a spectacular exit through the window and off this mortal coil, is limited to the realization that now he won't be able to testify against Albert Anastasia and the rest of the Goombas he works for. The police are supposed to be the good guys here, but I don't know. Of the three priceless witnesses they're holding under close protection, two manage to get murdered.It can't have cost much to make this picture. There's little attempt to evoke the neighborhoods of Brooklyn in the 1930s. The hair styles are entirely modern, as if the producers didn't really care whether the audience noticed or not. Even the sets are spare and functional. When Falk shows off a palatial apartment to Mai Britt, it's risible because it resembles a set left over from a high school play about rich people.Falk is entertaining, though, and Mai Britt is Venusian, and simmering in the background is something about Murder, Inc.That's about it. The movie is strictly routine.

For anyone who has read the book by Burton Turkus that the screenplay was based on, the movie is a considerably watered-down version of the ugly events depicted. But the movie succeeds at evoking the grimy environment of Brooklyn hoodlums in the late Thirties and early Forties very well. The leads are adequate and the basic story telling is okay. But what makes this movie worth seeing is the astounding performance by Peter Falk as the hit man Abe Reles. He manages to be incongruously funny, in a way that can genuinely make you laugh, but is absolutely terrifying at the same time. He plays a hoodlum with a grotesquely logical sense of values, who sees life and people through such a distorted lens, that he seems like a creature from another planet. His performance is so uncannily convincing, you feel as if you need to take a shower after watching the movie. The only performance I've seen that comes close is that of Joe Pesci in Goodfellas.Definitely worth seeing for true crime buffs and gangster movie fans, though not totally reliable as history.