Three teenagers find a briefcase with a beat-up old can in it. They throw away the can and pawn the suitcase. When they read in the papers that the can was full of uncut heroin and belonged to a drug dealer who killed two narcotics agents in a shootout, they go back to look for the can, find it, and decide to go into the heroin selling business.This is not one of those great crime films you hear about, but it should be. It not only has a great story of cops and crooks, with teenagers caught in the middle, but it is refreshingly honest. I don't know that films about heroin were really around until the indie boom of the 1970s, but this film is very direct and does not try to sugar coat the issues.I suppose one could say it has some seems that are bit melodramatic, and the junkie's long story of going through withdrawal has almost a "Reefer Madness" quality to it. But as a whole, this is a solid film.

A drug bust goes wrong, and in the deadly aftermath a briefcase containing a can holding 2 pounds of uncut heroin gets lost. Teenagers Yale Wexler, Jonathan Haze and Steven Marlo find the briefcase but are unaware that among its contents is the heroin. They pawn the briefcase and use the money for a night at the bowling club. The next morning they read about the drug bust and the lost briefcase and put 2 and 2 together. They manage to find the can of 'facial powder' with the heroin and turn to local junkie Allen Kramer to find a buyer. But of course both the police and the mobsters are looking for the briefcase and the heroin. It's not long before the police find the briefcase and the mobsters find Kramer...This movie was made on a shoestring budget, and it shows. The movie feels quite raw at times, even amateurish, esp the acting is pretty wooden at times. But on the other hand, the script is full of great lines, and the movie flows rather well. There is an authoritarian voice-over narration that gives the movie a documentary-style feel, which works well here. And while many scenes look rushed, some key scenes are executed rather well with nice set-up's and room to breathe, including a scene where the guys look for the can of heroin on a garbage site, a harrowing account of a junkie going through withdrawal and the climax at an industrial complex.I don't think I'd ever heard of any of the actors in this movie before watching it. And aside from Kramer, who is quite convincing as a junkie, most of them are adequate at best... None of the actors seemed to have moved beyond these cheap B-features and/or moved on to TV, which is maybe for the best. Actors from that time with similar 'looks' as the main characters like Vince Edwards or John Cassavettes would've really lifted this movie up a notch or two.The real talent in this movie tho was behind the camera. Director Irvin Kerschner in his first movie would later direct 'Star Wars V - The Empire Strikes Back', it doesn't get much bigger than that! And DoP Haskell Wexler (brother of one of the 3 kids, Yale Wexler), also lensing his first feature-length movie here, would go on to win 2 Oscars for his cinematography in his long career, for 'Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf' and 'Bound For Glory'. Their work here is really great, considering the shoestring budget. All in all, this movie exceeded my expectations, but I was let down by the mediocre acting. Still a pretty confident recommendation. 7+/10

Stakeout on Dope Street (1958) is the first movie feature directed by Irvin Kershner whose technique is angled much more to the demands of TV than the cinema – as we might expect from someone who spent the previous five or six years filming episodes for TV's Confidential File series. Although interest is kept alive by intercutting the sluggish main action with an occasional flash as to what the police are doing, the pace is often dead slow in these sequences too. No need to list all the movie's not-so-admirable TV traits like the over-reliance on close-ups, the filling-in-time dialogue that slows down the action while we needlessly tune in to the banal philosophy that underlies the actions of the three principals as they throw their dialogue back and forth in the one cramped studio set. As if this were not enough, we are then forced to take in another dose of philosophy from the hero's girlfriend, played by Abby Dalton, an attractive girl with a pleasant face and an absence of bustiness that makes her acceptable as a girl-next-door type. Stakeout was obviously lensed on an extremely tight budget. There is very little action and even the climax is rather tame. Best feature of the movie is Haskell Wexler's glossy, low-key photography. Available on a Video Beat DVD.

Irvin Kershner has directed some excellent, some famous, movies. This one was his first. It certainly isn't famous but it is indeed excellent.It's about three young men who find a briefcase that contains, hidden among cosmetics, a can of heroin. The guys reminded me of characters from "West Side Story," though they are more middle-class. They kind of hang out, kind of have jobs. One kind of has a girlfriend. (She is played by Abby Dalton, the only name in the cast list I'd ever heard, and I'm not sure where I heard it.) That girlfriend notwithstanding, one of them has also drawn a head and unclothed torso of one of the others. This drawing is shown throughout the film.Though it's a sensationalistic film, it is not pro-drug. I am going to risk some brickbats but I never liked "Easy Rider." And I'm a baby boomer. Yes, I liked Jack Nicholson but the whole stoned thing: No, not for me.This little film has a jazz score. It plays out for us like a poem. It reminds me of Allen Ginsburg. It's smart, it's hip. It's everything a movie ought to be. And, I'd guess, it accomplishes this on a pretty low budget.The movie has a Police Gazette type title. And it may have played at drive-ins. But make no mistake: This is real art.