When a cop drops a name, it usually isn't a racketeer's. However, in the case of humiliated officer Broderick Crawford, he's willing to make an exception. Taking on an undercover assignment after allowing a killer to escape because of a fake badge, Crawford manipulates his way onto the rackets of the waterfront where his name dropping gets him an introduction to the big man. Making both friends with the mob and enemies with the law, he manages to get away with his plan, but will his luck continue?Great atmosphere provides for an intriguing crime drama that truly is one of the better film noir of the early 1950's. Toss in future Oscar Winner Ernest Borgnine along with recent winner Crawford, here on the right side of the law as opposed to his memorable characters in All the King's Men and Born Yesterday.Nobody is who they appear to be in this, with lots of shady characters who are really cops and a few on the opposite. A sassy screenplay is filled with delightfully macho tough dialog that keeps dropping feminine comments about various characters who are dropped down a peg or two by various low-lives.While there are a few women involved in the plot, there isn't an unnecessary romantic plot to pad this out needlessly. This is definitely a guy's film and is clever and complex without being pretentious. Look for Richard Kiley and Charles Bronson.

Those were the days, working with what was called "break hold cargo," loading and unloading sacks and crates from ships. Now everything is pre-packed and sealed in a container that a crane lifts neatly from the hold and sits down gently on the trailer of an eighteen wheeler. No fuss, no muss, no jobs. It's why San Francisco is no longer a port, having lost its business to the more modernized Oakland across the bay. When I was a kid I used to wander the docks on New York's waterfront and pick up oddments like rolls of cinnamon from Sumatra (or so I imagined) or shards of twisted cork from Portugal.In 1951, the period of this movie, a stevedore's job may have been hard to come by but the corruption was all over the place. The basic story is that of "On the Waterfront" except simpler and more careless. Instead of Marlon Brando discovering he has a conscience, we have gruff Broderick Crawford doing his job as an undercover cop, slugging and getting slugged. Among the bad guys who are ripping off the union are John Marley, Ernest Borgnine, and Neville Brand -- a real group of merry men. There are some women involved too, but not to any great extent.I realize other have found this more entertaining than I did. I thought it achieved the routine. Crawford is such a slob, he never looks right in a suit -- and a pretty blond tells him he's "cute", twice. And he growls like a German shepherd when he speaks, even when he's trying to be pleasant.Richard Kiley isn't too convincing as a waterfront working stiff. He sounds educated and looks it too. He once did a PBS special in which he did nothing much but read and enact poems that are high school standards, like "Richard Corey" and "Mr. Flood's Party." Can I quote the last stanza?"There was not much that was ahead of him, And there was nothing in the town below— Where strangers would have shut the many doors That many friends had opened long ago." What a portrait of desolation, and Kiley turned it into one of the most moving recitations I've ever heard. I love the guy but he seems miscast here.The art direction is pedestrian and the milieu is one of those unnamed cities. Unnamed because it describes miscreance in high place. The dialog, though, has little sparkles sprinkled throughout. Not Edwin Arlington Robinson but dismissible and neat exchanges. "Tell me all about yourself," says a a pretty blond gangster's moll to the drunk and disheveled Crawford. "I come from a typical family. My father was an oil executive and my mother was a socialite." The jealous Kiley asks: "Did they ever marry?"Well, if it's not exceptional for most of the movie, it livens up towards the end. It's not bad in any way but except for a few performances and the capacity shown by the dialog to insinuate its way out of the humdrum, it's just what you'd expect.

I got to ask -- because so much of the plot of "On the Waterfront" is here. Broderick Crawford is first rate (not as good as in "All the King's Men"); because Crawford has none of the depth and range of Brando. Plus, this is not a longshoreman's movie -- it's the cops' movie. The police are the key players; they get the full camera foreground and background. But how could "On the Waterfront" (1954) have existed without "The Mob" (1951)? All the character and story leads are here -- plus our hero gets a threatening backseat ride in the car with a gun pointed at his gut. The police forensic details are excellent; not hokey (and probably based on WW2 techniques?). It's surprising this movie isn't better known. Again, quality-wise, it's not "A+" as a film -- more like "B+". It's got long, excellent passages that are then followed by filler, Hollywood product (like the scenes with Ernest Borgnine). But what's great about "The Mob" is how when it works it rings true about the life and struggles of blue collar Americans just after the victory of WW2. Where's their victory? Except for the cops. In sum, tough minded doozie of a film.

Broderick Crawford won the Oscar for Best Performance for ALL THE KING'S MEN(Columbia, 1949). This crime drama, THE MOB, was undoubtedly planned as a vehicle tailor made for him. We see that this film is classified as Film Noir, of which it does seem to have the dark, brooding and the impossible situations for there to be any successful conclusion/happy ending. But this ending is sort of up beat, and it's even one that would fit as the fade-out finale of one of the Chester Morris/Columbia Pictures' BOSTON BLACKIE entries.The beginning of the movie is done in a somewhat slowly revealing, deliberate and methodical scene that keeps the audience guessing about the integrity of main character,Police Detective,Johnny Damico(Broderick Crawford). His quick paced banter with a jeweler over a diamond ring and its value is just vague enough to lead us to believing It to be some sort of shady deal. Ultimately we learn that Det. Damico and Mr.Jeweler are well acquainted, even friends. The Detective is shown to be a man and an Officr of the Law who has good, decent beliefs and behaviour.Quite by accident, Det. Damico runs into an on-view shooting. The shooter identifies self as a Police Detective Lieutennant and presents Shield and ID to Damico. It is dark, rainy and the "Lieutennant" manages to split from the scene.After all is found out, the Police Commissioner assigns the Detective to go underground to ferret out the cause of recent killings, including including that of the real Police Lt. whose shield was used by the unknown killer.At this point, the story really takes off as Damico feigns the role of a trouble making bad guy from New Orleans. The undercover role takes him to the Waterfront and taking the position as a Longshoreman.Now at this point, it appears that the film was a story of Labor Racketeering and the corruption that flows from the scene of such an unsavory operation. It sort of resembles, ever so briefly, the not yet made ON THE WATERFRONT(Columbia,1954).But no dice, once again the Director and production shifts gears and the storyline skews toward resemblance to the Detective Stories that populated the Pulp Magazines and those Radio Dramas which were adapted from the Pulps.Once again, we see a variant on the theme as the new source of inspiration appears to be the Comic Book cops-n-robbers story as exemplified by Will Eisner's THE SPIRIT.* The chase and the eventual revealing of the Hide-Out HQ and, especially the true identity of the Underworld big shot are especially reminiscent of an Eisner written and illustrated story.But, then again, we see another aspect of this story in the inclusion of some ultra modern,"Super Scientific",electronic crime-bustin' technology. They seem to take a queue from the James Cagney starring film, WHITE HEAT (Warner Brothers 1949). At a late point in the story, tracking a vehicle via the use of infra red light and pinpointing a location by radio Tri Angulation is introduced.The film has an interesting cast of people who DON'T look like movie stars. They look very ordinary and much like a cast of characters that you would see in the real world. But that does not mean that there was not talent on display. The Acting Abilities of the cast members are super abundant, as shown by the rise in prominence of so many of the players in the subsequent years.So, we are treated to performances by the likes of: Mary Kierman, Richard Kiley,Otto Hulett,Matt Crowley**,Neville Brand, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Frank DeKova, Lawrence Dobkin and others.And, please don't you think that it the purpose of this writer to pan or degrade this film, far from it. The only thing that I can say is: "Hey 'MOB', where have you been all my Life?"* Much like THE SPIRIT, this offers its moments of levity and the Story is propelled along at a good clip, powered by some clever, witty and even funny dialog.** Is this the same Matt Crowley who enjoyed a fine career as a Radio Actor, portraying among others, BUCK ROGERS? ADDENDUM: 9/23/09. The answer is (after all this time is a most emphatic "YES!" It turns out that the multi-media actor was active in Radio (BUCK ROGERS), the Movies (THE MOB), Broadway Stage (THE FRONT PAGE)as well as a multitude of TV Shots too numerous to list here.