Street of Sinners

Officer Dean (George Montgomery) is taking over the beat, and he's not making any friends on his very first day. The thugs are testing him, to see what they can get away with. Leon (Nehemiah Persoff) is the antagonist, the "business man", who really does run a legit business. But he also runs a few businesses that aren't so clean, even selling booze to under age kids. Dean is determined to shut him down and clean up the street. It comes across as a documentary, like dragnet, but it's a little too on the nose. Everything is overdone. The kids overact, the punk kids are dressed a little too clean as they break the law. Dean doesn't even make an effort to get along with the kids from the very first day. And it all goes exactly as expected. There's going to be big showdown at some point. It's just fair to middlin. Montgomery had a long successful career, acting and even directed a few things. Since Persoff had so many early roles in tv, he managed to skip many of the "uncredited" roles that actors get as they claw their way to the lead. He was frequently the second banana, playing parts on both sidess of the law. Persoff himself has an interesting story on wikipedia. Story by Philip Yordan. Directed by Bill Berke. No oscars, but was successful in film and tv series. Died young at 54. This one was made in the late 1950s, when all the studios were making films on the rough, gritty, city life.

Inner-City Youths Boxed in to a Few Streets with 1 Beat-Cop to Deal With, When the Current "Look-the-Other-Way" Type Retires...

Hard-Nosed, By-the-Rules "Rookie" George Montgomery Takes Over and Things Get Out of Hand Fast.

Gritty Stuff on "Sinner-Street" with Seemingly "No-Way-Out", especially when the Local Bar-Hang-Out is Pushing Drinks on Minors and then Pushing the Girls "Down-Town" for "Modeling" Jobs (yea sure).

Montgomery is a One-Man Reformer Bucking the Locals with the "Old-Man' who runs the Bar, the Girls, and Everything Else with Tentacles Everywhere to Keep Things Running "Above the Law".

Phillip Yordan Adds some Character Development, and these are a Bunch of "Loser" Characters...

One Young Alcoholic Divorcee is so "Out-of-It" She is Cracked Wide-Open, Burns a Steak and Biscuits and Takes a Dive Off Her Tenement Building Ledge.

One Young Lady Goes from a Bar-Fly Flirting with the "Boss" (His Favorite), Sent-Packing "Downtown" in a Heartbeat.

Some Over-Acting and the Confines of the Limitations of "Sinner Street" Hold the Thing Back from any Broad Appeal or Significance,

but the Low-Budget Cast, some Taut Dialog, and Piled on Melodrama Help Make it More than it Should Be, and is...

Worth a Watch.

It's the first day for New York city beat cop John Dean (George Montgomery). He's taking over from a retiring veteran who allowed for a loose interpretation of the law. John is the opposite and he intends to clean up. Leon owns the local bar, owns the police, and runs the wild streets. Nancy is the underaged wild girl working in the bar. Terry is the local drunk who often takes off her clothes in the street.

It's a police melodrama. It's a 50's fantasy street life. There is an element of selling to middle America. There is over-acting here and characters worthy of pulpy crime comics. It's fun in an enjoyable B-movie way. The actors are pretty good despite the melodramatic material. The characters may be one-dimensional but compelling enough to be rooting interest.

Director William Berke was referred to as "The King of the B's" for his prolific output of low-budget movies. In one of his last films, Street Of Sinners, he worked with equally prolific actors George Montgomery, Nehemiah Persoff and Geraldine Brooks.

Montgomery is a by-the-book cop who is working a new beat. Persoff is the proprietor of a lounge that serves drinks to minors, handles illegal bets and engages in sex trafficking. Brooks, convincingly, plays one of the victims to Persoff's devilish ways.

Montgomery's cop is given the lone hero treatment, but Persoff has all the contacts downtown that prevent him from being brought to justice.

The film moves briskly through its plot points and even pays attention to character development.

It all feels too remedial, but if you're a lover of 50s crime films you'll find a certain lure to the movie particularly because of the performances by the leads.

John (George Montgomery) is a rookie cop about to start his first beat. However, he is quite naive and knows little about the neighborhood and the hood who runs it. Leon (Nehemiah Persoff) is a small-time mobster who has connections in City Hall....and for years, folks have ignored Leon. But while at first Leon seems like a minor crook who isn't doing much harm, his influence goes far beyond just serving liquor to underage kids in his bar. Can John manage to stand up to Leon and both keep his job AND not get his head blown off as well? And, can John effect change when his fellow officers don't seem to care?

Despite the film initially seeming pretty cheesy and stiff, the film improves as you watch. It soon becomes tense and exciting....and leads to a dandy finale. Well made and very well written.

By the way, believe it or not, Persoff turns 102 this August. Good luck to a fine, fine actor....and he sure plays an excellent villain!