Les massacreurs de Brooklyn

Jan-Michael Vincent who usually stars in rural setting films either western or modern goes to the mean streets of the Lower East Side of New York for Defiance. But the plot for Defiance could have come from any number of B westerns back in the day.

Vincent is a seaman who's suspended from the union and anxious to get back to sea. While adrift on land, he takes an apartment on the Lower East Side where he gets involved in the local neighborhood struggles with a gang that's terrorizing the place.

The film plays like the James Stewart western, The Far Country where the new town of Klondike miners look to him for leadership against the gang headed by John McIntire. Vincent of course sees himself as an outsider and in point of fact he really is. In fact with his All American boy looks, he's definitely an outsider in the very ethnic Lower East Side.

Most of all until the end Vincent disappoints Theresa Saldana who's a nice Jewish girl who'd like to get a little something going with him, but not if he won't protect the neighborhood.

Art Carney plays the local delicatessen owner and Danny Aiello is a neighborhood tough from bygone days. The gang leader, truly a despicable character is played by Rudy Ramos, his is the grittiest and best part in the film.

This 'western' was shot on the Lower East Side, I recognized some of the area myself. It does give it a nice feel and a lot more realistic than the Lower East Side of Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall. Still it's really an average western on the mean streets of New York.