Contract on Cherry Street

As I watched "Contract on Cherry Street", I couldn't help but think this should have been better. After all, it stars Frank Sinatra as well as many well respected supporting acts, such as Martin Balsam, Harry Guardino and Henry Silva. But sadly, the film is very slow paced and should have been much more exciting. Perhaps the actors were just too old to generate a lot of energy! After all, the actors I just mentioned all played cops and, by far, the youngest of them was 48 at the time!

Sinatra plays a Deputy Inspector in New York City that is in charge of a police unit aimed at attacking organized crime. For some reason, they are now centering solely on a car theft ring. However, over time, the unit never seems to be making any progress, so after one of the group is killed, they resort to trying to start a gang war. How? By assassinating some of the gang leaders in the hope that the gang will start distrusting each other and then start killing each other. Two wild cards in all this are two psychopathic Greek killers and a psychopathic cop.

The pacing of this film is, at times, glacial. It could easily have been done in 90=120 minutes but clocks in at over 150 minutes. There also is a huge chunk in the middle of the film where Sinatra disappears for at least 20 minutes....concentrating on other characters instead...which is pretty odd since he is the star. Because of this, you have a decent story but it's just bogged down by the pacing. It simply should have been better.