William Castle directed this 1955 film, New Orleans Uncensored, filmed on location. It stars Arthur Franz, Michael Ansara, and Beverly Garland.
Dan Corbett (Franz), a Navy vet, buys a dilapidated government ship and looks for a job so that he can keep up with the payments and fix it up.
What he runs into is a racketeer, Zero Saxon (Michael Ansara) who is stealing cargo and switching it with phony cargo. Many people are on the take and afraid of Saxon's ruthless killers.
Dan befriends Joe Reilly and his wife Marie, unaware that Joe is on the take. When he tries to quit, he is murdered. Dan winds up working for Saxon, but then helps the cops investigate Saxon, putting himself in danger.
This is done with some narration, very common for this type of film done in the '50s. Also several of the local politicians played themselves.
New Orleans' crooked government and police force is well known. In fact, a family friend, a civil rights attorney, had to move north to keep from being killed.
The film is well done. Both Garland and Saxon's girlfriend (Helene Stanton) had short blond hair - a mistake, as they looked too similar.
Beverly Garland, as Joe's unhappy wife, does a great job. She was one of my favorite people- I was privileged to meet and interview her. She was a delightful, upbeat woman with a wonderful sense of humor and fantastic anecdotes about her years in show business. I miss her.
