User reviews

Lots of films have been shot in San Francisco, but few present as many views of the City By the Bay as this one. Here's what we see: Pier 41 and the Embarcadero, Coit Tower, The Ferry Building, The Cliff House, Sutro's Baths (after the closure of the swimming baths in 1954, but during the heyday of the skating rink that took one of the bath's place until 1966--this is probably the only motion picture featuring this rare sight), lots of neighbourhoods, and--to top it all off--a car chase on the then under construction Embarcadero Freeway (since torn down due to earthquake hazard)! Add in a truly exciting and relatively believable story of drug smuggling--certainly cutting edge stuff in 1958--and you have a great little film. Of particular note is Robert Keith (the sheriff in 1954's The Wild One) as one of the twisted criminals. Whenever co-villain Eli Wallach kills someone, Keith writes down the victim's 'final words' in his little black book. And in the some things never change department, Oakland's Lake Merritt is cited as the location of a taxi theft by one of the film's numerous junkies.

I was relaxing in my easy chair when I saw this film pop up on one of the mystery cable channels. I was very surprised and pleased at what I saw. First of all, the comments made about this film having great views of San Francisco are 100% true. I love "noir" films that set a city mood, and this was probably the best film that ever set a "San Francisco mood" with the possible exception of Dirty Harry. A friend of mine lived near the Cliff House and seeing Seal Rock Road and the Sutro Museum (used to be the Sutro Baths) was just incredible. Its just a hole in the ground now. Pier 39, now an over-sized shopping mall, was great to see as well when it was an actual shipping pier. And the movie itself was quite good. Eli Wallach played a sadistic, yet somewhat complex criminal who had no morals and yet showed flashes of compassion. Brian Keith's Father Robert played his mentor with excellence and style. This film was no high budget spectacular but more then made up for it with Siegel's excellent direction and great location scenes. I immediately went online to IMDb to try and buy the VHS or DVD but imagine my surprise when I saw it wasn't available! CMON, LETS SEE THIS ONE COME ONTO DVD!!!!

Tightly scripted, excitingly staged, and brilliantly acted by Eli Wallach, this is a real sleeper. It could have been just another slice of thick-ear on the order of the Dragnet movie (1954). But thanks to writer Stirling Silliphant, director Don Siegel, and actor Wallach, The Lineup stands as one of the best crime films of the decade.

Someone in production made a key decision to shoot the film entirely on location in San Francisco, and rarely have locations been used more imaginatively then here, from dockside to Nob Hill to the streets and freeways, plus lively entertainment spots. The producers of 1968's Bullit must have viewed this little back-and-whiter several times over, especially the car chase.

Colorless detectives Warner Anderson and Emile Meyer (standing in for Tom Tully of the TV series of the same name) are chasing down psychopathic hit-man Wallach and mentor Robert Keith, who in turn are chasing down bags of smuggled narcotics. Dancer (Wallach) is simply chilling. You never know when that dead-pan stare will turn homicidal, even with little kids. Good thing his sidekick, the literary-inclined Julian (Keith), is there as a restraining force, otherwise the city might be seriously de-populated.

Cult director Siegel keeps things moving without let-up, and even the forces of law and order are kept from stalling the action. My favorite scene is where Dancer goes slowly bonkers at the uncooperative Japanese doll. Watch his restrained courtship manners with the lonely mother (Mary La Roche) come unraveled as he reverts to psychopathic form, while mother and daughter huddle in mounting panic at the man they so trustingly brought home. It's a riveting scene in a film filled with them.

The Line Up is another of those unheralded, minor gems that has stood the test of time, unlike so many of the big-budget cadavers of that year or any year.

Heroin from Asia is flooding into San Francisco, carried in souvenirs and curios packed by unwitting mules. When the mules arrive home to kick back after their peregrinations around the Pacific Rim, they are paid an unexpected and usually unpleasant visit by a team of psycho-killers named Dancer and Julian (Eli Wallach and Robert Keith, respectively), who collect the precious narcotic. Wallach is forever on the edge of detonation, so it takes the patient ministrations of Keith to soothe him down and keep him on task; their relationship suggests that of an old queen dealing with rough trade. (Their young driver, Richard Jaeckel -- best remembered as the young Turk in Come Back, Little Sheba -- adds to the homoerotic tone, as does a violent scene in a steambath). Don Siegel goads the action along and knows what he's doing every step of the way. The Lineup marks a no-man's-land between classic film noir, which had pretty much ground to a halt, and the flatter, faster and more sensational thrillers that the early 1960s would bring; in its more modest way, it foreshadows later movies like The Detective, Bullitt and The French Connection.

Good crime drama with interesting settings and some good action scenes.The movie really showcases San Francisco. Sutro Baths ( now sadly lost in a fire) is the setting for a some excellent scenes. You will also see the Opera House, the Ferry Building, some freeways being built, and other interesting sights. If you want to see how San Francisco looked in 1958 and see some pretty good action and some pretty mean bad guys you will enjoy this one.

In the harbor of San Francisco, a porter throws the suitcase of a passenger that has just arrived from Asia into a taxi and the driver hits a truck and a police officer that kills him before dying. The owner Philip Dressler (Raymond Bailey) explains to the police Lieutenant Ben Guthrie (Warner Anderson) and Inspector Al Quine (Emile Meyer) that the content of the suitcase are antiques that he bought in Asia from a street vendor. However the police laboratory discover that one statuette has heroin hidden inside and the inspectors replace the drug per sugar and return the suitcase to Dressler, who is a citizen above suspicion. Meanwhile the gangster Dancer (Eli Wallach), who is a psychopath; his partner Julian (Robert Keith) and the alcoholic driver Sandy McLain (Richard Jaeckel) are hired by the kingpin The Man (Vaughn Taylor) to collect the heroin packages that have been smuggled hidden in the luggage of three other innocent tourists. They succeed to retrieve the two firsts, but the load of the third one vanishes and they panic. Meanwhile the police is hunting them under the command of Lt. Guthrie.

"The Lineup" is another great police story directed by Don Siegel. The story is original and the action scenes in San Francisco are impressive for a 1958 film. The dysfunctional criminals are peculiar and Eli Wallach performs a psychopath killer; Robert Keith takes notes of the last words of Dancer's victims in a notebook; and Richard Jaeckel is an alcoholic driver. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Sádico Selvagem" ("The Wild Sadist")

Don Siegel was a fine director, and here he has made a film based on a TV show, The Lineup, which ran on CBS for six years, and using its stars, Warner Anderson and Marshall Reed as Lt. Ben Guthrie and Inspector Fred Ascher. The show was similar to "Dragnet," meaning that it had a lot of police procedural work, which Siegel didn't want in the film. He lost that argument with Colombia.

Robert Keith and Eli Wallach are gangsters employed to retrieve narcotics that are hidden in items coming into the country -- unknown to the people who actually purchased them. This means either finessing the items from them on some excuse, breaking into their homes, or whatever needed to be done. The Wallach character elects to kill as he goes. When he gets to a woman (Mary LaRoche) and her daughter, the heroin is is supposed to be inside a doll, except it isn't. Now they have to tell the big boss what happened.

If you're from San Francisco, this is the film for you, as it uses San Francisco locations circa 1958, which you will find fascinating. The city gives the film a great atmosphere, too.

Pretty good film noir, with a dramatic, wild ending.

This movie is one shocking scene after another. They're connected, to be sure. It's a very well crafted film. But it;s like the "This Is Cinerama" of shocking brutal effects.

Eli Wallach, right out of his brilliant performance in the sublime "Baby Doll," plays a psychopath. His mentor is Robert Keith. They have a very strange relationship: Keith, though a cold blooded criminal, is very strict about grammar and manners. Wallach wants to learn from him.

Add to this twosome a blond, prettied-up Richard Jaeckel as their eager driver. (See my comments on the pros and cons of gay hit men in fifties movies under my comments on "Murder By Contract." At least people saw them but they were far from role models. Better than the swishy stereotypes of earlier decades but portrayed most unflatteringly nevertheless.

We have a scene in a steam room. We have nuns and children. We have a terrific car chase.

I'm not giving away any plot. I'll say only that these boys don't play nice -- or nicely as the Dancer (Wallach) character would have it.

It's a brilliant movie. It's one of Siegel's most polished and very best.

Classy Donald Siegel film with thrills ,noisy action , pursuits and plot twists. Unforgettable stuff and sharply made, set in San Francisco, dealing with some psycho-Killers are hired to recover a heroin haul from unsuspecting travelers . And, eventually wanting to know more about the man who hired them. Too hot..too big..for TV !. The manhunt they had to put on the giant-sized movie theatre screen!. The big , new lineup of thrills comes to the big movie theatre ! .Starring Elli Wallach , the sensation of Baby Doll...as the killer !

Based on a successful TV series which also featured Warner Anderson and shown in other countries as San Francisco Beat . Stunning and interesting script by thriller expert Stirling Silliphant and originally created by Lawrence Klee from Columbia System TV series : 'The lineup'. A typical Donald Siegel film , that's why Donald made various flicks dealing with people rather than events , many of them concern psychopaths and loners. Main and support cast are pretty good . As Elli Wallach is extraordinary as an ominous assassin and remaining cast are frankly good , such as : Robert Keith, Emile Meyer, Marshall Reed, Raymond Bailey, Vaughan Taylor , Warner Anderson, and a young newcomer Richard Jaeckel.

It contains an evocative and atmospheric cinematography in black and white by cameraman Hal Mohr. As well as thrilling and suspenseful musical score by composer Mischa Bakaleinikoff. The motion picture was well directed by Donald Siegel. This great director was a thriller specialist , including titles as "The Verdict , Night unto night , Riot in Cell Block 11, The Big Steal, , Crime in the streets , The Killers , Baby Face Nelson, Stranger on the run, Madigan, Coogan's Bluff , Dirty Harry, Charley Varrick, The Black windmill, Telefon, Escape from Alcatraz" , among others. Rating 7,5/10 . Better than average .The picture will appeal to thriller fans .

This was a breezy, fast-paced little piece of noir that crosses the time barrier pretty efficiently. Each of the three main villains, driving through the sun-lit streets of San Francisco, delivering violence and death, leave up with strongly etched character studies. The locations are wonderful, particularly the ice rink. It's a privilege to sit back, follow, a simple, well-woven plot and travel back in time to a place you never been, yet know pretty intimately anyways. Films that flow with such ease are becoming rare items

This would be a great double bill with Bullitt or Dirty Harry. Heck, it would be a great double bill with anything.

Leave it to Don Siegel to turn a regular police investigation story into a tough, tense thriller skillfully photographed on real locations with a highly suspenseful ending.

The film "The Lineup" at first seems oddly named - It has exactly one lineup in it, and that lineup is hardly the centerpiece of the film. The name actually comes from the TV show "The Lineup" AKA "San Francisco Beat" starring the same actors as those playing the primary detectives in this film.

As for the plot, businessman Philip Dressler(Raymond Bailey) is returning from a trip to Asia when a porter takes his bag, tosses it into a cab, and the cab drives off without Dressler. The cabbie runs over an officer standing in the street ordering him to stop, but manages to get a couple of shots off that kill the cabbie. Dressler is questioned by the police but has no idea why this has happened, other than it being just garden variety robbery.

The police impound Dressler's bag and have the lab look at the contents where it is discovered that there is a fortune's worth of heroin hidden in one of the statuettes that Dressler has returned with. The heroin is replaced with sugar and everything is returned to Dressler. He's not placed under arrest so that he might lead them to the actual smugglers, but he never does. Dressler seems without knowledge that narcotics have been hidden in his luggage.

22 minutes into the film the focus abruptly shifts to two gangsters flying into San Francisco to retrieve heroin from three groups of passengers returning from a trip to Asia. They also have heroin stashed in trinkets they have bought, without their knowledge. The gangsters involved are really a piece of work. Eli Wallach plays the sociopath killer, Dancer, who has been instructed to get the drugs back by any means necessary. Julian (Robert Keith) seems to be along for the ride as Dancer's mentor more than boss. As for the heroin Dressler was carrying? The plot seems to have gotten amnesia concerning him.

I would have probably given this an 8/10 if not for a couple of things. For one, Dressler gets completely dropped although the police mentioned he was carrying a fortune in heroin. Also, the plot gets bogged down and claustrophobic when it encounters the last set of tourists on the mob's list - a woman and her daughter. But it's hard to carry over the excitement and concise nature of a TV show into a feature film, so I'll give it a pass on some of this. It does have some amazing Bay Area footage, and there's something brilliantly quirky about bad guy Eli Wallach reading a book on English Grammar and Usage and launching into a discussion of the subjunctive with his mentor.

There were a number of things to like in this movie such as the camera-work, the strange characters and some unique dialog.

To me, the best of the lines were said by the "old" crook, "Julian," played by Robert Keith. To give you idea, "Julian" was writing a book on people's last words after his partner "Dancer" ( Eli Walllach) killed them!! Keith was really interesting to listen to, and did a great job on this role. Actually, Wallach was great, too, playing a clean-shaven whacked-out villain in this story. (Eli would grow a beard and become famous two years after this movie, playing the Mexican villain in "The Magnificent Seven.")

On the other side of the ledger, Warner Anderson (Lt. Ben Guthrie") is perfect for the ultra-straight-laced-looking cop. His partner, "Inspector Al Quine," was played by Emile Meyer. He should be a familiar face to you older folks as Meyer usually played a sadistic bad guy on his numerous TV roles and had a face you couldn't forget! It was odd seeing him as a low-key cop instead of some sadist.

Richard Jaekel as the driver of the two criminals also was different, and had good lines, too, I thought.....so I definitely enjoyed watching this cast.

I enjoyed the story. I wish more late 1950s film noir movies were made because they are a little different. The only surprise I had was that I expected a faster-paced film knowing it was a Don Siegel movie. But, it was still the '50s and not the days yet of "Dirty Harry" so the films will be slower, I suppose, even with an "action" director like Siegel. The story started off with a bang but then started slowing down, almost to standstill after 30-40 minutes but began picking up when Wallach entered the scene, and then got more intense as it went on. The ending is really wild with a couple of shocking scenes.

Watching The Lineup it's easy to see why San Francisco had a reputation as a beautiful, romantic city. And on top of that Don Siegel managed to shhot his outdoor scenes on what must have been the sunniest days in SF history. That easily rates as half this movie's charms.

The other half of what makes The Lineup enjoyable is the tightly coiled performance from Eli Wallach and his mentor/partner Robert Keith. Wallach barely able to contain his sublimated rage. Keith coaching him along like an elderly guidance counsellor. There aren't too many crime duos I've enjoyed more. Frankly, a series of movies based on these two would probably be a lot more interesting than the weekly TV series about the stiffs in the SFPD.

Oh, about those cops. Their part of the movie plays like a Very Special After School Special. Had Siegel and the screenwriter dumped them and all vestiges of the TV crime procedural of the same name, and focused entirely on the Wallach/Keith exploits, this could have been a crackerjack movie.

If nothing else, the movie proves that Wallach's electrifying debut big-screen performance in Baby Doll was no fluke. Every scene he's in just crackles. For all the hoopla the big names of The Method school enjoyed, Wallach had them beat hands-down.

I only saw this violent little thriller once, about 1977. Robert Keith and Eli Wallach are a pair of gangsters who have to pick up some narcotics that have been sneaked into the country. It is inside a doll. Keith, an old hand at criminal activity and violence, is the control man who keeps reassuring the volatile Wallach that if they get through the various delays and problems along the way, the mission will be accomplished and "It will all be over by" the hour when they leave town.

Of course nothing is easy, especially as Wallach's "Dancer" is such a sensitive, over-ready killing machine. Soon the number of unnecessary murders accumulate (a butler, a blackmailing hood). Also, the dangers of being a courier increase - the drugs are not all found, and Dancer decides to try to explain this to the wrong party. His typical reaction to the wrong party's reaction leads to the violence of the film's conclusion.

This was one of Don Siegel's first thrillers, and may be the leanest in terms of plotting. It is tightly filmed and remarkably effective, especially in the way the violence breeds more violence until it engulfs the last moments of the movie. It is not the squeamish, although not as bloody as other films, but it is for film noir fans.

This unspectacular cops and robbers chase through the streets of San Francisco sees the City's Finest hot (actually more lukewarm) on the trail of a network of heroin traffickers, finally cornering them on the unfinished Embarcadero Freeway, still under construction in 1958. To its credit the film (based on an early television series) neatly incorporates several Bay Area locations into the plot, but the style is as dated as the gray hats and suits worn by the uncharismatic paragons of law and order in their unblinking pursuit of evidence. The villains, thankfully, are given more attention, making an attractive assortment of psychopaths and social misfits.