The Street with No Name

Plot synopsis:
The opening credits include the following foreword:
The motion picture you are about to see was adapted from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Wherever possible, it was photographed in the original locale and played by the actual FBI personnel involved.
This is followed by a message from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover:
The street on which crime flourishes is the street extending across America. It is the street with no name. Organized gangsterism is once again returning. If permitted to go unchecked three out of every four Americans will eventually become its victims. Wherever law and order break down there you will find public indifference. An alert and vigilant America will make for a secure America.
A crime wave, including a holdup at a nightclub that ends in a murder and a bank robbery in which a guard is killed, has hit Center City. A squad of FBI agents headed by inspector George A. Briggs meets with local FBI field officer Richard Atkins, police chief Bernard Harmatz and Police Commissioner Ralph Demory. After Briggs interrogates suspect Robert Danker, who claims he was not involved in either killing and that he has been framed, various tests are run at the FBI laboratory in Washington that exonerate Danker. Later Danker, who has been bailed out by "John Smith," is found stabbed to death. At the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, Briggs briefs agent Gene Cordell, who is going undercover in Center City to try to infiltrate the gang Briggs thinks is responsible for all three killings. Cordell takes a bus into Center City and rents a room at the same "Skid Row" hotel in which Danker had been living. Fellow agent Cy Gordon is in a similar hotel across the street from him. Using the name George Manly, Cordell makes himself known in the area by going to the local gym and picking a fight with one of the boxers training there. He is spotted by owner Alec Stiles, who offers him cash if he can last against the boxer. He does, and Alec pays him off.
Later, in a nearby amusement arcade, Cordell tells Gordon that while he was at the gym, his Social Security card was stolen. As they talk, two policemen approach and arrest Cordell for a break-in at a jewelry store, where his card has been found. The FBI has provided a false record for Cordell, and he is bailed out by John Smith, who turns out to be Stiles. Through the police department, Stiles has acquired a copy of Cordell's phony FBI record and is impressed enough to invite him to join his organization. Later Cordell meets with Briggs on board a ferry, and his report convinces Briggs that the Stiles gang are their culprits. After Stiles and his henchmen plan a robbery of a local mansion, Stiles has a violent argument with his wife Judy. Cordell alerts Gordon about the robbery and the FBI and police prepare an ambush, but Stiles' informant within the police department tips him off and he cancels the job. Cordell returns to gang headquarters and fires a shot from Stiles' revolver in order to recover the bullet for testing. However, Stiles discovers that his gun has been fired and goes to see his informant, who turns out to be Commissioner Demory, and asks him to have his gun checked for fingerprints. Demory later advises Stiles that his gang has been infiltrated by Cordell.
Shivvy and Matty, two of Stiles' henchmen, take Cordell to see Stiles, and Gordon follows them in a taxi. Briggs, who has been observing Stiles and can link him to Demory, then receives a report from Washington that the barrel markings on the bullet fired from Stiles' gun are identical with those on the bullets used in the previous killings. After Gordon tracks Shivvy, Matty and Cordell to a factory, he tells the taxi driver to get word to Briggs as to where he is. Inside the plant, Shivvy discovers and then stabs Gordon. Cordell does not realize he has been found out until Stiles announces he is going to frame him and have Demory's officers "accidentally" kill him. However, the plan backfires when Briggs and Chief Harmatz arrive with backup and chase Stiles through the factory. Cordell corners Stiles and kills him, and as Briggs arrests Demory, agent Gordon recovers.

Tags: violence, murder

Review:
Most directors assigned these tasks in the noir cycle wrote off such idolatry as a cost of doing business, clearing it away quickly so as to get on with their moviemaking; William Keighley follows this sensible agenda.FBI agent Mark Stevens goes undercover to infiltrate the mob in that cesspool of crime, Center City, USA.
The success of The House on 92nd Street set a whole new trend of film making for 20th Century Fox. For the rest of the forties, that studio had a lot of success with a certain kind of documentary/noir type film.In The Street With No Name, Lloyd Nolan repeats his characterization of FBI inspector George Briggs.
The undercover guy is Mark Stevens and the gang he finds an infiltrates is led by Richard Widmark in his second film.
The outcome of this pursuit is a film like THE STREET WITH NO NAME.New hot property RICHARD WIDMARK is given another chance to shine as a sneering villain who runs a gang the police are anxious to put out of business.
They send a mole (MARK STEVENS) to infiltrate the mob and get the goods on Widmark--not unlike the situation in Cagney's WHITE HEAT.While this one doesn't approach the finesse of Raoul Walsh's WHITE HEAT, it's a solidly entertaining piece of crime melodrama given punch by some good overall performances.
Aside from Widmark and Stevens, the cast includes reliable Fox contract players BARBARA LAWRENCE, ED BEGLEY, DONALD BUKA, and JOHN McINTIRE.Based on an actual FBI case, there's some narration in the manner of other Fox films in this genre.
He certainly plays a nasty piece of work here and is also a wife-beater.It is told in semi-documentary style and shot well in black and white, is very atmospheric and has a good music score too.Also in the cast are Mark Stevens, Lloyd Nolan, Barbara Lawrence and John McIntire (Wagon Train).
At first, the docu-drama approach feels like kind of a safety net that prevents the viewer from losing himself completely in this striking noir universe, but the intricacies of the police work were interesting to watch unfold and this is still a strong film.
I also liked the colorful low life lingo such as when one of the thugs tells Stevens to "pick yourself a boom-boom" as they suit up for their big score.Great to see Richard Widmark doing what he does best - playing villains, of course.
Never having heard of Stevens I assumed it was just a made up movie star name and movie title ("I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now".) Imagine my surprise when shortly thereafter I looked up his name and found out that there certainly was such an actor, a borderline leading man who apparently enjoyed some level of stardom during a 30 or so film career.
While the movie is a very dark crime movie and a lot of the scenes are filmed outdoors on rainy nights, the movie merely gives a nod to the lighting/shadowing aspects of film noir as there are quite a few day scenes and/or scenes that are shot in very well lit rooms (i.e. the boxing gym, the FBI offices, etc.).
Finally, Although I liked his part in The Kiss Of Death a little more---boy was he evil in that movie--- Richard Widmark does a great job in this, one of his earlier films, and the rest of the actors do a very competent job in playing their parts as well.
This underrated noir, efficiently handled in all departments, has rather unjustly been overshadowed by its higher-profile color remake – Samuel Fuller’s HOUSE OF BAMBOO (1955), which I’d watched before but will re-acquaint myself with now thanks to the original (scheduled as part of my ongoing Richard Widmark tribute).The film (whose title is allegorical) deals with F.B.I. rookie Mark Stevens infiltrating a criminal gang headed by Widmark; the Bureau gave Fox (who produced it) their full co-operation: the studio, in fact, had already made THE HOUSE ON 92ND STREET (1945) in a similar vein and, though THE STREET WITH NO NAME is marked by that earlier title’s innovative semi-documentary style, it actually ties in more with the gangster pictures of the 1930s.
At first glance, Stevens looks like an unlikely tough guy but, in retrospect, he acquits himself surprisingly well; Widmark – in his second film – has graduated from sadistic thug to unscrupulous gang boss (memorably introduced, with his face half-hidden behind a handkerchief during a night-club ‘job’, spitting a line at the orchestra conductor: “O.K., Stokowski…dry up!”).
The film is also blessed with a terrific supporting cast (including Lloyd Nolan, John McIntire and Ed Begley – all of whom play F.B.I. operatives – Donald Buka being especially noteworthy among the criminals as Widmark’s taciturn but ruthless right-hand man, and only one prominent female figure in Barbara Lawrence as the typically-abused gangster’s moll).As expected, Joe MacDonald’s shadowy lighting emerges to be an indispensable asset here – rendered even more effective (and realistic) by locations carefully-chosen to fit the desired mood of every sequence.
A terrific cast (with Richard Widmark especially good, and even better than he was in "Kiss of Death" a year earlier), and an atmosphere as dark and moody as Widmark's character, make this one of the very best film noirs..
Directed by William Keighley, an able action director ("G-Men", "Each Dawn I Die"), it stars Richard Widmark as the creepily murderous mob boss Stiles and Mark Stevens as the innocent looking FBI agent in peril.
This FBI -vs- the gangsters film seems a bit stiff and hokey in the first 15 minutes, then takes off when Alec Stiles (Richard Widmark) shows up.
He's neither chilling nor very menacing (even though he's mean as hell to his non-femme fatale girlfriend); yet there's something charismatic about him that makes you want to watch his unique screen presence here.The last 45 minutes of the film is truly excellent entertainment and the final 10 minutes or so is a wet, dark, dripping noir.I'd give it 10 stars if not for the first few scenes that don't involve Widmark..
I loved how the film used words like "Skid Row" and set one of the crimes in the generic-sounding "Center City"--a cute use of film noir style names and in effort to make a film that could be placed in any big city in America.Eventually, Stevens is able to impress the local mob bit-shot (played by Richard Widmark) when he boxes in a mob-controlled joint.
I was very pleasantly entertained by this better-than-standard B-movie fare.I'd heard about this film for many years, promising myself to see it at some time  mainly because I knew Richard Widmark was one of the stars.
But, when a DVD came across to me recently, I received it with mixed feelings: I found out that Mark Stevens had top billing, with Widmark and Llyod Nolan (another good actor from the 30s and 40s I liked) in support.
It's a guy film; gals are almost non-existent, the exception being Judy Stiles (Barbara Lawrence), the abused wife of the very murderous gangster, Alec Stiles (Widmark), whom Gene Cordell, FBI agent (Stevens), is commissioned to bring down, by infiltrating Stiles' gang to secure the necessary evidence.So, the story is  in a real sense  by the numbers: in this case (no pun intended), the very detailed processes used within the FBI to get the bad guys.
Frankly, any real crime at that time could have learned a lot by watching this film...maybe.In a nutshell, Cordell gets his man Stiles in an excellently staged shootout, at night, in a large factory on the outskirts of Center City (the fictional city for the story  but, as J Edgar Hoover intones at the start, it could be any city, any street across USA).
It's a delicious filmic sequence as the director, William Keighly, cuts between both camps, shot for shot, showing how each of the moles is faring as the duplicate nets close in around each.Add to that, the very realistic filming on location in Washington, Los Angeles, San Pedro and Santa Ana  the rain-slicked streets, the boxing gym, the clip joints, the seedy hotels, the dirty diners  and you have a much better than average B-movie that gets it right, all the way through.
Street with No Name, The (1948) *** (out of 4) A couple gangland killings prompt the FBI to sent agent Gene Cordell (Mark Stevens) into a mob being ran by the hot-tempered Alec Stiles (Richard Widmark).
When the prime suspect is released and executed in the same night, FBI Inspector George Briggs (Lloyd Nolan) recruits the rookie agent Gene Cordell (Mark Stevens) to follow the last paths of the victim undercover in the identity of George Manly.
Watch for some great noir scenes, including an edgy shootout in a factory.Most interesting is the presence of Richard Widmark (in his second film after after Hathaway's Kiss of Death).
1948's "The Street With No Name" is, without question, hard-hitting, well-scripted, and, most definitely, top-of-the-line Film Noir.Shot in a semi-documentary style (which was a popular format in its time), this film of crime and corruption tells the vivid story of a tough, undercover FBI agent who infiltrates a ruthless criminal gang who operate in the skid-row district of the fictional "Center City" (which clearly reminds one of NYC).Very entertaining, "The Street With No Name" is a real treat for any fan of the Film Noir genre.I really liked actor Mark Stevens in this picture.
There are some very silly shots of Stevens running here and there, while being tailed by the bad guys the whole time, as he makes contact with his boss (who else but Lloyd Nolan) and other FBI agents.
Edgar Hoover himself,Richard Widmark shows up and you realize you've been in Dark City USA all along.Mark Stevens makes the perfect FBI agent.This FBI is sleek and on the ball.They're going to get their man,although throughout,you're constantly left guessing about who's one step before who.Barbara Lawrence goes toe to toe with Widmark a couple of rounds and gives as good as she gets.This is definitely one of the best film noirs ever made..
I especially loathed the upbeat march-like music that accompanied every scene that had the heroic and infallible FBI in it, and I simply can't stand the pretentious faux-documentary-style footage showing grave men in suits running about their business, looking self-righteous.Yes, Richard Widmark, noir icon if ever there was any, is in it, but he has little to do but sneer and look suggestive, a far cry from standout performances in masterpieces such as 'Night and the City', 'Panic in the Streets' or 'Pickup on South Street'.
Mark Stevens is the all-American captain-of-the-football-team cutie-pie as the FBI agent posing as a hobo to get to Widmark.I am afraid that a scene or two of noir-by-the-book lighting is all that Keighley's film has to recommend it.
Gene (Mark Stevens) infiltrates a gang led by Alec (Richard Widmark) with the intention of discovering who is responsible for a series of recent shootings and robberies.
The story is good and both the main characters, Mark Stevens and Richard Widmark, play their roles convincingly.
It Stars Mark Stevens, Richard Widmark, Lloyd Nolan, Barbara Lawrence and Ed Begley.
Music is by Lionel Newman and cinematography by Joseph MacDonald.Undercover FBI agent Gene Cordell (Stevens) infiltrates a crime gang led by Alec Stiles (Widmark).Produced in the good old semi-documentary style that suits cops and robbers noir pieces, The Street With No Name is all about showing how great the FBI is - and how dangerous their jobs are.
One of those docudramas from the 1940s that wraps a fictional film and stentorian narration around the real-life workings of a government office, in this case the FBI.Mark Stevens plays an agent who poses as a hood in order to infiltrate a crime gang suspected of a couple of murders.
It tells the story of an undercover FBI agent, Gene Cordell, who infiltrates a ruthless crime gang who have carried out a series of robberies in which two people have been killed.
Cordell adopts the persona of "George Manly", a boxer and criminal, and is recruited into the gang by its leader, Alec Stiles.Seven years later the film was remade as "House of Bamboo" which, rather oddly, transferred the action to Japan although most of the main characters, and all the gangsters, remained American.
Unusually for a crime drama from the fifties, Fuller made "House of Bamboo" in colour, whereas "Street with No Name" is made in the standard black-and-white film noir style.
Widmark was later to appear in one of the all-time great films noirs, Fuller's New York-set "Pickup on South Street", which has a similar gritty look.
He recruits FBI agent Gene Cordell to infiltrate the gang of Alec Stiles(played by Richard Widmark) which is suspected in a number of robberies and murders.
He followed it up the next year with this film.A classic noir involving the FBI and a plant (Mark Stevens) to get inside Widmark's gang to find out who killed a housewife, and two others.Widmark was excellent as the gang leader, and ruthless when he thought he was crossed, as his wife (Barbara Lawrence) found out.The ending was very good, and provided some great twists.
Crisply photographed by master cinematographer Joe MacDonald, it was beautifully written for the screen by Harry Kleiner and was filmed by Fox in their customary forties semi-documentary style that they had started producing with great success in 1945 with "The House On 92nd Street".Richard Widmark is Alec Stiles.
Determined to outwit and bring them down the FBI, under Inspector Briggs (Lloyd Nolan), trains an undercover agent Gene Cordell (Mark Stevens) to infiltrate the gang to find out just how and from who they are getting their information prior to every job they undertake.
Here repeating his role as the FBI's Inspector Briggs from "House On 92nd Street" and there's a nice contribution too from John McIntire as Steven's fellow undercover agent.
This story of an FBI undercover agent (Mark Stevens) who infiltrates the gang headed by Alec Stiles (Richard Widmark) is introduced by a lengthy warning about how, unless the new gangsterism is stopped, three out of four of us will become its victims.
The Street With No Name -an excellent film noir from Fox- featuring a charismatic Richard Widmark as the leader of the Stiles gang.I saw most of the elements of this movie earlier this month when I saw House of Bamboo which lifted several parts of this plot and transported them to post WWII Japan.This movie dispenses with the trite romance that threatened to throw it's remake off the rails and is a straight FBI v the bad guys movie- mixing tons of location shooting with stock footage(like another Fox film House on 92nd Street that also featured Lloyd Nolan as agent Briggs) this movie manages to capture a vivid and raw underworld that draws the viewer in.
Employing these styles, of course, conforms with the traditions of film noir and documentary film making, however, the symbolism involved is also clear.An FBI agent Gene Cordell (Mark Stevens) is furnished with a false identity (George Manly) and a criminal record and given the task of getting into a gang which is suspected of having recently carried out three murders in Center City.
A definite taut thriller where both the good guys and the bad guys have infiltrated each other's group.Lloyd Nolan takes a similar role as an FBI agent, this is what he did in "The House on 92nd Street." Wasn't he Inspector Briggs there as well?
Gene Cordell is an FBI agent who is ordered to go undercover, work his way into the gang, earn Stiles' confidence, and then blow the whistle.
Every time we stop to see these FBI resources in action (ordered by Lloyd Nolan, reprising his role as George Briggs from The House on 92nd Street), the movie stops, too.
The FBI also provides Cordell, now calling himself George Manly, with a phony rap sheet showing how good he is in not only committing major and violent crimes but also being able to get off being convicted in committing them.In no time at all Cordell/Manley's gets himself noticed by the Center City mob boss Alex Stiles (Richard Widmark) who, by having his boys lift his phony social security card, knows a good and successful hood when he sees one.
The big problem for Manley/Cordell is that if he's ever caught by or exposed, as an FBI Agent, by Stiles' gang he'll end up being their latest murder victim!***SPOILERS*** Nowhere as good at the earlier FBI movie, also staring Llyod Noland as Inspector George Briggs, "The House on 92nd Street" the film "Street With no Name" has the FBI now involved with just garden verity American criminals who, unlike the Nazis and Soviets, are anything but a threat to the nations existent or even national security.
The most interesting thing in the movie is that the involvement of local police, never the FBI, corruption that's by far more effective for the Stiles Mob then anything else in the film.
FBI boss Briggs(Lloyd Nolan) dispatches agent Gene Cordell(Mark Stevens)to pose as a young thug to infiltrate Widmark's gang that runs with the precision of a military unit.
Cordell assumes the identity of George Manly who with main contact Cy Gordon (John McIntire), set up shop in the skid row district of the city.Manly soon comes into contact with gang leader Alec Stiles (Richard Widmark) who controls the crime operation.
The gang is planning a major heist but it is halted when an inside source informs Stiles that there is an undercover cop within the organization.Stiles bides his time and knowing that Manly is the "rat" makes his move and..............................................Although Mark Stevens was a capable leading man, it is Richard Widmark who steals the film.
"G-Men" director William Keighley must have seemed the ideal choice for this sturdy undercover FBI melodrama "The Street with No Name." Mark Stevens co-stars as the Fed with Richard Widmark as a smarter-than-average, but trigger-happy gang leader.