ROGUE COP 1954Bent cops, the Mob, murder and revenge are all at the top of the bill in this MGM production. The cast includes, Robert Taylor, Steve Forrest, George Raft, Janet Leigh, Anne Francis, Robert Ellenstein, Alan Hale Jr, Robert F. Simon, Olive Carey and Vince Edwards.Robert Taylor plays a crooked Detective who is on the payroll of Mob boss, George Raft. Raft calls up Taylor for a meeting at the race track. Raft needs Taylor to have a word with Taylor's kid brother, rookie cop, Steve Forrest. Forrest is the only witness against a murderer, Peter Brocco that the Mob wants released. The Mob is willing to cough up 10 large for Forrest to have some memory issues.Taylor has a talk with his brother but Forrest is not interested. Taylor tells Forrest that the Mob is not inclined to take no for an answer. Taylor also has a word with Forrest's girl, nightclub singer, Janet Leigh. Taylor wants Leigh to "suggest" to Forrest that the 10 grand would let them get married and such. Forrest still refuses to play ball. Taylor has another meeting with Raft and Raft's Mob boss, Robert F. Simon. Taylor asks why this particular man, Peter Brocco is so important. He gets no answer to the question, instead Raft tells Taylor that Forrest had best agree to the deal, or else drastic measures will be taken. Taylor loses his cool which ends with Raft and himself exchanging punches with Raft taking a thumping. (As does Raft's bodyguard, Alan Hale Jr) Taylor warns Raft and Simon that he will be most upset if anything happens to his brother.In the middle of all this is the alcoholic girlfriend of Raft, Anne Francis. After Taylor pounds on Raft he takes it out on Francis after she cracks about the beating. The film now goes to a straight up vengeance picture as the Mob does indeed kill Forrest. Taylor goes off the rails as he goes after Brocco to find out what he has on Raft and company. Turns out Brocco had witnessed Raft and Simon do a murder years ago, and has been blackmailing them since. Bodies are needless to say going to pile up along the way here. For a MGM film, this is a real change of pace with plenty of violence etc. Robert Taylor is excellent as the bent cop as is Raft as the mobster. The screenplay is by Sydney Boehm from the novel of William P. McGivern. McGivern also wrote the novels for ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW, THE BIG HEAT, HELL ON FRISCO BAY and SHIELD FOR MURDER. All these novels were turned into films. ROGUE COP cinematographer, John F Seitz was nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography. Seitz was a favourite of Alan Ladd and worked with Ladd over 20 times. The 7 time Oscar nominated Seitz was a sure hand in the Noir genre with, SUNSET BLVD, THE LOST WEEKEND, THIS GUN FOR HIRE, CALCUTTA, SAIGON, THE BIG CLOCK, CHICAGO DEADLINE, APPOINTMENT WITH DANGER and DOUBLE INDEMNITY as examples of his work.

In "Rogue Cop" (1954) Robert Taylor did great.Dev. Sgt. Chris Kelvaney (Robert Taylor) has a younger brother Eddie (Steve Forrest) who is a street cop. Eddie can identify a murderer he saw run from the scene of the crime.Big brother Chris, who is "on the take", is contacted by gangster Dan Beaumonte (George Raft, of course) with bribery in mind. He's willing to pay Eddie $15,000 if he changes his testimony. Beaumonte's afraid the murderer (Vince Edwards) knows too much. He might sing and put them all in "Sing-Sing". Dishonest Chris wants him to take it for safety's sake. Eddie isn't his brother so his testimony stands.Beaumonte has Eddie killed thus waking Chris up to a sad reality. After the death of his brother, Chris swears revenge and starts to track down his brother's killers. He has to get them out in the open and starts laying the groundwork. But Beaumonte wants to stop him and anyone he asks for help. Needless to say that may leave allot of excess bodies lying around...It also may not be as easy as he'd like it to be.Other cast members include: Janet Leigh as Karen Stephanson (Eddie's fiancée); Anne Francis as Nancy Corlane (Beaumonte's alcoholic ex-girl); Robert Ellenstein as Det. Sidney Y. Myers (Bob does a great job as Chris's partner who is an honest cop); Vince Edwards as murderer Joey Langley (later "Ben Casey" of TV fame 1961-66); Olive Carey as Selma (Chris's connection to snitches) (wife of Harry Sr., mother of Harry Jr. and well-known character actress in her own right.)

With some of the roles he played as he got older, it's hard to believe that at one time MGM was worried about a powder puff image that Robert Taylor had in his youth.Seeing Taylor as Chris Kelvaney in Rogue Cop is like seeing a whole different player than Armand in Camille. But it's the same guy and a film like Rogue Cop brings out the maturity and depth Taylor had as an artist as well as a person.Taylor is a long time big city cop on the take to gangland boss George Raft. He's risen pretty high in the department and could go farther. He's a pretty cynical dude, in his chosen field he's seen a lot of the worst that people can be.But he's got a kid brother played by Steve Forrest who's a straight arrow. He doesn't know about his brother and he gets himself killed because he crosses Raft in the performance of his duty. Forrest's death gives Taylor a mission, he'll take Raft down no matter what it costs.There are two prominent female roles, Janet Leigh as Forrest's girl friend who later develops an interest in Taylor and Anne Francis as Raft's moll who turns against him. Both women hold their own in what is a male dominated film. Francis borrows quite a bit from Gloria Grahame and her performance in The Big Heat. Also both Rogue Cop and The Big Heat have blackmail of a syndicate boss as the underpinning of the story.Raft of course is in his element as a gangland boss. In the rest of the cast there's a very nice performance by Robert Ellenstein as Taylor's honest partner. The final shootout with Raft and company with the two of them is one of the best and most realistic ever staged in a film.For Robert Taylor fans, Rogue Cop is an absolute must and people who don't think much of Taylor as player will be jolted at how well he does in this film.

**SOME SPOILERS** Being on the scene of a murder by giving the escaped killer "Wrinkels" Fallon, Peter Brcco, a parking ticket policeman Eddie Kelvaney, Steve Forrest,has him picked out of a lineup and put in jail to be tried at a later date, What Eddie doesn't know is that "Wrinkles" got the goods on big time mobsters Beumonte and Ackerman, George Raft & Robert F. Simon, whom he's been blackmailing for over 10 years. The two hoods are now literally scared to death with what Wrinkles' got on them that he'll make a deal with the D.A for a lighter sentence to turn states evidence on them.Beaument and Ackerman do have an ace up their sleeve in having Eddie recant his testimony and that's non-other then his big brother Det. Chis Kelvaney, Robert Taylor, who's been taking payoff from them for years. Chris Kelvaney is giving the task to keep his kid brother's mouth shut with a $15,000.00 payoff himself for doing it. It just turns out that Eddie is an incorruptible good and honest cop like his and Chris late and highly decorated father and in trying to do the right thing. The right thing ends up landing him right on a cold slab in the city morgue.Robert Taylor playing a corrupt cop is at his handsome and devilish best as Det. Kalvaney as he goes through a change of life realizing what a creep he was all these years and a disgrace to not only the police department but to brother Eddie and late hero cop dad. Kalvaney dealing with crumbs like Beaumonte & Ackerman in the end redeems himself by getting blasted and left bleeding to death in a violent shootout with them.Trying to get Eddie's girl Karen, Janet Leigh, to talk him out of testifying against Wrinkle's Det. Kelvaney blackmails her. Threatening to exposed Karen of not only being, well let's just say,both used and damaged merchandise but also being notorious Miami gangster Farnkie Nemo's #1 moll. Karen at first outraged at Eddie's big brothers disgusting and underhanded tactics finally goes along with him only if it would save Eddie's life. Det. Kelvaney given by his bosses, Beaumonte & Ackerman, 48 hours to turn Eddie around is instead double cross. The two hoods have Eddie gunned down that evening in full sight of his terrified girl Karen even before she has a chance to get Eddie to change his mind in testifying.It's during these stressful and heart wrenching times that Det. Kelvaney finally sees what a disgrace he was to both his brother dad and finally to himself and has a complete break with his sleazy past. The rogue cop goes full out, even if it cost him his life, to get Beaumonte & Ackerman not only to clear his guilty conscience but also bring his brothers killers to justice.Also in the movie is a pre-Ben Casey Vince Edwards playing hit-man Joey Langly who's brought in from out of town to knock off Eddie. Langly later gets the living hell beaten out of him by Det. Kelvany and never gets to see the inside of a prison cell. With him being gunned down himself in a shootout between Kelvany, and unlike himself, straight laced and honest cop Det Myers, Robert Ellenstein, and gangsters Beaomonte & Ackerman.There's also a very young Anne Francis as Beaumonte's live-in moll Nancy whom he keep drunk all the time,to keep her mind off his business. Later after she got on Beaumonte's nerves by pouring a bucket of ice cubes over his head after an outraged, Det. Kelvaney worked him over and broke it, which has her being kicked out of his penthouse and into, as an act of unholy revenge, one of Beaumonte's sleazy illegal business establishments Fonzo's whorehouse. That lead Nancy to reveal, to Det. Kelvaney, just what exactly Wrinkles got on him and his partner Ackerman that the two hoodlums would go as far as murdering a policeman to keep from seeing the light of day.