This United Artists release in 1957 was certainly a timely one for the headlines. I well remember back in the day the Labor Racketeering hearings in the US Senate headed by John McClellan with Robert F. Kennedy as the counsel and his brother and next president also sitting on the committee. Organized crime's involvement with labor unions was a big news at the time.In the fictional union talked about in this film which we never learn what it is or what industry it is for, honest president Dick Foran is framed for the murder of his friend whom he was sending to the state's attorney with information. The mobbed up vice president Douglas Kennedy then takes over and the strong arm tactics against the membership and the businesses begin.Fortunately for Foran the state's attorney is Brian Keith who is a man of conscience who actually wants to see justice as opposed to rolling up convictions. Even though he's being mentioned for governor Keith starts questioning his own conviction first with a voice identification of Foran.Said identification was bogus the product of comedian Buddy Lewis who works in mob clubs. Also derelict Elisha Cook, Jr. after giving perjured testimony is killed. It's a race against time as the mob starts plugging up potential leaks in their usual fashion.Besides those mentioned three women have prominent roles. Phyllis Coates as Keith's wife and Beverly Garland and Beverly Tyler as a pair of B girls who are witnesses against Foran.Chicago Confidential is a well paced B picture with an impressive cast giving a good ensemble effort. A historical curiosity as well given the time the film was made.

A cast of familiar faces appear in Chicago Confidential, a 1957 B movie. The stars are Brian Keith, Beverly Garland, Dick Foran, Elisha Cook Jr., John Hamilton, and Phyllis Coates. The latter two stars were in the TV "Superman" in case you don't recognize their names.The story is told with a narration, semidocumentary style. This type of film was popular for a time, but to me, it's very dry and too "Dragnet." A union accountant who has been keeping two sets of books calls DA Jim Fremont (Keith) and announces he is bringing in proof that the mob has infiltrated the union and is stealing from it. As could have been predicted as he starts walking to the DA's house in the dark, briefcase and folders in hand, he doesn't make it.The bad guys set up one of the good union guys, Artie Blaine (Foran) to take the fall for the murder, and they do a decent job of it, using a drunk (Elisha Cook, Jr.) who finds the murder weapon as a witness to go to the DA once they clean him up. Then they discredit Blaine's fiancée (Garland) on the witness stand. The noose tightens.Fairly formulaic, with a couple of interesting things - one is an impressionist, and the other is the use of a machine that recognizes speech patterns.I interviewed Beverly Garland some years ago, so I always try to watch her films. She was a vibrant, funny, wonderful lady with a million stories. It makes me sad that she's no longer with us, but at least we can enjoy her film and TV work. For me she's a bright spot in "Chicago Confidential."

Chicago Confidential (1957) * 1/2 (out of 4) Boring, low-budget crime drama about racketeers forcing their way into unions. In this case, a D.A. (Brian Keith) swears to bring them down by ends up locking away an innocent man (Dick Foran) and with the help of his girlfriend (Beverly Garland) they try to get the real killer. CHICAGO CONFIDENTIAL is trying hard to be dark, cool and serious but it pretty much fails on all three levels. To be honest though, this here really isn't any worse than the countless "B" crime pictures that were released around this time as they all feature the same limitations. Some of those are obviously the budget but I think a good director and cast can turn this into a benefit. That really doesn't happen here and what we're left with is just one clichéd scene after another and it all boils up to a climax that you'll see coming from a mile away. What made this film so hard to get through was the Dragnet-like voice overs that narrate the entire film. I always found this routine to be rather cheap and pathetic for a number of reasons but the biggest one is that it really tells the viewer that they're too stupid to understand what's going on. That's what happens the majority of the time but this film goes a step further by not even bothering to have the action in the film do anything and instead we're just told what should be happening with the narration. The plot of this film is so weak because it seems they didn't try to have anything happen in front of our eyes and instead we're told everything. Keith, Garland and Foran are fun to watch but even they can't save this film. Elisha Cook, Jr. plays a drunk who holds some key evidence.

There's nothing particularly original about this story of corrupt unions on one side and the "chief attorney" on the other. The stark but unimaginative lighting and photography stems from the fagged out noir cycle. The story could easily have been out of a Warner Brothers drawer with George Raft in the lead. The performances are routine, the direction flat, and even the set dressing perfunctory. (An alley is shown by a single plaster wall of simulated brick. It has one poster on it. The poster says, "Post No Bills.") We are introduced to the story and some of the characters by a portentous narrator who informs us that, while most unions work hard and honestly to advance the causes of their members, a few are corrupt. But we don't really get to know much about the unions or how they operate, although I suppose they were fair game after the success of "On the Waterfront" a few years earlier. Here they're just a peg to hang the tale on. The real ring leader is a disbarred lawyer who runs things through three or four thugs. The District Attorney (or whatever he is) finds out, like Dana Andrews did in "Boomerang," that the wrong man (Dick Foran) is charged with a murder and he spends the rest of the film almost alone, digging up evidence of Foran's innocence. He gets into fist fights and shoot outs like any inexpensive movie private eye.Brian Keith is the D.A. He's shown some insinuating displays of talent elsewhere, but here he spends most of the time speaking quietly and staring at the floor. Elisha Cook, Jr., is a likable rummy but can't do a good drunk. Beverley Garland is okay but is undermined by the direction, which has her gawking in a night club when she should be furtive. The remainder of the cast would be suitable for a TV series.And nobody is helped by the writing. When a "B girl" is about to be shipped by the union mob to the Filippines, someone advises her that she only has to learn a few words of Spanish. "I only know one word," she says, "Si. Yes." The writers have not trusted the audience to know that "si" in Spanish means "yes." The plot is clumsy and has holes in it. Keith visits a witness in her flat over a night club. He enters the door and has a gun shoved in his back by a yegg, but he outwits the heavy and knocks him out. Then the orders someone to call the police. The rest of the scene, played out at some length in the night club downstairs, forgets all about the police and they never show up, nor are they expected by anyone.It's nothing to be ashamed of, and some people might enjoy it, but there is similar stuff, better done, elsewhere.