{"id":18350,"date":"2018-09-21T01:49:37","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T05:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=18350"},"modified":"2018-09-21T11:53:59","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T15:53:59","slug":"br-underworld-u-s-a-1961","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=18350","title":{"rendered":"BR: Underworld U.S.A. (1961)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Film<\/strong>: Excellent<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: Excellent<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>: Very Good<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong> Twilight Time<\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a0All<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0 March 20, 2018<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0 Crime \/ Film Noir<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0After getting the names of his father’s killers, a punk infiltrates the mob and plots the demise of his remaining three targets.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0Isolated Mono Music Track \/ Two 2009 Featurettes: \u201cSam Fuller: Storyteller\u201d (24:13) + \u201cMartin Scorsese on Underworld U.S.A.\u201d (5:07) \/ \u00a0Theatrical Trailers \/ 8-page colour booklet with liner notes by film historian Julie Kirgo \/ Limited to 3000 copies \/ Available exclusively from Screen Archives Entertainment<\/a> and www.twilighttimemovies.com<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sam Fuller\u2019s early years as a crime reporter and flair for tabloid stories are especially pungent in Underworld U.S.A.,<\/strong> a supposedly cautionary tale Everyone Must See! to alert themselves of the “threat to a nation” – criminal underworld profiting from drugs, extortion, and murder. While Fuller does present a dramatic tale of a punk who tracks down the four men responsible for beating his old man to death in an alley, it\u2019s also an outrageous revenge drama packed with a nihilistic pursuit that ultimately claims most of the morally bankrupt characters.<\/p>\n

David Kent is excellent in expressing the thuggish, ratty nature of young Tolly Devlin who watches a literal shadowplay of his dad\u2019s demise cast on an alley wall. Almost immediately after cradling his father\u2019s battered head, Tolly sets in motion a plan that sends him to jail in his teens and twenties, getting closer & closer to the first killer. When they finally have a face to face, instead of physically tormenting him, Tolly refuses forgiveness after he\u2019s told the names of the other killers. Little by little, Tolly maneuvers his way into a medium-sized mob in which his three remaining targets maintain assorted legal fronts for lead kingpin Earl Connors, played by one of Hollywood\u2019s great character actors, Robert Emhardt, a corpulent, nuanced performer who could be a genial father figure, or a revolting racist (The Intruder<\/a><\/strong>).<\/p>\n

The time leap from teen years to young adult and from Kent to star Cliff Robertson is fluid because the character\u2019s cockiness and physical quirks \u2013 eyes that scour and assess, a twitching smirk, and curious swagger \u2013 are shared by the two actors, plus a nasty scar whose origin Fuller dramatizes in a simple yet brutal little scene in which Tolly\u2019s teen rival gashes him when he refuses to handover cash he’s snatched from a New Year\u2019s Eve drunk.<\/p>\n

Thirtysomething Tolly gets into the mob by chance: he sneaks into the bar once owned by the only mother figure in his sad life, Sandy (excellent Beatrice Kay), and saves moll Cuddles (Dolores Dorn) from a terminal beating by enforcer Gus (exceptionally menacing Richard Rust). Through Cuddles, he gets the mob\u2019s dope, and after making a savvy deal, becomes the organization\u2019s fledging safe cracker, stealing documents that aide in keeping tabs on the cops and nosey detectives in check.<\/p>\n

What transpires over the film\u2019s second half is Tolly\u2019s circuitous journey in waiting, planning, and plotting the demise of his father\u2019s killers while collaborating in part with detective John Driscoll, played by fine character actor Larry Gates, best known as the (initially) genial shrink in Invasion of the Body Snatchers<\/strong> (1956), and the racist plantation owner slapped back by Virgil Tubbs in In the Heat of the Night<\/a><\/strong> (1967).<\/p>\n

Fuller\u2019s camera tracks fast, swerves around, and hides in the darkness, adding a special documentary and nourish grit to this fairly sleazy tale that feels like a dramatized version of some tight, serialized investigative piece from a big city rag. That\u2019s a compliment, because Fuller\u2019s approach is lean; he moves in dramatic leaps; and in the production is blessed with a fine cast of character actors who seem very comfortable playing Fuller\u2019s weird creations.<\/p>\n

Det. Driscoll does virtually all of the talking among his large team, and they listen and smoke profusely while he assess the unit\u2019s progress with a sandwich and a big glass of milk. Sandy\u2019s lack of children is counter-weighed with a bizarre, fetishistic hunger for baby dolls, including a garish, wind-up New Year\u2019s infant that\u2019s as creepy as her fireplace mantle, cluttered with toddler figurines and garish paintings.<\/p>\n

Gus is a slick, neatly manicured and meticulously dressed enforcer, and whenever he slips on his very cool sunglasses, someone\u2019s gonna die<\/em>, be it bosses, or a little girl mowed down in daylight using his stylish sedan.<\/p>\n

Almost as provocative is the character of Cuddles, a human rag doll wanting love. When she expresses simmering feelings towards Tolly, he shines a mean, derisive smile. Dorn\u2019s most outrageous scene is the film\u2019s most sexual, directed by Fuller with barely a care for subtext: As Tolly meets up with Cuddles in the park, Fuller makes use of a massive close-up in which the teasing moll is very clearly moving a hunk of ice shaped like an erect penis back & forth over her lips. Her upper chest is stained wet, and although she raises the frozen proboscis and tells an annoyed Tolly “Oh now, why don’t you suck on some ice?”\u00a0 it\u2019s pretty clear she\u2019s telling him to go suck a dick (if not his own).<\/p>\n

Much within Underworld<\/strong> bucks accepted genre conventions: the tough dialogue\u2019s leaner and meaner, procedural scenes progress with jump cuts, Tolly\u2019s quick assumptions lead to immediate action, and people die quick & fast \u2013 the latter maybe a sign of the director\u2019s disregard for arty, overlong sequences in what’s crafted as a docu-drama.\u00a0That rapidity is slowed down by one exceptional sequence in which Tolly returns to Sandy\u2019s old bar, sneaks into the closet where he knows there\u2019s a safe, and remains a silent observer until Gus starts to beat Cuddles. Certainly by noir conventions, it\u2019s an extraordinarily intense sequence in which silence, sound effects, Hal Mohr\u2019s stark B&W lighting, and Harry Sukman\u2019s modernist score coalesce into gripping drama.<\/p>\n

A veteran of TV productions, Sukman\u2019s slim filmography heavily favour\u2019s Fuller\u2019s work, and there\u2019s some clever (and grim) interpolations of “Auld Lang Syne” when Tolly returns to the old bar with the stolen dope. The orchestrations and thematic variations sound very contemporary, and Twilight Time\u2019s isolated mono track (which is quite punchy and bass-friendly) makes it a treat to hear this previously unreleased score.<\/p>\n

In spite of Fuller\u2019s directorial quirks, Underworld<\/strong> feels more like a classic 1930s Warner Bros. crime drama, where bad people die, and the vigilante anti-hero doesn\u2019t emerge unscathed. The script\u2019s linear, the villains fairly traditional, and Tolly\u2019s ability to think fast and save his hide are quite classical, but Fuller\u2019s refreshing approach includes an extended period where Tolly\u2019 maneuvers people like chess pieces, cancelling out expendable & redundant pieces until only the king is left. There’s no doubt he has just minimal fondness for Cuddles, and he\u2019s a deeply damaged figure: born in jail, he grew up to idolize his father, and experiences great pleasure when clever maneuvering pays off.<\/p>\n

Sony\u2019s HD transfer for their Fuller pictures have been quite striking, but this may be the most gorgeous, perhaps because the print source is impeccable. Morh\u2019s lighting is so sharp that pores, applied makeup, subtle shadows and harsh peaks are so fine. Fuller also seemed to insist his cast remain sweaty: Robertson\u2019s pores are perpetually dotted with little beads, and Dorn\u2019s close-ups are almost as massive as her co-star.<\/p>\n

Underworld<\/strong> isn\u2019t Fuller\u2019s best, but as Martin Scorsese opines in a filmed intro for Sony\u2019s prior 2009 Sam Fuller DVD set, the aggressiveness of the material and assaultive nature of the film linger for days. Also ported over from the DVD set is the featurette \u201cSam Fuller: Storyteller\u201d which TT also included on their Crimson Kimono<\/strong> (1959) BR release.<\/p>\n

The theatrical trailer has Mr. Tabloid himself (director Fuller) telling audiences they must<\/em> see his searing expose that\u2019s the product of extensive research, as evidenced by the paper organizer labeled with \u201cMob\u201d and other easy-to-read categories. Of slight note is the inclusion of extra bedroom dialogue between entangled Cuddles and Tolly that was snipped from the film’s final edit.<\/p>\n

TT\u2019s separate releases of Underworld<\/strong> and Kimono<\/strong> featured isolated music tracks, whereas Indicator\u2019s British all-region Blu-rays include some new material. Samuel Fuller at Columbia: 1937-1961 contains the Fuller-scripted It Happened in Hollywood <\/strong>(1937), Advebture in Sahara<\/strong> (1938), Power of the Press <\/strong>(1943), Scandal Sheet <\/strong>(1952), The Crimson Kimono<\/a><\/strong> (1959), and Underworld U.S.A.<\/strong> (1961).<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2018 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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