Personally approved by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, Down Three Down Streets features the usual narrator extolling the virtues of the famed federal crime-fighting organization. If you can ignore all the propaganda, the film settles into a standard but watchable tale involving the investigation of three separate crimes.
When FBI agent Zack Stewart (Kenneth Tobey) is murdered after he and his partner John Ripley (Broderick Crawford) are ambushed answering a seeming domestic complaint at a residential location, Ripley is then assigned the three cases Stewart was working on, in the hope of that the investigation into one of them might lead to uncovering the identity of Stewart's killer.
The first case involves a stone cold killer Joe Wolpo (Joe Bassett) who is wanted for murdering a gas station attendant. We don't see much of him until his girlfriend Connie Anderson (Martha Hyer) leads the FBI to him after she's placed under surveillance. Hyer sounds and looks a bit like Marilyn Monroe and has an enjoyable part as a part-time moll to bad boy Wolpo until she makes the mistake of contacting him in person.
The second case involves a small time hood, Vince Angelino (Gene Reynolds) who has a nice wife Julie (Marisa Pavan) who happens to be blind. Angelino decides to go to prison instead of ratting out a bunch of car thieves he's been associating with. But when the local police bring him down from prison to identify a thug who roughed up his wife, he attacks him and then promptly gives him up. The scene in Angelino is questioned by the police is a good one as at least there's one good citizen who steps up to expose his criminal associates (albeit for obvious selfish reasons).
The third case-which is the main story in the narrative-involves widow Kate Martell (Ruth Roman) who's extorted for her late husband's insurance money by an unknown man who threatens to harm her young child Vicki. While the man threatens Kate over the phone a fair number of times, he never shows up until the climax when she's actually put in jeopardy. Thus we wish the screenwriters here could have ratcheted the suspense up a bit more.
Broderick Crawford does a serviceable job as Agent Ripley which is pretty much a standard role. Roman is convincing as the frightened widow but she too has little to do until the scene in which the killer is caught. He turns out to be a family friend of Kate and is charged not only for murdering Agent Stewart but the woman who initially called the FBI which led to the agent's murder.
Down Three Dark Streets has been mistakenly referred to as "film noir." It actually falls under the purview of "docudrama" focusing on FBI exploits. This is a film that moves along at a fairly brisk pace with a few moments here and there of certifiable interest. I would recommend taking a look but not more than once.
When FBI agent Zack Stewart (Kenneth Tobey) is murdered after he and his partner John Ripley (Broderick Crawford) are ambushed answering a seeming domestic complaint at a residential location, Ripley is then assigned the three cases Stewart was working on, in the hope of that the investigation into one of them might lead to uncovering the identity of Stewart's killer.
The first case involves a stone cold killer Joe Wolpo (Joe Bassett) who is wanted for murdering a gas station attendant. We don't see much of him until his girlfriend Connie Anderson (Martha Hyer) leads the FBI to him after she's placed under surveillance. Hyer sounds and looks a bit like Marilyn Monroe and has an enjoyable part as a part-time moll to bad boy Wolpo until she makes the mistake of contacting him in person.
The second case involves a small time hood, Vince Angelino (Gene Reynolds) who has a nice wife Julie (Marisa Pavan) who happens to be blind. Angelino decides to go to prison instead of ratting out a bunch of car thieves he's been associating with. But when the local police bring him down from prison to identify a thug who roughed up his wife, he attacks him and then promptly gives him up. The scene in Angelino is questioned by the police is a good one as at least there's one good citizen who steps up to expose his criminal associates (albeit for obvious selfish reasons).
The third case-which is the main story in the narrative-involves widow Kate Martell (Ruth Roman) who's extorted for her late husband's insurance money by an unknown man who threatens to harm her young child Vicki. While the man threatens Kate over the phone a fair number of times, he never shows up until the climax when she's actually put in jeopardy. Thus we wish the screenwriters here could have ratcheted the suspense up a bit more.
Broderick Crawford does a serviceable job as Agent Ripley which is pretty much a standard role. Roman is convincing as the frightened widow but she too has little to do until the scene in which the killer is caught. He turns out to be a family friend of Kate and is charged not only for murdering Agent Stewart but the woman who initially called the FBI which led to the agent's murder.
Down Three Dark Streets has been mistakenly referred to as "film noir." It actually falls under the purview of "docudrama" focusing on FBI exploits. This is a film that moves along at a fairly brisk pace with a few moments here and there of certifiable interest. I would recommend taking a look but not more than once.