New York Confidential (film)

New York Confidential
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Russell Rouse
Screenplay by	Clarence Greene Russell Rouse
Based on	New York: Confidential! by Jack Lait Lee Mortimer
Produced by	Clarence Greene Edward Small
Starring	Broderick Crawford Richard Conte Marilyn Maxwell Anne Bancroft J. Carrol Naish
Narrated by	Ralph Clanton
Cinematography	Eddie Fitzgerald
Edited by	Grant Whytock
Music by	Joseph Mullendore
Production company	Edward Small Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	February 18, 1955 (1955-02-18) (United States)
Running time	88 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$1.3 million (US)

New York Confidential is a 1955 film noir crime film directed by Russell Rouse starring Broderick Crawford, Richard Conte, Marilyn Maxwell, Anne Bancroft and J. Carrol Naish. Produced by Edward Small for release by Warner Bros., the film was inspired by the 1948 book New York: Confidential! by Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer.

Plot

Charlie Lupo is a gangster who runs the New York branch of a crime syndicate. He is a widower with a worried mother, a grown daughter, Kathy, and a new lover, Iris.

Hit man Nick Magellan of the Chicago mob impresses Lupo, who hires Magellan to be his bodyguard. They form a friendship and Kathy is attracted to Nick, but he resists her advances out of respect for Lupo.

When a political lobbyist interferes with the syndicate's plans and must be eliminated, Lupo arranges for three men to handle it. But they leave too many clues and themselves have to be taken care of, a task Lupo turns over to Nick.

Nick quickly dispatches two of the targets, but a third flees and, in return for ratting out Lupo to the authorities, manages to arrange a deal for himself. The gangster hides out while legal negotiations concerning the charge for which Lupo will go to prison go on.

Kathy, having fled her father's home in an attempt to make an independent life, is drawn back in when the police, and reporters, track her down at her job. She shows up at Nick's, clearly intoxicated, to tell him how her life has fallen apart. She throws herself at him but he rejects her. Later, she is killed in a single-car crash. The newspaper headline suggests suicide.

Lupo is devastated; his heart no longer in his work, he decides to cooperate with the authorities. The syndicate determines that he must be eliminated and Nick is ordered to do it. He does the job but, as a matter of "insurance", he in turn is killed.

Cast

• Broderick Crawford as Charlie Lupo
• Richard Conte as Nick Magellan
• Marilyn Maxwell as Iris Palmer
• Anne Bancroft as Katherine Lupo
• J. Carrol Naish as Ben Dagajanian
• Onslow Stevens as Johnny Achilles
• Barry Kelley as Robert Frawley
• Mike Mazurki as Arnie Wendler
• Celia Lovsky as Mama Lupo
• Herbert Heyes as James Marshall
• Steven Geray as Morris Franklin
• William "Bill" Phillips as Whitey
• Tom Powers as District Attorney Rossi
• John Doucette as Shorty

Production

Edward Small bought the rights to the book in 1953. He assigned it to the team of Clarence Greene and Russell Rouse, who had a six-picture deal with Small. Greene and Rouse wanted George Raft and Paul Muni to star.

Reception

Critical response

The staff at Variety magazine praised the cast in their review of the film, "Among crime exposes New York Confidential stacks up as one of the better-made entries, thanks to a well-fashioned story and good performances by a cast of familiar names ... Conte does a topnotch job of making a coldblooded killer seem real and Crawford is good as the chairman of the crime board, as is Marilyn Maxwell as his girl friend. Anne Bancroft, showing continuing progress and talent, scores with a standout performance of Crawford's unhappy daughter."

Modern critic Dennis Schwartz was disappointed in the film. In 2004 he wrote, "Russell Rouse's New York Confidential is a crime thriller that is a formulaic exposé of the rackets, and is not quite as good as another such film—The Enforcer ... New York Confidential was never exciting, tense or eye-opening. Its narrative was a cliché-driven mob story that was only mildly diverting and even though the performances were energetically delivered, it still tasted like a stale salami sandwich."

See also

• List of American films of 1955

External links

• New York Confidential at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• New York Confidential at IMDb
• New York Confidential at Rotten Tomatoes
• New York Confidential at AllMovie
• New York Confidential at the TCM Movie Database
• New York Confidential information site and DVD review at DVD Beaver (includes images)
• New York Confidential YouTube film trailer