Down Three Dark Streets
Broderick Crawford, Ruth Roman
Directed by Arnold Laven
Originally released 1954
Fullscreen Black and White
MGM 2011 89 minutes
Down 3 Dark Streets is a pedestrian thriller about an FBI agent (Broderick Crawford) investigating his partner’s killing by solving the three cases he was working on: a runaway killer, a woman being blackmailed, and a car thief. This is a review for the MGM Limited Edition on demand release for fans of fifties B movie thrillers. The picture quality for this release is very good with only a few specs here and there.
The story goes FBI chief Edgar Hoover kept a very close eye on movies about or featuring the Bureau. He would have been pleased with Down Three Dark Streets, especially the very informative and supporting descriptive voice over sometimes used to set up or move the story along.
None of the actors in this fifties mystery is especially memorable. Broderick Crawford and Ruth Roman, the woman being blackmailed, are better than the rest though Crawford is rather wooden.
Down Three Dark Streets is ordinary most of the way through. The scene where the FBI agent gets shot is hard to swallow. It gets maudlin near the end with the blind woman’s story.
The ending is anticlimactic.
Other MGM Limited Edition on demand DVD: