The Captive City (1952)

Excellent but underrated film

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Robert Wise directs but without much enthusiasm and Lee Garmes, the cinematographer has little opportunity to show his skill. Indeed, this little B movie, I hesitate to use the much overused 'noir' tag, is most uninspired. Prompted, apparently, by the real life Senate Committee on organised crime and even sporting an afterword by the real life head of that committee, Senator Estes Kefauver, urging American citizens to play their part in stamping out such crime in their neighbourhoods, this still lacks a bit of 'life'. John Forsythe doesn't help with a lacklustre performance as the lead and Joan Camden even less so as his wife. The thing here is that this was clearly intended as a well meaning do good kind of a film, setting out the problem and urging everyone to help solve it. To help things along at one point the wife asks her husband, 'What is the mafia?' so there's little doubt at what level this film was aimed. Competent but far too uninteresting a story and with no violence the 'real life' message is about all this has.

***SPOILERS*** Coming after the Senator Estes Kefarver Crime Committee hearings "Captive City" shows how organized crime reached not only into the major US cities like New York Chicago and Miami but small towns like Kennington. pop. 300,000, as well in the heart of middle America.This cancerous tumor in the American heartland was originally exposed by private detective Clyde Nelson, Hal K. Dawson, who at first didn't quite realize what he was getting himself and his wife , Geraldine Hall, into. It was Nelson's snooping around and talking too much that cost him as well as his old lady's life before the movie "Captive City" wasn't even half over! It was the local Kennington Journal editor Jim Austin, John Forsythe, who picked up the ball that Nelson dropped, by at first not heeding his warnings about police and political corruption, that finally got results. But only after a number of other people willing to testify against the criminal goings on in town ended up losing their lives like Mr. & Mrs. Nelson.Hard hitting documentary style expose that according Sen. Kefavrer himself, who's seen at the conclusion of the movie, really happened! With Jim Austin and his wife Marge, Joan Camden, running for their lives as their being chased by members of the Mafia Fabretti, Victor Romito, Mob all the way from Kennington to Washington D.C some 600 miles away! Fabretti a Miami mobster and former member of the notorious Brownsville Brooklyn Murder Inc. has taken over Kennington and installed a number of bookie joints in town who were being camouflaged behind legitimate business fronts. One of the bookie parlors was run out of insurance man Murray Sirak's, Victor Sutherland, storefront office. It was Clyde Nelson's bad luck to uncover what was going on behind the scenes at Sikak's place that had him go to the town's police chief Gillette, Ray Teal,that lead to his murder! Nelson didn't know that Chief Gillette was in on the corruption by being paid off, and in the pocket, by the Fabretti Mob.****SPOILERS**** Now on the run Jim & Marge Austin's only hope is to get to Washington D.C in time to testify against the mob that Fabrrtti is a member off in order to stay alive! That's before Fabretti's goons get them first. One of the first Hollywood movie that actually used the word "Mafia" a word that was never mentioned once in the 1972 mega mobster hit "The Godfather", that was released twenty years later, in describing the hoodlums that were trying to both undermine corrupt and finally takeover peaceful and crime free little Kennington USA. It was brave people like Clyde Nelson and later newspaper editor Jim Austin who put their lives on the line and in many cases lost them that put the likes of Fabretti with the help of the Kefarer Committee out of business and behind bars!

When newspaper editor John Forsythe and wife rush into the police station with an urgent tale told in flashback, I thought Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). In fact, there are a number of similarities between the two films. Here, however, the menace is not seeds from outer space but plain old organized crime. The story is told in grippingly fluent fashion by versatile director Robert Wise. I really like the way the film uses unfamiliar faces in the important supporting roles, giving the docu-drama a more authentic appearance.Actually, the movie is rather educational since it reveals the various pressure points within a community where criminal influence can make a difference. Note how newspaper policy can be manipulated by advertising revenue; how church involvement can be influenced by congregation size; how police policy can be set by civic elders instead of the law. That is the point of the movie-- to show how a community can be corrupted by exploiting these various pressure points. At the time (1951), the Kefauver Committee on Organized Crime was making national headlines, accounting for the Senator's public service epilogue.Surprisingly for a crime drama with noirish overtones, the violence and menace are mostly understated. Menace consists mainly of warnings to crusading editor Forsythe from ordinary-looking people. For me, however, the scariest part was neither the beating nor the hit-&-run, but the sudden transformation of affable used car salesman Andy (Jess Kirkpatrick). In social scenes showing the town's normality, Andy comes across as the typical friendly, outgoing salesman, but later, when the pressure's on, he slides into a startlingly sinister personality-- one of the many parallels with Body Snatchers. Filming on location in grainy black&white amounts to a real plus for an authentic feel. Forsythe and Camden are excellent in their central roles, without going over the top. There's a low-key intensity to the narrative that rivets interest, but never reaches the emotional pitch of the sci-fi classic. In my book, this is one of those polished little B- productions that Hollywood used to turn out with some regularity. Too bad that they have no counterpart in today's over f-x'ed cinema.

Possible Spoiler. "The Captive City" is a tense, modest, and scarcely appreciated noir sleeper, starring John Forsythe in his debut and directed with considerable skill and panache by Robert Wise. Supporting cast is primarily NY stage troupe, including Joan Camden, Harold Kennedy, Marjorie Grossland, Victor Sutherland, and the familiar Route 66 Vet, Martin Milner. In 1951, Estes Kefauver opened hearings in Congress into organized crime. This film, about an ambitious and crusading newspaper editor Jim (Forsythe) and his discovery of crime and corruption in small town America is a reflection of its era. Hollywood crusading editors were considered trite by many, although when you come to think of it just how many such films of that ilk can you recall?In this little sleeper, as in most socially-conscious films of the 50s, facts which are commonplace even today (i.e. numbers rackets, police corruption, and sports betting) are revealed to be an integral part of middle town America. The Florida mob has moved in to take over, and someone rats them out to the editor Jim. Soon all hell breaks loose, with "respectable" members of the business community approaching Jim to lay it off and take it easy. Jim's partner wants to buy him out and get out of the business, because they're losing money and ad revenue. One night, Jim and his photographer Phil (played by Milner) sneak out to get a shot of the mob guys at their wire joint. Later, unsurprisingly, Phil is severely beaten and another friend a drunk is "accidentally" run over at night by a black Cadillac, one of the film's most brutal scenes. The score by Jerome Moross is hauntingly melodic, then it turns sour, then strident (similar to Dmitri Tiomkin's in many ways), and adds just the right note of despair and panic to the film noir texture of this film. Almost nowhere is this film predictable or corny (except for the now familiar first-person narrative technique so often used in films like this one). Riveting and near-perfect, "Captive City" deserves to be appreciated.