13 West Street (1962)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Almost last lap for the once-heroic Alan Ladd, with whom it is hard not to sympathise in his all-too-visible alcoholic decline.Cast as a rather improbable rocket scientist (a distraction, in fact), Ladd manages to run out of gas in a rough street at night, where some less-usual teen gangsters from genteel homes show their courage by challenging him five-to-one and beating him to pulp. Rod Steiger somewhat underplays the sympathetic but overworked cop, whose slow, deliberate detective work provokes Ladd into a manhunt of his own.Much of the storyline probably looked as implausible then as it does now, especially Ladd's single-handed trouncing of the armed gang-leader before deciding whether to perform a noble act of mercy.But the film is now mainly rewarding as a little black-&-white mirror of a vanished suburban life, just before the 60's became the 60's. Ladd's young wife, played by Dolores Dorn, is the vulnerable blonde in the perfect home that suddenly gets a mafia-style threat through the window. Ladd's investigations show us into other affluent homes too, with the mean features of Jeanne Cooper as one of the parents concealing their sons' guilt, Margaret Hayes cool and elegant as another. And when Dorn is unexpectedly flung to the floor, there is more erotic voltage in two seconds of her part-exposed thigh than in any of the yawn-porn that would soon become standard.

As Alan Ladd's last starring role, this was a pretty good way to finish his all-too-short career. While it's not the best thing he ever did, it is one of his better films. Unfortunately, for me, a real fan of Ladd, it's also a bit tough to watch because he's obviously suffering the effects of advanced alcoholism--with a puffy look about him and slightly slurred speech. In addition, at times his performance was a bit limp--though at other times, particularly at the end, he was able to rouse some of that old Alan Ladd energy and anger.The film is about a decent man who through no fault of his own is badly beaten by a group of young spoiled rich thugs. The problem is that the information on who did this was scant so catching the thugs looked uncertain. Plus Ladd had a lot of trouble getting on with his life--particularly when members of this little gang began threatening him and his wife. From that point on, Ladd is a bit like Captain Ahab--with an almost incessant need to find and punish the teens. Surprisingly, Rod Steiger underplays the role of a decent detective who is investigating the case (he sometimes seemed to overact in some films--here he was perfect). He's trying his best to find the boys AND keep Ladd from getting himself in trouble for being a vigilante.Add to this basic plot decent acting, a very good and suspenseful script as well as a very adult plot for 1962 and you've got the formula for a very good drama--far better than many of the mediocre films Ladd had been making through much of the 1950s and 60s.

**SPOILERS** Out of gas in the seedy and non residential side of L.A aerospace engineer Walt Sherill, Alan Ladd, looking for a gas station is almost run down by a gang of drunken preppies. After giving them a piece of his mind the car goes in reverse and the well dressed and well spoken hooligans confront the startled Sherill who work him over where he ends up with a concussion and broken left leg. It's when Sherill gets in touch with the police that his young tormentors not only target him but his wife Tracey, Dolores Dorn, as well.The movie "13 West Street" is a lot like the Charles Bronson urban crime thriller "Death Wish" that was released 12 years later. In the film Sherill at first goes to the police and when he does't get the results that he wants goes on his own trying to track down and exact revenge against those who left him a crippled and later tried to both murder and rape his wife Tracey. Ulike in "Death Wish" Sherill goes after only those who did him in not just any street hood who gets in his way, using himself as a decoy, like Charles Bronson did in that movie.Trying at first to let the police track down and arrest his attackers Sherill gets impatient and hired a private detective Finny, Stanley Adams, to do the job. It turns out that Finny despite finding those who brutally beat Sherill tails them in his car losing control by driving some 80 to 90 MPH and ending up dead at the bottom of a ravine. The hoodlums themselves are lead by by this conceded and what seems like stuck up, on those who are law abiding citizens, spoiled brat named Chuck,Michael Callan.Chuck gets so carried away in tormenting both Sherill and his wife Tracey that even his fellow criminals try to distance themselves from him. Bill, Arnold Merritt, one of Chuck's hangers on gets so guilt ridden at what he did to Sherill that he's murdered by Chuck, who made it look like a suicide, in order to keep his fellow hoodlums in line and from talking to the police.Det. Koleski, Rod Steiger, who's on the case has so much trouble in keeping Sherill from going off the handle and ending up not only killing any of his attackers but even innocent persons who get in his way almost has Sherill arrested for his own good. Meanwhile Chuck, who wasn't all there upstairs to begin with, gets this bright idea to break into Sherill's house and show just what a man he really is by raping his wife Tracey which alerts the cops who catch him both red handed and with his pants down.Running back to mommy and daddy, who've been covering up for him all this time, Chuck is caught by surprise by a cane swinging Sherill who after breaking his head almost drowns Chuck in his parents swimming pool. Sherill has to thank Det. Koleski for coming to his rescue not that he really needed him but to stop him from killing Chuck and ending up behind bars himself.P.S With all the comparisons to the movie 'Death Wish" there is a scene in "13 West Street"that left me a bit startled. This happens when Sherill in his hospital room, with a cast and clutches, slips and falls on the ground and is unable to get up by himself. In pops this young man who at first you think is one of those who put him there in the first place. It turns out that the young man, Adam Roarke, is visiting his mom in the room next to Sherill who helps him up and gives him back his clutches. Adam Roarke looks so much like a young Charles Bronson that for a moment I almost thought that he was actually him!

After doing the horrific Duel of the Champions in Europe, film offers were not inundating Alan Ladd any more. He was probably lucky to get this one which in fact he produced for himself.13 West Street is an unpretentious drama about a 40 something man, a successful guy, an aerospace engineer in fact, who takes a wrong turn on the way home and runs into a gang of punks led by Michael Callan. They beat him up, really without any reason or provocation as punks are wont to do. Alan Ladd is our victim and Rod Steiger is the detective from the juvenile division assigned to his case. Like Charles Bronson in Death Wish, Ladd is not real happy with the progress and starts investigating on his own. It leads to two deaths as byproducts in his pursuit of vengeance.Dolores Dorn is good as Ladd's wife who doesn't like the changes in her husband. Ladd does give a good account of himself as the middle-aged man he was. Possibly he and Sue Carol realized finally he was no longer believable as an action hero.Sad that the realization came too late because there was only one more film left in the career of Alan Ladd.