Incident in an Alley (1962)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

"Incident in an Alley" is a very simply made film. The budget was small and the actors are mostly faces you won't recognize. However, because it has good writing and surprisingly good writing and direction, it's well worth your time.The film begins with a burglary in progress. The police show up and suddenly teen delinquents are running about everywhere. In the confusion, one cop, Bill Joddy (Chris Warfield) repeatedly tells one of the gang to halt. Eventually, he fires warning shots and somehow a younger teen is hit and killed. Almost immediately, there is a huge uproar and folks are calling for the cop's head. The case goes to court but he is found innocent of responsibility in the death. But, he cannot live with himself and is stuck--alternately blaming himself and searching for more answers. See the film and see where this goes.One of the only folks you probably would recognize if you grew up in the 40s, 50s or 60s is Virginia Christine (the dead boy's mother). She played a lot of characters on TV (such as in the original "Dragnet") and was also the spokesperson for Folger's Coffee for many years. Yup...she's Mrs. Olsen. Another familiar presence is Rod Serling--who wrote the original story. All in all, surprisingly good and worth your time.

"... The highlights and streaks are hurting my eyes." Yes, this is a pretty lame story about bad teenagers. The pivotal figure looks like Troy Donahue: More a surfer than a tough guy. Of course, times have changed in 25 years. But "The Blackboard Jungle" came earlier. And it still packs a wallop.I love low-budget trash. This is low-budget but it seems to be part drive-in juvenile delinquent movie and half an urban "Tammy." The plot is OK. Not new by any means but it worked before and it works here. The actor playing the obsessed police officer is decent. His wife is done up so she looks more like a b-girl than a loving wife. She wears very short skirts, has a vacant look. All she needs is some gum to snap.What I'm trying to say is that it all seems bogus. It doesn't feel as if the producers' hearts were in it. It was a quickie that might pull in a few bucks. And sometimes that Results in an exciting little movie. This one is little but it's not exciting.

A group of young hoods break into a music store late one night. It is their bad luck that the cleaning woman discovers them. They dispatch said witness with a pipe to the side of the head. They then gather up all the loot they can carry and hit the road.When the janitor is found, just clinging to life, the police begin rounding up the usual selection of neighbourhood villains. Chasing several suspects down a darkened alley, a cop, Chris Warfield, yells "HALT!" Then fires a shot when not obeyed.His round hits one of the suspects killing him. The suspect, Bobby Fox, turns out to be a 14 -year old boy. Was it the suspect the policeman had been chasing? Or was it just a kid who happened to be in the dark alley.For political reasons, the D.A. decides to charge the officer with murder. The public and press are calling him a "KID KILLER" and want someone to pay for the boy's death. The viewer, however, knows the kid was in on the break in with his older brother and several others.Warfield goes on trial and is found not guilty. The story in court is told from several diff points of view including, the dead boy's mother, the officer, his wife, the other cops and the press.Warfield gets his job back. Some of the cops welcome him back him while others think he is guilty of being a tad trigger happy.Warfield has bouts of inner turmoil, that maybe the boy's death was his fault, so he decides he must clear his name. He enlists the help of his partner, Harp McGuire in his quest. They go over everything that happened looking for any possible clue.Lila Finn, the cleaning woman, who has been in a coma since the robbery, dies. It is now a murder case. The detectives assigned to the case get a break when some of the stolen goods show up. They grab up a suspect who leads them to a poolroom where he says he bought the items.And who should the Police find, but the dead boy's brother, Michael Vandever. With Vandever is the gang he runs with. The detective's suspect is unable to identify any of the boys so he is returned to jail.After the Police leave, the boys, lead by Gary Judis, start knocking Vandever around. They are less than amused that Vandever had sold some of the stolen goods The plan was to sit on the stolen items for 6 months before selling them. Vandever tells them "I was broke and needed some cash". After a few smacks to the head the gang sends him off to move the goods to Judis place.Later that day as Warfield is on patrol, he sees Vandever in the same alley were his brother had been killed. It is also the same alley where the swag is hidden. Warfield puts the grab on him for a little bit of face to face. He is pretty sure Vandever was involved in the robbery. One of the gang, who was tailing Vandever, sees the two talking and reports back to Judis.Judis, not the most trusting of people, decides they will need to bump off Vandever. Warfield has in the meantime convinced Vandever to come clean about the robbery. He tells Warfield it was Judis who had brained the cleaning woman with the piece of pipe. He also agrees to show Warfield were the stolen goods are.Judis and the boys, now armed with a trio of revolvers, head for the same location. A local warehouse watchman happens to see the boys pull the guns out their hiding spot. He figures they are up to no good and calls the Police.The gang, Vandever and Warfield all bump into each other in the alley with the predictable results. Shots are exchanged with two of the boys, including Judis being hit. Warfield's partner, McGuire arrives just in time to nab the third boy.Vandever turns State's evidence and Warfield's reputation is restored.The cast includes Erin O'Donnell as Warfield's wife, Willis Bouchey as the Police Captain, Don Keffer as the D.A. and Virginia Christine as the dead boy's mother.This good little low renter was from b-film vet, Edward L Cahn. Cahn's work includes, CAGE OF EVIL, VICE RAID, YOU HAVE TO RUN FAST, WHEN THE CLOCK STRIKES, THE WALKING TARGET, PIER 5 HAVANA, GUN GIRLS AND GANGSTERS, HONG KONG CONFIDENTIAL, GIRLS IN PRISON, BETRAYED WOMEN, TWO DOLLAR BETTOR, DESTINATION MURDER, BUNGALOW 13 and the great 50's sci-fi classic, IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE.The screenplay was by Harold Medford. His work includes the screenplays for BERLIN EXPRESS, THE KILLER IS LOOSE and THE DAMNED DON'T CRY. The story is from none other than Rod Serling. The d of p was Gil Warrenton whose work includes, PAROLE INC, ALIMONY and HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS.This is the second time I've caught this one. The first time was on a terrible VHS. This time, thanks to Ned, I got the pleasure of seeing a nice print on DVD.A decent time waster in my humble opinion.

Between 1959 and 1962, director Edward Cahn made MANY very-low-budget films for a production company that went under a few different names, but all were produced by Robert Kent. TCM did a salute to Cahn in 2001 and dug many of these up, including this one, INCIDENT IN AN ALLEY. Chris Warfield plays a police officer who breaks up what he thinks is a robbery and possibly an assault in an alley, and shoots one of the suspected robbers who runs away. That takes place in the first five minutes. After that, the film surveys exactly what happened, looks at the incident from multiple perspectives, has a trial where the officer is charged with manslaughter, and THEN starts another plot which becomes just as exciting as the first one, and finally it all comes to wild but satisfying close in just over an hour! Pardon my vagueness, but I don't want to give anything away. This film, written by the great Rod Serling, is a completely unexpected gem that does not go in any direction you expect it to. Shot on a few small sets, b-movie veteran Cahn keeps an exciting pace going, and the acting makes each character seem individual and real. In some ways this seems more like a play than an action film, but that's not surprising considering Serling's background in 1950s live TV and Cahn's background in VERY low budget films where talk and atmosphere make up for scenes that would be too expensive to shoot. As I wasn't expecting anything special, just a b-grade crime film, I was very pleasantly surprised at the care taken in the making of the film and in the many serious and complex issues it dealt with both intelligently and realistically. Bravo to writer Serling, director Cahn, and star Warfield for his little-known gem of a film.