The Hoodlum (1951)

Too much of everything

Redundant and unnecessary.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

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.

THE HOODLUM is a film noir starring one of cinema's true hard men, Laurence Tierney, an actor who was by all accounts just as volatile and scary off the screen as he was on it. Certainly his larger than life presence is exploited to the full in this otherwise uninteresting thriller that desperately lacks a sympathetic character.The story sees Tierney's small-time crook planning a big heist and generally abusing everybody around him, even his own family members. There's implied sexual violence and a general ill feeling towards everyone. Of course the viewer can guess right from the outset what's going to happen to Tierney come the end but this is about the journey there. Sadly, it's not a very interesting journey, too constrained by budgetary deficiency to truly impress or indeed entertain.

The constraints within which filmmakers have to operate when they're working on a low budget can often produce surprisingly good results and this is most often seen in crime dramas where qualities such as grittiness, realism and pace can be produced without any need for high expenditure. "The Hoodlum" is a case in point, as it describes the inevitable downfall of a criminal who, from the outset, is clearly beyond redemption and the way in which his story is told displays all the aforementioned qualities plus plenty of tension.As a youngster, Vincent Lubeck (Lawrence Tierney) had a long history of involvement in petty crime before being sentenced to ten years in prison for armed robbery. After having served five years of his sentence, the parole board at the state penitentiary meets to consider his case and despite the strong views of the Warden (who considers him to be unfit to be released on parole); the board approves the criminal's release after having listened to an impassioned appeal from Lubeck's mother.When Vincent returns home to live with his mother, he's required under the terms of his parole to work in the gas station which his brother Johnny (Edward Tierney) had bought using the insurance money from his father's death. Vincent shows no appreciation of what Johnny or his mother have done on his behalf and doesn't acknowledge how well Johnny had done in building up his business and buying the family a new home. He also dislikes working in the gas station and displays a bad attitude to its customers. This naturally upsets Johnny who, unlike his mother and his naïve girlfriend Rosa (Allene Roberts), sees his brother exactly for what he is. Rosa's attempts to build bridges between the brothers leads to her getting seduced by Vincent and eventually committing suicide after discovering she's pregnant and then being very firmly rebuffed when she asked Vincent to marry her.Vincent notices the collections that are made by an armoured van from the Fidelity Bank which is located on the opposite side of the street from the gas station and dates Eileen (Marjorie Riordan), the bank's secretary, in order to get some more information about the regular cash shipments. Then, after meeting up with some of his old associates, he masterminds a heist and a very imaginative way of escaping with the loot. His quest for easy money, however, soon leads to some undesirable results, both during and after the heist.Vincent Lubeck's character is very straightforward as he's completely unrepentant about anything he's done in the past, never intends, even for a second, to go straight and is only focused on getting easy money. He thinks that the intense bitterness and anger that's such a powerful part of his make-up is attributable to his family's experience of having lived for years in a home that was close to the city dump and sees the acquisition of a lot of money as being the only thing that can clear the stink that he lived with for so many years. He's vicious, volatile and amoral and brings nothing but misery to his family.Lawrence Tierney does a great job of portraying the sheer intensity and explosive nature of this selfish sociopath in a style that perfectly complements the fast-moving way in which the on-screen action is delivered. It's these qualities that ultimately make the movie so enjoyable and help to compensate for the poor acting of some other members of the cast.

Sometimes you can come across a minor gem and find unexpected satisfaction. Makes you want to recommend it to others so that they can experience the same feeling. That happens a lot in DVD collections that contain several films you've never seen or heard of.Not so with THE HOODLUM. It was a grim downer with very little to recommend it. The acting was sub-par with the exception of Lisa Golm, who plays Tierney's mother in the film. Writing was second-rate and the plot has holes in it - and has anyone ever seen Tierney smile in any of his movies? When last seen he had the same lock-jaw look in Reservoir Dogs. No, this picture doesn't cut it. If it ever shows up on one of the movie channels, miss it.

This is typical but quite entertaining B movie fare. Well, not completely typical because the main character of such fare is generally more sympathetic than Lawrence Tierney is here. He's a guy you love to hate as he gets paroled thanks to his sweet and loving mother and then proceeds to be a total heel, raping and impregnating his sister-in-law, robbing a bank and just an overall not-nice guy. He doesn't even evoke sympathy at his dying mother's bedside and that's one of the perverse charms of the film. The ending in a dump is quite satisfying and prompts a feeling of good riddance to bad rubbish. This is a typically short little B film, cheaply made, ludicrous at times, but fun to watch and one which will be appreciated by fans of 40's and 50's 2nd features.