This dark semi-noirish crime drama shows the destruction of innocence in a small town when the Rockets move in, focusing their Vengeance on one family whose patriarch goes undercover. There is a hideous scene of attempted rape of is there a rose daughter, with the rapist apply to revile and one of the creepiest characters onscreen since Richard Widmark in "Kiss of Death". Who better to play such an animalistic characters in a young Frank Gorshin, a decade before taking on the role of the Riddler?
I found myself more intrigued by the location footage than the details of the story which is slight. Yes, it does surround the rise of the rackets, but but the characters aren't very well written and the story is slight, Mainly dealing with personalities rather than real people and situations. Still, it's pretty gruesome stuff with a corpse placed on a railroad track as one of the bad guys watches in glee as it is run over by the oncoming train.
This is B material for sure with one interesting character played by Lea Penman, a heavy set older woman who is a combination of Sophie Tucker, Texas Guinan and Thelma Ritter, probably one of the oldest molls in film history, and now one of the top leaders of The Syndicate which intends on taking over the West Coast. It is very apparent how this will end with its paint by numbers narration that makes it one of dozens of the same similar type of narrative that came out throughout the 50's into the 1960's.
I found myself more intrigued by the location footage than the details of the story which is slight. Yes, it does surround the rise of the rackets, but but the characters aren't very well written and the story is slight, Mainly dealing with personalities rather than real people and situations. Still, it's pretty gruesome stuff with a corpse placed on a railroad track as one of the bad guys watches in glee as it is run over by the oncoming train.
This is B material for sure with one interesting character played by Lea Penman, a heavy set older woman who is a combination of Sophie Tucker, Texas Guinan and Thelma Ritter, probably one of the oldest molls in film history, and now one of the top leaders of The Syndicate which intends on taking over the West Coast. It is very apparent how this will end with its paint by numbers narration that makes it one of dozens of the same similar type of narrative that came out throughout the 50's into the 1960's.