The Mob (1951)

The Mob (Dir: Robert Parrish, 1951).

A tough gangster movie-cum-film noir thriller. The Mob stars Broderick Crawford as Johnny Damico, a tough New York cop who poses as a longshoreman to bust up the corrupt union activity polluting the city's dockyards. 

Based upon the novel Waterfront by Ferguson Findlay, The Mob covers similar ground to the more famous On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954). Pre-dating the latter movie by three years it is more of a pulpy crime drama that Kazan's socially conscience classic. 

In his second outing as director, former editor Robert Parrish has crafted a hard hitting, at time brutal thriller which still packs a considerable punch seven decades later. It is a tough movie, with tough guys talking tough. William Bowers' screenplay is interspersed with some smart hard boiled dialogue, delivered in suitable pithy fashion by the excellent Broderick Crawford.

A year after his Oscar winning performance in All the King's Men (Robert Rossen, 1949) Crawford is dynamite here; perfectly cast as a hard nosed cop, ruthless in his mission to bring down the mob. Also impressing in an early role is Ernest Borgnine as thuggish mobster Johnny Castro. As his right hand man, Neville Brand is equally effective in one of many maniacal bad guy roles. 

Often categerised as a film noir, The Mob feels closer to a gangster film than a true noir; its staccato pacing and overall theme evoking the Warner Brothers mob movies of 1930s. It presents an evocative, shadowy world of backstreets and dive bars populated with shady characters It is surprisingly violent at times, especially in its realistically scrappy fist fights. 

It may not rank among the greatest thrillers of its era, but it is an exciting and engaging minor noir, or rather a gangster movie in noir clothing. Deserving of far more attention than it generally receives, The Mob is neat little crime flick with a cracking screenplay and a first rate cast. To my knowledge, the movies only official home video release is as part of Spain's Columbia Classics range. This may make The Mob a little difficult to source, but it is well worth the effort!