Sick Product of a Sick System

good back-story, and good acting

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

....that's the way this movie hits you!! For all people who think that Edward G. Robinson's 1950s movies were only rehashes of his earlier hits - then they just haven't seen this film!! Robinson has an explosive performance in him as the brutal Vince Cannelli (the way Little Caesar may have ended up if he had lived)!!! And something you don't see every day - Jean Parker (she of the sentimental "Little Women" and "Sequoia") playing Cannelli's hardened gun moll and the one who masterminds the last minute escape!!Like caged animals, the prisoners pace their cells to the singing lament of "Black Tuesday". Vicious thug Cannelli is due to be executed that morning, along with another prisoner (Peter Graves) who has $200,000 hidden away in a fool proof hiding place!! But Cannelli is not looking nervous - his girl has hatched an escape plan which includes kidnapping the daughter of one of the guards over seeing the execution so he has no choice but to fall in with the plan. Which also includes taking Manning along as Cannelli hopes to get his hands on that hidden loot. One by one people are appalled by Vince's psychotic behaviour - leaving most of the people who helped him escape by the side of the road with only a lonely gun to help them in a shootout to the death when they are captured by police!! By the time they arrive at the hideout, the kidnapped daughter finds her father has already been killed and when Cannelli springs the old "if you don't give us our demands, a person is going to be killed every half hour"!! - from what the movie has revealed, you know he is not joking!! Problems start when Manning is shot and when forced to leave his sick bed to retrieve the money from a safety deposit box, leaves his calling card - a bloody finger print on the desk!! The finale features a blazing shoot out between the police and the gangsters, with innocent people fleeing flying bullets (not always successfully) - almost out bigging "The Big House"!! Highly Recommended!!

Finding a print of Black Tuesday is still quite impossible. And it's a long time mystery : written by Sidney Boehm (The Big Heat and a dozen films noirs), directed by Hugo Fregonese (The Raid, Apache Drums and the unknown Six Convicts), photographed by Stanley Cortez (Night Of The Hunter and so many more) and with EG Robinson as Vincent Canelli, a fast violent happy trigger killer, getting real mad all around his escape. This dream team of film noir have shot a truly desirable one. And yet, I feel slightly disappointed. Certainly not by Stanley Cortez photography, the master still being inventive with lights and shots. Certainly not by EG Robinson, his character is one of his best in his career and he is strongly supported by Peter Graves (his friend then his victim) and Jean Parker as his girlfriend. I think Sidney Boehm's script is not enough worked, lacking nervous speed and more complexity, especially in the first two parts : the escape from jail and the hold-up bank. The third and last part is more atmospheric with police forces attacking the gangsters in their refugee with a storm of bullets and gas. I find Black Tuesday yet very interesting and we need to see a remastered print to get the ultimate opinion on one of the rarest film noir (after Incident by William Beaudine). Time will tell.

Gritty low-budget prison film stars Edward G. Robinson as a death-row inmate about to be executed (black Tuesday) along with a convict (Peter Graves) who has $200,000 stashed away on the outside. But just as they are about to go to the chair, they pull an amazing prison break and escape.With a new gang that includes his moll (Jean Parker), Robinson plots to get the cash out of a safety deposit box. But things get complicated when Graves takes a bullet. With Parker posing as his secretary, Graves gets the money but his wound starts bleeding, tipping off the bank guard.Holed up in a warehouse and with several hostages, Robinson resists the cops' barrage of bullets and tear gas and threatens to kill the hostages one by one unless they are allowed to escape. But is there honor among thieves and murderers? Robinson is terrific as the murderous thug who will sacrifice anyone to get his way. Parker is also terrific as the hard-boiled moll (after decades of soft heroine roles). Graves is also good as the fellow con. Co-stars include Warren Stevens, Milburn Stone, Jack Kelly, Sylvia Findley, Russell Johnson, Vic Perrin, William Schallert, and Frank Ferguson.

Edward G. Robinson shows he still could do the gangster role and keep the performances fresh. Unlike the mob bosses Robinson played in"Little Ceaser", "The Last Gangster", and "Key Largo", the role of Vincent Canelli is more modern and vicious than the typical cigar chewing prohabtion gangster. Canelli and gunman Manning{Peter Graves} await their death sentence with a bunch of other prisoners on death row. Canelli's mob kidnap the daughter of one of the prison guards andblackmail the guard in helping the death row inmates bust outta the joint!! Canelli needs Manning's money that he stashed away for his final getaway and Manning is just looking for freedom. The story leadsto a moral climatic stand-off with escaped killers vs. the police. The soul-less Canelli shows how low killers will go to survive. Great performance by Robinson and Graves, especially Robinson who plays agangster ahead of those times. It's sad that not enough people know about this movie. If your any type of gangster, suspense, or just a Eddie G. fan, GET YOUR HANDS ON A COPY OF THIS FILM... NYA'SEE!!!!!