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It took me wayyyy too long to watch The Phenix City Story (1955), which I downloaded during my golden age of piracy at college, but never got around to watching. I loved this movie; and the violence is part of the reason why. Part gangster movie/film noir and part high principled fable of ignoring society's vices, The Phenix City Story doesn't try to conjure up any kind of empathy for the gangster; women are brutally beaten/killed, and a child is murdered and then thrown from a moving car. The gangsters aren't flashy or good looking, but ugly and brutal in appearance. The organized crime syndicate is in charge of the political machine/police in Phenix City, so acts an extension of Jim Crow era segregation. There is a scene where innocent bystanders witness a fight in an alleyway, and someone shouts "Lets get out of there, the cops are coming."
The movie is based on fact, Phenix City was a haven of crime and corruption during the 50s. When local attorney Albert Patterson ran for and won Attorney General of Alabama, on the promise that he'd clean up Phenix City, he was shot three times in the mouth in his car when leaving his law office one evening. After that, the Governor called in the National Guard and declared martial law, there is actual newsreel footage used in the film of soldiers taking slot machines to the middle of a field and lighting them on fire.
The Phenix City Story gets preachy, and sort of lionizes Albert Patterson's son and future Governor of Alabama, John Patterson (Richard Kiley). When the younger Patterson returns from Germany after the Nuremberg Trials, he says he returns to "a different form of dictatorship" with the criminal syndicate. Alot of parallels are made between fighting WWII and fighting criminals, about evil flourishing when good men do nothing, and about how democracy and the ballot box is where the fight should take place. After Patterson's father is assassinated, he takes his father's place on the ticket and wins. The film ends with Patterson being elected to Attorney General, and in reality would go on to be Governor of Alabama from 1959 - 1963. While his Governorship at the time was seen as progressive (probably reformist would be a better term) he had a staunch anti civil rights stance, which earned him the endorsement of the KKK (ooops).
I changed my queue around a bit, and am getting Francesco Rosi's Salvatore Guliano (1962) next. I really enjoyed Rosi's Lucky Luciano (1973), so I'll be checking out more of his work.
1.) Salvatore Guliano (1962)
2.) The Brothers Rico (1957)
3.) Point Blank (1967)
4.) Criss Cross (1949)
5.) Murder By Contract (1958)
6.) The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
7.) The Dark Corner (1946)
8.) The Grissom Gang (1971)
9.) Brute Force (1947)
10.) Odd Man Out (1947)