Across 110th Street, 1972
In a bold, unexpected heist, two amateur criminals, Jim (Paul Benjamin) and Joe (Ed Bernard) hold up an apartment where Harlem numbers men are squaring up with their Mafia counterparts. The men make off with a ton of money, but also kill several local gangsters, mafia men, and even two police officers. Lieutenant Pope (Yaphet Kotto) is assigned to the case alongside old-school captain Mattelli (Anthony Quinn), and the two race to find the perpetrators before ruthless mafia enforcer DiSalvio (Anthony Franciosa) gets his hands on them.
It would be easy to let the graphic, disturbing, and relentless violence be what sticks with you from this movie, and that element does add to the sense of the film as leaning toward exploitation. But the movie simply has too much on its mind to be written off that way.
A lot of what happens in the film is not subtle, especially when it comes to the race relations aspect. Teaming a Black police detective with a white one and watching the sparks fly is nothing new, and this film came out 5 years after perhaps its most famous incarnation,
In the Heat of the Night. Quinn's Mettelli is hugely problematic as a character, with his racism so entrenched that at times he doesn't even seem to register it. (He is the kind of person for whom every Black man in the film is "boy"). When Pope tells him to stop torturing a suspect, Mattelli growls that he's tired of Pope's "liberal bullsh*t".
But while the interactions between the detectives are a bit more blunt in their conversation, there's some interesting stuff happening among the underworld elements who make up the other half of the narrative. You have characters like the gravel-voiced Doc Johnson (Richard Ward) who not only has Mattelli in his pocket, but is starting to openly resent white Mafia coming into Harlem just to keep their hands in the profits. DiSalvio is the most overtly racist character, and a lot is said in the looks between the Harlem enforcers who are sent to accompany him in tracking down the thieves. In one sequence the two Harlem men exchange some very significant looks as DiSalvio tortures a man for information. When DiSalvio calls for a rope, the loaded energy of the scene practically crackles. The killing of one character is referred to by many as a "crucifixion," but many aspect of it (including a castration) are straight out of the lynching playbook.
Despite causing the deaths of so many people in the beginning of the film, the thieves end up being some of the most sympathetic characters. Jim in particular lays out the misery of knowing that the best he could ever hope for is low-level work as a laborer or domestic, and you understand why he would take such a big swing despite the risks. A scene where he talks with his girlfriend about the life he imagines for them is genuinely heartbreaking. She's known from the beginning that he probably won't survive the day, but for a few minutes they agree to pretend. It's sweet and devastating all at once.
A gritty and brutal little piece of filmmaking. I wish that the police characters were a bit more compelling in their dynamic, despite really enjoying the performances, especially Kotto.