CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

bkoganbing Crime Against Joe is a modest noir thriller with much to be modest about. Red herrings as murder suspects are fine, but in this case too many were created in the story leaving a lot of loose ends in what should have been a more coherent script.The title character is John Bromfield a returned Korean War veteran with a severe drinking problem. That's how we first meet him, living with mom Frances Morris and trying to become a painter. Another Toulouse L'Autrec, taller, less talented and as big a boozer.But one night when Bromfield has had a snootful and gets a ride home from buddy Henry Calvin a cab driver, there's a murder of a woman and he's the number one suspect. Back in high school he was a big man on campus, but he's a flop now.Here's where it goes completely haywire. From the town drunk he sobers up real fast and with the help of Julie London a rollerskating server and singer at a fast food place he puts the pieces together.I knew Henry Calvin was in the cast. But the man with the girth best known as the rabblerouser from Ship Of Fools, the Wazir in Kismet and most of all Sergeant Garcia in Zorro is absolutely unrecognizable. That deep bass voice is not employed at all. Granted this was a program filler, but little care was taken with the preparation of Crime Against Joe.

dougdoepke Entertaining minor programmer. The first part meanders some, so we're not sure where it's headed. The latter part, however, gels into a pretty good whodunit. Joe Manning (Bromfield), an army vet turned ne'er-do-well painter, is subsidized by his mother, and is going nowhere in life. No wonder he drinks a lot; at the same time, the early scenes show Joe in what seems permanent inebriation. Good thing, he's helped along by car-hop Slacks (London) and taxi driver Red (Calvin) or he'd be in the drunk tank. Seems however that two girls have been assaulted and one murdered, mysteriously. Because of his erratic behavior, the cops have him figured as the culprit. Thus, he better sober up and figure things out or he'll be sobering up courtesy the state lockup.Bromfield delivers a lively performance that holds interest. And a good thing since he's in about every scene. Also, this is London before she hit the big time as a sultry torch singer and star of A-features. Here she's really dressed down showing little of those later eye-catching attributes. Too bad. Too bad, too, that glamorous Patricia Blair is wasted in a role she could sleep walk through, which ironically she does! Anyhow, the film comes across as competently done, even though filmed in only five days (IMDB). The 70-minutes may not be anything special, but remains an entertaining slice of industry professionalism.

Jay Raskin This is a strange offbeat little movie. At times it is dumb and clichéd 1950's police drama and at times it is philosophical and quite interesting.In the second scene of the movie, we have Joyce Jameson running at full speed screaming that she's been attacked. It is quite jilting. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie never matches the energy of this scene.The standout in the cast is Julie London. She is best known as a successful 1960's singer of sultry ballads, but she did do a number of acting gigs. Here she plays a car hop named "Slacks." She is in love with the lead character "Joe." However Joe shows only a passing interest in her, as she has dated his good friend "Red." Julie manages to make the character extremely sweet, nice and strong. She is the opposite of a Femme Fatale, a real Penelope standing by her man.Rebecca Blair (from the television series "Daniel Boone")is the only other person in the cast I knew. She literally "sleepwalks" though her part, although she does have one good scene at the end as a troubled teenager confronting her overprotective "Dad." While the sum does not add up to much, some individual scenes are clever enough to make this "Wrong Man" genre piece worth watching. It was apparently filmed in five days, so don't go in expecting great production values. For those who like early Roger Corman movies, you'll probably enjoy the similar style.

zardoz-13 Director Lee Sholem's "Crime Against Joe" is a modest but entertaining crime thriller about a wrongly accused guy who spends about 45 minutes in this hour long epic struggling to prove that he didn't kill a woman. Competently made, with solid production values, and polished performances, this low-budget, black & white, B-movie is a gem if you have the time. The formulaic script contains enough red herrings and provocative characters to keep you interested when it isn't distracting you from the real killer.Joe Manning (John Bromfield of "Rope of Sand") is an amiable lush who spends his time searching for a wise, funny, but innocent girl when he isn't trying to capture them in oil on canvas. Joe doesn't work for a living and lives off his mother. One evening Joe is too drunk to drive his convertible; a black & white patrol car blocks his withdrawth from a drive-in restaurant, so he continues cruising courtesy of a friendly taxi cab driver. At a bar, Joe flirts with a singer Irene Crescent (Alika Louis) and then threatens her with bodily harm before the bartender, Harry Doran (John Pickard), ushers him outside and clobbers him. George Niles (Rhodes Reasons) watches Doran as he punches Joe. George is a tall man in a cowboy hat who lost his ranch. He makes an extremely suspicious character who lurks on the periphery of the screen. Joe ambles home and encounters a beautiful woman, Christine 'Christy' Rowen (Patricia Blake), walking the streets late at night. Later, we learn that she is a sleep walker. The next day the police arrest Joe for the murder of Irene Crescent. When our protagonist tries to account for his whereabouts, the man who could clear him, Philip Rowen (Joel Ashley), refuses to oblige, because he fears the social stigma that attach to his name.Psychiatrist Dr. Louis Tatreau (Mauritz Hugo) questions Joe to determine his mental abilitr. Joe served in Korea and was the only man in his platoon to survive a battle. Joe was diagnosed with battle fatigue and learned how to paint as therapy. The outcome is pretty incriminating as far as the authorities as concerned. They produce a witness, Gloria Wayne (Joyce Jameson of "The Gauntlet") who testifies that Joe assaulted her from behind. Joe's faithful mother searches for an attorney to represent her son, but she cannot persuade one of Joe's former classmates to take his case. Everything looks bleak for our hero. Surprisingly, a car hop at a drive in (Julie London) gives Joe an alibi that springs him from jail. However, the police know that Slacks is lying to protect Joe because she loves him. Everybody in the community turns against Joe and even his doting mother suspects him.