Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

TeenzTen An action-packed slog

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

bkoganbing Portland Expose casts Edward Binns as an honest tavern owner who gets lured into the clutches of organized crime by of all things a pinball machine that some guys with smashed noses urge him to put in his place of business. It's a way of earnings additional cash, but that's there way of starting and pretty soon it's slot machines and hookers. Although the racketeers have several spots, Binns's tavern is of particular interest because it's near a lot of industrial plants and the gangs are looking to infiltrate labor unions. Binns goes along at first, but after his daughter Carolyn Craig is nearly raped by Frank Gorshin playing one of the hoods, Binns turns informant and starts wearing a wire to his meetings.The next time you're in a bar hoisting a few, if you've seen Portland Expose you might look at the pinball, the computer games, and the Foozeball in a different light. Not much in the way of production values in Portland Expose, not really too much of Portland other than establishing shots. But the story moves well and performances to note are that of Virginia Gregg as Binns's concerned wife, Lea Pennman as a west coast Polly Adler, and Jeanne Carmen as a cheerfully amoral hooker who really makes her scenes count.The film also has a coda ending with reference to the then current McClellan committee investigating labor racketeering. The counsel to that committee was one Robert F. Kennedy and their main target was the Teamsters and Jimmy Hoffa. Not a bad noir at the end of the noir cycle.

secondtake Portland Express (1957)Overall, this is often a stilted affair, and it begins and ends with a canned voice-over about Portland, the Oregon city at the center of this unlikely crime scenario. And for people looking for noir, this is not noir at all, though it does have a kind of throwback to some gangster thugs, and there is a good twenty minutes of night stuff that has a noir look.Portland Express is more about American innocence, and the surprise anachronism of these mobsters in fedoras pressuring a cute roadhouse into using their pinball machines. Which leads to bigger pressures. The lead man is a small time movie and later t.v. character, Edward Binns, a solid but unexciting actor, sort of perfect for this solid but unexciting town (back then--now I hear it's solid and exciting). And his daughter is a complete unknown who acts her heart out, and really feels like a teenager on the cusp of womanhood in a realistic way. This matters because she becomes central to the plot, including in a harrowing and almost abusive rape scene (it pushes the violence very hard for a movie of this simplicity). But it's a turning point for Binns, the father, and for the plot, as this likable, ordinary family man goes undercover to get the bad guys.Naturally, we root for him, and see the dismantling of the syndicate. It gets increasingly dark and desperate over time, and a bit unlikely, but you'll still want to watch to the end, when the cavalry arrives--a group of ordinary men in plaid shirts who rush in to save the day. It's not as hilarious as it sounds. There is a quality of really beautiful, ordinary middle-America here that resonates, and that helps show this is really a 1950s movie. It's widescreen black and white, and a genuine slice of its period.

funkyfry Who knew the dangers of the pinball machine racket? Often in these kinds of movies the hero makes one tiny slip-up that leads him down a path of ruin -- all the poor guy in this movie did was agree to put a pinball machine in his little country bed and breakfast near Portland Oregon. But soon a mob of acid-wielding goons show up, accompanied by pedophilic maniac Frank Gorshin, and force him to turn his place into a full on juke joint. Grown men and women in mixed company leer at the bouncing pinballs and drinks are mixed fast and furious. It all looks like the soda fountain in "Reefer Madness." Eventually we're treated to a party scene where the woman who's supposed to be the best "madame" in the USA serves fruit punch for the guests. It's just that type of movie.Virginia Gregg's rough features serve her well when she shows maternal concern -- she represents all that is good and sacred in the American Way. Carolyn Craig has strong features as well, and I liked the way she kissed off the yokel he tried to tell her they were "going out in the country" because she had "been around." The ensuing confrontation with Gorshin's hood is definitely a pretty raw depiction of sexual hunger. It's a very effective sequence of events, even if highly predictable. I believe what George (Ed Binns) says when he says "this is one thing that I'm gonna see through, all the way." I guess the interesting thing about the sequence of events is that the girl is exposed to dangerous and aggressive sexuality in both instances, but as it turns out (the boy is contrite and writes a heartfelt letter) one of them was only harmless enthusiasm while of course the other was psychopathic mania. So hard for a good 50s girl to tell the difference! Another sinister aspect of the movie is the union/labor involvement with the pinball racket. I don't know if the movie was made by ultra-conservatives who were trying to smear labor by associating it with the criminal element but that's what it sure looks like to me. Of course just like "corrupt cop" movies they make sure to include at least one good honest labor guy, Al Gray (Francis De Sales). The scene with the labor meeting has some really odd dialog.... "Al Gray will conduct the séance....." On the whole it's not a very memorable movie but I liked the performances and it's a good take on the theme of a little guy who tackles the big criminals. Not a true "noir" movie as some apparently have claimed, at least not in my opinion."Memorize this name: Alfred Gray. Do not make a note of it."

Tobias_R As some of the other commentators have pointed out, in the 1950s there flourished a film genre that purported to tell a true story of crime, corruption and violence in an American city. In many ways these films anticipated such dramatic documentary TV shows like City Confidential. The point of interest in this film, Portland Expose, is how the conjunction of gangsters and corrupt union members helped to milk money out of legitimate businesses in Portland, Oregon in the 1950s. While I suspect the story of the tavern owner who went to work for the mobsters to get information on them for the authorities is fictional, I gather the strong-arm tactics of the mobsters were not.As for the film itself, it is a competent, low-budget affair. With a little trimming here and there, it could stand as an TV episode of a true crime show. Frank Gorshin, who went on to fame as a master voice impersonator as well as showbiz immortality as the Riddler on the campy Batman show of the mid-1960s, is quite good as a creepy hood who gets his just desserts at the hands of a freight train. One chilling moment is the expression of glee on his erstwhile partner's face as he watches the train run over Frank Gorshin's character's body. Edward Binns, who appeared as a character actor on dozens of TV shows in the 60s, is good as the tavern owner who gets the goods on the hoods at great risk to himself and his family.My only serious problem with the film is that the audience doesn't get to see enough of Portland, OR as it was in 1957. The way the film was shot, most of it could have been taking place anywhere. But, given its limitations of budget, I guess I shouldn't complain too much.