AboveDeepBuggy Some things I liked some I did not.

GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

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

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

gordonl56 ROGUE COP 1954Bent cops, the Mob, murder and revenge are all at the top of the bill in this MGM production. The cast includes, Robert Taylor, Steve Forrest, George Raft, Janet Leigh, Anne Francis, Robert Ellenstein, Alan Hale Jr, Robert F. Simon, Olive Carey and Vince Edwards.Robert Taylor plays a crooked Detective who is on the payroll of Mob boss, George Raft. Raft calls up Taylor for a meeting at the race track. Raft needs Taylor to have a word with Taylor's kid brother, rookie cop, Steve Forrest. Forrest is the only witness against a murderer, Peter Brocco that the Mob wants released. The Mob is willing to cough up 10 large for Forrest to have some memory issues.Taylor has a talk with his brother but Forrest is not interested. Taylor tells Forrest that the Mob is not inclined to take no for an answer. Taylor also has a word with Forrest's girl, nightclub singer, Janet Leigh. Taylor wants Leigh to "suggest" to Forrest that the 10 grand would let them get married and such. Forrest still refuses to play ball. Taylor has another meeting with Raft and Raft's Mob boss, Robert F. Simon. Taylor asks why this particular man, Peter Brocco is so important. He gets no answer to the question, instead Raft tells Taylor that Forrest had best agree to the deal, or else drastic measures will be taken. Taylor loses his cool which ends with Raft and himself exchanging punches with Raft taking a thumping. (As does Raft's bodyguard, Alan Hale Jr) Taylor warns Raft and Simon that he will be most upset if anything happens to his brother.In the middle of all this is the alcoholic girlfriend of Raft, Anne Francis. After Taylor pounds on Raft he takes it out on Francis after she cracks about the beating. The film now goes to a straight up vengeance picture as the Mob does indeed kill Forrest. Taylor goes off the rails as he goes after Brocco to find out what he has on Raft and company. Turns out Brocco had witnessed Raft and Simon do a murder years ago, and has been blackmailing them since. Bodies are needless to say going to pile up along the way here. For a MGM film, this is a real change of pace with plenty of violence etc. Robert Taylor is excellent as the bent cop as is Raft as the mobster. The screenplay is by Sydney Boehm from the novel of William P. McGivern. McGivern also wrote the novels for ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW, THE BIG HEAT, HELL ON FRISCO BAY and SHIELD FOR MURDER. All these novels were turned into films. ROGUE COP cinematographer, John F Seitz was nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography. Seitz was a favourite of Alan Ladd and worked with Ladd over 20 times. The 7 time Oscar nominated Seitz was a sure hand in the Noir genre with, SUNSET BLVD, THE LOST WEEKEND, THIS GUN FOR HIRE, CALCUTTA, SAIGON, THE BIG CLOCK, CHICAGO DEADLINE, APPOINTMENT WITH DANGER and DOUBLE INDEMNITY as examples of his work.

MartinHafer While this film does not have every one of the usual trademarks of Film Noir, it is very much a Noir-style film. Like true Noir, Robert Taylor is not a typical cop but one on the take from the mob. The problem is that these thugs are now pressuring him to make his brother, another cop, refuse to identify a petty thug who murdered someone. The problem is that while Taylor isn't above lying or cheating, his brother (Steve Forrest) is a decent guy and won't play along with the crooks. So Taylor is stuck--should he obey his masters who have bought and paid for him or should he remain loyal to his brother? This makes for a great dilemma and also allows Taylor to play one of his grittier and more rugged roles (something I really appreciated after all the "pretty boy" roles of the 1930s and early 40s). I particularly liked watching Taylor in an all-out brawl with Alan Hale, Jr., as Taylor ending up beating him with a brutal punch to the throat! Now THAT'S what you expect in Noir! Overall, this film is well made and interesting. About the only negative is one brief scene with Janet Leigh when Taylor kisses her--it just doesn't ring true. Still, this one's a keeper and well worth your time.

bmacv By 1954, the noir cycle had already sounded most of its dissonant themes. Audiences had seen the crooked cop with the straight-arrow younger brother (The Man Who Cheated Himself); the shantoozie with a past (Gilda, Dead Reckoning, The Last Crooked Mile); the slick mobster beyond the reach of the law with his alcoholic, trophy mistress (Key Largo, Railroaded,The Big Heat); the street-savvy old jane who passes on scuttlebutt for a price (Pickup on South Street). But, as Roy Rowland's Rogue Cop demonstrates, there were still changes to be rung on those themes, jazzed up with fresh casting and pithy writing.Here, the cop gone sour isn't a homicidal brute like Edmond O'Brien in the same year's Shield For Murder (both movies were adapted from books by William McGivern, as was Fritz Lang's The Big Heat). He's dapper, laid-back Robert Taylor, known by his `brothers' on the force to be on the take but given a wide berth despite it (it's the thin blue line's equivalent of omertà). When his younger brother Steve Forrest, also a policeman, identifies a connected hit-man, Taylor receives a summons from his paymaster, crime boss George Raft. Either Forrest recants his testimony, in return for a $15-grand payoff, or he'll be killed (the accused knows too much and might sing if convicted). Upon delivering the ultimatum, Taylor gets rebuffed by Forrest; he then tries to blackmail his brother's fiancée Janet Leigh, a nightclub singer, into trying to change his mind. Taylor doesn't really want Forrest to go bad, he just doesn't want him dead.But Raft plays tougher than Taylor imagines. Lulling Taylor into thinking he still has time, Raft has Forrest shot in the back. And so the worm turns: Using both Leigh and Raft's discarded moll Anne Francis as his allies, Taylor swears vengeance....Crisply photographed by John Seitz, Rogue Cop burrows snugly into its rotten urban core – a city of dreadful night. With its large and aptly chosen cast, it nonetheless rests squarely on the shoulders of its central character, Taylor, who comes through with the performance of his career. At age 42, he passes muster as a burnt-out cop who's sold out for easy money – in this urban jungle, corruption is just another perk passed up only by fools -- but still has the wits and the will to spring a few surprises when cornered. There's plenty of brutal, even sadistic, action, but Rogue Cop is less an action picture than a character study that Taylor, somewhat surprisingly, manages to pull off. With its siblings The Big Heat and Shield For Murder, Rogue Cop makes up a grim tryptich of big-town America in the mid-20th century.

frankfob A hard-edged, gritty, violent little crime drama from, of all studios, MGM! Probably the closest that studio ever came to a noir thriller, only the overall gloss gives it away as an MGM film (guess they just couldn't help themselves); otherwise it could well have come from Warners or RKO. Robert Taylor is in top form as a hardened detective who has been immersed for so long in the seedy, seamy world of big-city crime that he finally succumbs to its corruption and is even tempted to sell out his younger brother, who is also a policeman. George Raft as the slimy crime boss, Janet Leigh as his brother's pretty, sweet (but hardly naive) fiancé, Robert Ellenstein (in a standout performance) as his partner and friend who doesn't want to see Taylor become the kind of lowlife he's always hated, all combine with a Chandler-esqe script by Sydney Boehm, tough, no-nonsense direction from Roy Rowland (a reliable but somewhat stolid director of mainly westerns and musicals) and a violent, action-filled climax to make this a must-see for noir fans. Highly recommended.