ReaderKenka
Let's be realistic.
Hayden Kane
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Portia Hilton
Blistering performances.
James Hitchcock
"The Street with No Name" can be seen as a follow-up to "The House on 92nd Street" from three years earlier. Both use a semi-documentary style, were loosely based on actual events and were made with the deliberate purpose of highlighting the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. One character, FBI Inspector George A. Briggs played by Lloyd Nolan, appears in both films. "The House on 92nd Street", made in 1945 shortly after the end of hostilities, deals with the fight against Nazi espionage and subversion in wartime, whereas the later movie deals with the FBI's efforts to combat the post-war revival of what J. Edgar Hoover called "organized gangsterism".The action is set in the fictional "Center City", which could represent any major American city, although the film was actually shot in Los Angeles. It tells the story of an undercover FBI agent, Gene Cordell, who infiltrates a ruthless crime gang who have carried out a series of robberies in which two people have been killed. Cordell adopts the persona of "George Manly", a boxer and criminal, and is recruited into the gang by its leader, Alec Stiles.Seven years later the film was remade as "House of Bamboo" which, rather oddly, transferred the action to Japan although most of the main characters, and all the gangsters, remained American. The two movies had the same scriptwriter, Harry Kleiner, although they were made by different directors, William Keighley here and Samuel Fuller in the later film. Unusually for a crime drama from the fifties, Fuller made "House of Bamboo" in colour, whereas "Street with No Name" is made in the standard black-and-white film noir style. Kleiner added a major female character to "House of Bamboo" by giving Eddie (the equivalent character in that film to Cordell) a Japanese girlfriend, but the cast here are nearly all male. (Film noir tended to be a male-dominated genre, with women confined to secondary roles, although there were occasional exceptions such as "Gilda").Although "House of Bamboo" is visually attractive, I think that "Street with No Name" is the better film. The later film's exotic setting struck me as something of a gimmick, whereas here Keighley's photography of the "Skid Row" district of Center City, with its cheap flophouses, bars, amusement arcades and boxing gyms, achieves a certain gritty authenticity. There is a particularly strong performance from Richard Widmark as the dangerous, amoral Stiles. Widmark was later to appear in one of the all-time great films noirs, Fuller's New York-set "Pickup on South Street", which has a similar gritty look. I would not rate "Street with No Name" as highly as "Pickup" which has a more original storyline and a greater moral complexity; "Street with No Name", by contrast, tells a more straightforward, conventional "good guys against bad guys" tale of cops and robbers. It does, however, retain some points of interest even today. 6/10
Dalbert Pringle
1948's "The Street With No Name" is, without question, hard-hitting, well-scripted, and, most definitely, top-of-the-line Film Noir.Shot in a semi-documentary style (which was a popular format in its time), this film of crime and corruption tells the vivid story of a tough, undercover FBI agent who infiltrates a ruthless criminal gang who operate in the skid-row district of the fictional "Center City" (which clearly reminds one of NYC).Very entertaining, "The Street With No Name" is a real treat for any fan of the Film Noir genre.I really liked actor Mark Stevens in this picture. He was superb as the FBI agent, Gene Cordell.
edwagreen
A definite taut thriller where both the good guys and the bad guys have infiltrated each other's group.Lloyd Nolan takes a similar role as an FBI agent, this is what he did in "The House on 92nd Street." Wasn't he Inspector Briggs there as well? The music, especially at the beginning of the film, sounded like it came from '92nd Street' too.As always, Richard Widmark was terrific as the villain. While he lacks the total insanity in other gangster films, he is as sharp, cunning and miserable as ever. He always sustained that low key villain trademark voice in these sort of films.Interesting to see that Mark Stevens got top billing in the film over Widmark. I guess that has to always show that good triumphs over evil.The picture expertly shows technology that existed in crime work after World War 11.
ctomvelu1
Man, where do they dig up these golden moldies? A 1948 pre-television era programmer, STREET is the story of the FBI infiltrating a gang of robbers who have graduated to murder. It is told In semi-documentary fashion and uses a voice-over, which today makes it look absolutely hilarious, as if we were watching one of those 1950s duck-and-cover Cold War shorts. But when this baby finally gets going, it really gets going thanks to Richard Widmark as the incredibly nasty and nefarious head of the gang. Mark Stevens, an Alan Ladd lookalike without the acting talent, plays the FBI agent who infiltrates the gang. There are some very silly shots of Stevens running here and there, while being tailed by the bad guys the whole time, as he makes contact with his boss (who else but Lloyd Nolan) and other FBI agents. Widmark, who is superb as the chief bad guy, has put together a gang that acts like the East Side Kids in suits and ties. They're about as menacing and scary as -- well, they're not menacing or scary at all. Some decent location photography for the time. An historic curiosity.
