The streets of Manhattan take a real beating in this vivid depiction of true events that make the original Dead End Kids and the Jets and Sharks of West Side Story seem trivial. Those two looks at the lives of New York City tough are excellent time capsules but this takes real life and turns it into one of the great social dramas of all time, a true sleeper if there ever was one.
Looking at the elevated Metro North near 110th Street (my neighborhood) is a far cry from the location footage in a handful of films using the same shots of the stone underpasses. Shots of all over Manhattan give a dark and eerie look at the harsh world that had most of the country petrified of the image of America that it gave the rest of the world.
"Hatred has killed my son", the mother of a murdered blind Puerto Rican boy attacked by American hoods exclaims. Accused of pulling a knife, the deceased boy himself is accused of accelerating the crime against him, although it appears that even his own screaming sister didn't make an attempt to pull him into the tenement as the bigoted white teens approached as if they were preparing to slaughter a chicken for dinner.
"Take a look. San Juan's polluting the water", one of the monster teens complains before the gang tries to drown a young Puerto Rican boy. The same kid testifies on the behalf of one of them who came to his rescue. Of course, the older Puerto Rican teenagers mistook what he did, and it is only the belief of that white boy's mother (Shelley Winters) that indicates to assistant D.A. Burt Lancaster (her old beau) that he might be innocent.
In a major comparison with the song "Gee Officer Krupke", one of the Italian American gang members describes his life much like one of the West side Jets did the same year on film, as did the original novel and original Broadway production of both stories. Each group viciously insults the other with no stone unturned in the hateful racial slurs against each of the other is used.
Of course, there is a political subplot with D.A. Edward Andrews hoping for higher office by winning this case, giving the analogy of votes bought by blood rather than promises of justice. Telly Savalas is a rather vicious detective while Dina Merrill plays Lancaster's upper-crust wife who finds the hard way the ugliness of the street.
A definite forgotten gem, this is one of the quintessential social horror stories that had been exploding off screen since the end of the second world war. It isn't the artistic triumph of "West Side Story", but it does not sugar-coat anything. This isn't about the Puerto Ricans being made the unwelcome intruders; They are equally presented as young savages as well with clues dropped here and there, adding shocking facts to each of the revelations. A great predecessor to John Frankenheimer's later masterpiece "The Manchurian Candidate", this ends up being just equally as important and for many people who remember these violent years, much more identifiable.
Looking at the elevated Metro North near 110th Street (my neighborhood) is a far cry from the location footage in a handful of films using the same shots of the stone underpasses. Shots of all over Manhattan give a dark and eerie look at the harsh world that had most of the country petrified of the image of America that it gave the rest of the world.
"Hatred has killed my son", the mother of a murdered blind Puerto Rican boy attacked by American hoods exclaims. Accused of pulling a knife, the deceased boy himself is accused of accelerating the crime against him, although it appears that even his own screaming sister didn't make an attempt to pull him into the tenement as the bigoted white teens approached as if they were preparing to slaughter a chicken for dinner.
"Take a look. San Juan's polluting the water", one of the monster teens complains before the gang tries to drown a young Puerto Rican boy. The same kid testifies on the behalf of one of them who came to his rescue. Of course, the older Puerto Rican teenagers mistook what he did, and it is only the belief of that white boy's mother (Shelley Winters) that indicates to assistant D.A. Burt Lancaster (her old beau) that he might be innocent.
In a major comparison with the song "Gee Officer Krupke", one of the Italian American gang members describes his life much like one of the West side Jets did the same year on film, as did the original novel and original Broadway production of both stories. Each group viciously insults the other with no stone unturned in the hateful racial slurs against each of the other is used.
Of course, there is a political subplot with D.A. Edward Andrews hoping for higher office by winning this case, giving the analogy of votes bought by blood rather than promises of justice. Telly Savalas is a rather vicious detective while Dina Merrill plays Lancaster's upper-crust wife who finds the hard way the ugliness of the street.
A definite forgotten gem, this is one of the quintessential social horror stories that had been exploding off screen since the end of the second world war. It isn't the artistic triumph of "West Side Story", but it does not sugar-coat anything. This isn't about the Puerto Ricans being made the unwelcome intruders; They are equally presented as young savages as well with clues dropped here and there, adding shocking facts to each of the revelations. A great predecessor to John Frankenheimer's later masterpiece "The Manchurian Candidate", this ends up being just equally as important and for many people who remember these violent years, much more identifiable.