In the early 1950s, television coverage of the Senate Committee hearings on organised crime (chaired by Estes Kefauver) generated a huge amount of public interest and movies such as "The Enforcer" (1951) and "New York Confidential" (1955) capitalised on this brilliantly. The latter movie is essentially a low-budget, semi-documentary expose of the culture of a nationwide organisation that makes its money from murder, vice and corruption but is also in the process of blurring the lines between itself and legitimate business. In order to achieve an appearance of respectability, however, the organisation has to operate by strict rules and ensure that, as far as possible, it doesn't attract any adverse publicity.
New York City crime boss Charlie Lupo (Broderick Crawford) has to take action when a mobster in his territory kills another hoodlum purely for personal reasons and so hit-man Nick Magellan (Richard Conte) is imported from Chicago. Nick is the son of one of Charlie's old friends and the two men get on well. So after Nick kills the rule-breaking mobster, Charlie keeps him on as his bodyguard and steadily promotes him to a top position in his organisation. Nick is smart, confident and very efficient and Charlie admires his coolness and the fact that he's considerably more polished than any of the other men he has working for him.
Widower Charlie has three women who are important to him. His mother, who's very demanding and warns him of trouble ahead, his spoilt daughter Kathy (Anne Bancroft) who despises his line of work because it impacts badly on her ability to move in society circles and Iris (Marilyn Maxwell) who's his mistress. For some time, the organisation had been working with some corrupt politicians and lawyers to set up a highly lucrative oil-shipping contract but the whole deal suddenly falls through when a lobbyist they were relying on double-crosses them. A board meeting of the crime bosses from all of the cities where the syndicate is active follows and it's unanimously decided that the lobbyist should be eliminated for his betrayal and that Charlie should take responsibility for ensuring that the hit is carried out.
Charlie appoints three of his men to assassinate the lobbyist and although they achieve their goal, they also leave clues behind and kill a cop in the process. In order to cover his tracks, Charlie assigns Nick to kill the three men. Nick succeeds in eliminating two of them but a third eludes him long enough to turn state's evidence and in so doing, threatens to expose Charlie's involvement and by extension, that of the nationwide syndicate. Predictably, the consequences of this are enormous.
Richard Conte is astonishingly good as Nick in a performance that outshines everyone else in the movie and Anne Bancroft is extremely intense, feisty and contemptuous as she portrays her character's feelings about what her father does to make a living. Fast-talking Broderick Crawford successfully exudes all the toughness and power that one would expect of a crime boss of Lupo's stature but also displays the vulnerability that his character feels because of his health issues and the degree to which he's hurt by his daughter's angry condemnation of him.
"New York Confidential" is hard-hitting, rich in realism and provides a fascinating insight into the world of organised crime at a time when its involvement in business, politics and everyday life was extensive. The simplicity of the rules under which everyone operated were clear-cut and anyone who stepped out of line knew exactly what to expect. In this movie, Nick's character provides the clearest illustration of someone who conforms to the rules as he's unerringly loyal to the organisation, carries out all the orders given to him (regardless of his own feelings) and resists the attentions of both Kathy and Iris because of his respect for Charlie. Having been brought up as the son of a gangster, he knows better than anyone that the interests of the organisation always come first.
New York City crime boss Charlie Lupo (Broderick Crawford) has to take action when a mobster in his territory kills another hoodlum purely for personal reasons and so hit-man Nick Magellan (Richard Conte) is imported from Chicago. Nick is the son of one of Charlie's old friends and the two men get on well. So after Nick kills the rule-breaking mobster, Charlie keeps him on as his bodyguard and steadily promotes him to a top position in his organisation. Nick is smart, confident and very efficient and Charlie admires his coolness and the fact that he's considerably more polished than any of the other men he has working for him.
Widower Charlie has three women who are important to him. His mother, who's very demanding and warns him of trouble ahead, his spoilt daughter Kathy (Anne Bancroft) who despises his line of work because it impacts badly on her ability to move in society circles and Iris (Marilyn Maxwell) who's his mistress. For some time, the organisation had been working with some corrupt politicians and lawyers to set up a highly lucrative oil-shipping contract but the whole deal suddenly falls through when a lobbyist they were relying on double-crosses them. A board meeting of the crime bosses from all of the cities where the syndicate is active follows and it's unanimously decided that the lobbyist should be eliminated for his betrayal and that Charlie should take responsibility for ensuring that the hit is carried out.
Charlie appoints three of his men to assassinate the lobbyist and although they achieve their goal, they also leave clues behind and kill a cop in the process. In order to cover his tracks, Charlie assigns Nick to kill the three men. Nick succeeds in eliminating two of them but a third eludes him long enough to turn state's evidence and in so doing, threatens to expose Charlie's involvement and by extension, that of the nationwide syndicate. Predictably, the consequences of this are enormous.
Richard Conte is astonishingly good as Nick in a performance that outshines everyone else in the movie and Anne Bancroft is extremely intense, feisty and contemptuous as she portrays her character's feelings about what her father does to make a living. Fast-talking Broderick Crawford successfully exudes all the toughness and power that one would expect of a crime boss of Lupo's stature but also displays the vulnerability that his character feels because of his health issues and the degree to which he's hurt by his daughter's angry condemnation of him.
"New York Confidential" is hard-hitting, rich in realism and provides a fascinating insight into the world of organised crime at a time when its involvement in business, politics and everyday life was extensive. The simplicity of the rules under which everyone operated were clear-cut and anyone who stepped out of line knew exactly what to expect. In this movie, Nick's character provides the clearest illustration of someone who conforms to the rules as he's unerringly loyal to the organisation, carries out all the orders given to him (regardless of his own feelings) and resists the attentions of both Kathy and Iris because of his respect for Charlie. Having been brought up as the son of a gangster, he knows better than anyone that the interests of the organisation always come first.