Chicago Syndicate is in my opinion a minor Film Noir.
The cast is composed of almost every character actor alive in 1955.
Much of the story is told by leading man Dennis O'Keefe, in a voice over, or while making a phone call. Mostly to make sense of a script that would be hard to follow otherwise.
Chicago Syndicate starts out slowly, I think mainly because of cabaret musical numbers by leading lady Abbe Lane. An actress perhaps better known in Italy where she made more movies than in her native United States. She also had an early television program in Europe.
Abbe Lane was married at the time to Chicago Syndicate supporting actor Xavier Cugat, Spanish born, Cuban raised band leader, chubbier than Desi Arnaz Sr./Ricky Ricardo, and less charismatic.
I thought Cugat's scenes were a total waste of film, best left on the cutting room floor.
Chicago Syndicate doesn't really take off until the last 15 minutes.
Finally, Abbe Lane's acting ability begins to supplant her excessively dominating musical numbers. The rest of the cast also steps up the action in some memorable scenes, especially one in an underground tunnel.
The bad guy gets it in the end, because that's the way movies were in the Eisenhower Era, but his demise on the street in front of his beloved mother's flat was corny and anticlimactic. The atmospheric tunnel scene would have been a better point to conclude Chicago Syndicate.
Abbe Lane's career received a boost when Jackie Gleason told her her outfit was too sexy for television, and asked her to change her clothes for something less revealing to be on his program.
Her singing career also began to ascend in the late 1950s when she collaborated with Tito Puente and his Orchestra on the hit album Be Mine Tonight recorded in the United Kingdom.
Abbe Lane at 90 is one of the last surviving femme fatals of Film Noir.
The cast is composed of almost every character actor alive in 1955.
Much of the story is told by leading man Dennis O'Keefe, in a voice over, or while making a phone call. Mostly to make sense of a script that would be hard to follow otherwise.
Chicago Syndicate starts out slowly, I think mainly because of cabaret musical numbers by leading lady Abbe Lane. An actress perhaps better known in Italy where she made more movies than in her native United States. She also had an early television program in Europe.
Abbe Lane was married at the time to Chicago Syndicate supporting actor Xavier Cugat, Spanish born, Cuban raised band leader, chubbier than Desi Arnaz Sr./Ricky Ricardo, and less charismatic.
I thought Cugat's scenes were a total waste of film, best left on the cutting room floor.
Chicago Syndicate doesn't really take off until the last 15 minutes.
Finally, Abbe Lane's acting ability begins to supplant her excessively dominating musical numbers. The rest of the cast also steps up the action in some memorable scenes, especially one in an underground tunnel.
The bad guy gets it in the end, because that's the way movies were in the Eisenhower Era, but his demise on the street in front of his beloved mother's flat was corny and anticlimactic. The atmospheric tunnel scene would have been a better point to conclude Chicago Syndicate.
Abbe Lane's career received a boost when Jackie Gleason told her her outfit was too sexy for television, and asked her to change her clothes for something less revealing to be on his program.
Her singing career also began to ascend in the late 1950s when she collaborated with Tito Puente and his Orchestra on the hit album Be Mine Tonight recorded in the United Kingdom.
Abbe Lane at 90 is one of the last surviving femme fatals of Film Noir.