Crime In The Streets is a juvenile delinquent movie from 1956.It's written by Reginald Rose and directed by Don Siegel. It's based on a TV play that was written by Rose and directed by Sidney Lumet. Reginald's most famous play might be Twelve Angry Men which came out two years before this movie. I haven't seen it but I have seen the movie. CITS was Reginald's first screenplay. Reginald wrote a 1955 TV play called The Incredible World Of Horace Ford which was later adapted to a Twilight Zone in 1963. Don directed The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers just before this movie. He also directed The Killers in 1964. Both are worth having in anyone's DVD collection.
John Cassavetes, 35 or so at the time, plays the 18 year old Frankie. He's head of The Hornets, a gang of teens who hang out on the streets in front of their tenement apartments. He's an angry and kind of stupid young man. The movie opens with a rumble between his gang and another. Later the gang is holding a prisoner from the other gang. One of the guys threatens him with a zip gun and a neighbor turns the zip gun toting guy in. Frankie vows vengeance when the kid is arrested.
Frankie wants the gang to back him up with an alibi when he kills the neighbor but only two other guys, Sal Mineo and Mark Rydell, plan to help. James Whitmore is the local social worker. He tries to keep the young men in line but it's a thankless job, none of them care that much. It was pretty entertaining. It had a lot better script than a lot of the stuff I normally watch. Worth checking out.
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