This United Artists release in 1957 was certainly a timely one for the headlines. I well remember back in the day the Labor Racketeering hearings in the US Senate headed by John McClellan with Robert F.
Union corruption serves as the McGuffin for Chicago Confidential, but the movie's really a big-city cops-and-robbers story with some stalwarts and set-ups left over from the noir cycle that had just about run its course by 1957 (and it shows).
I'm grounded in watching this and "Chicago Syndicate" back to back, I didn't notice much of a difference other than the fact that this plot line surrounds corruption within a union as opposed kill the director mob bosses of "Chicago Syndicate". It features the same type of melodramatic narration, corrupt mob boss's running the union from behind the scenes and the frame of a murder on the union leader Dick Foran who is clearly innocent.
There's nothing particularly original about this story of corrupt unions on one side and the "chief attorney" on the other. The stark but unimaginative lighting and photography stems from the fagged out noir cycle.
The "Confidential" part was meant to piggy-back on the popular appeal of the lurid magazine of the same name, while the labor racketeering theme tied in with headline Congressional investigations of the day. However, despite the A-grade B-movie cast and some good script ideas, the movie plods along for some 73 minutes.
***SPOILERS*** Hard hitting movie about the mob or "Syndicates" attempted takeover of the biggest union in Chicago the Workers National Brotherhood, or WNB for short. This devious plan is cooked up by disbarred lawyer and former Al Capone gang member Alan Dixon, Garvin Gordon,who plans to turn the WNB into a front for the Syndicates illegal activities; loansharking gambling and prostitution.
I'm really glad that crime movies of the B or lower grades are showing up. Hence the six stars.
It was only 3 years since the award winning "On the Waterfront" dealt with union corruption. In 1957 we see it again in this film.
A cast of familiar faces appear in Chicago Confidential, a 1957 B movie. The stars are Brian Keith, Beverly Garland, Dick Foran, Elisha Cook Jr.
