ThiefHott Too much of everything

Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

clanciai This is vintage Tony Curtis when he acted in notable films like "Sweet Smell of Success" with Burt Lancaster and "The Defiant Ones" with Sidney Poitier, and this is perhaps the best of them. It all happens in San Francisco, when a Catholic priest is brutally murdered by getting knifed in the back, and immediately the mystery arises: whoever would want to do so such a thing to a priest who was beloved by all? And there are no clues to the mystery whatsoever. Tony Curtis is a cop and has been raised as a an orphan by the murdered priest, he carries the coffin at the farewell service and there meets a fellow Italian who appears to be burning in hell. Curtis immediately gets a hunch, the faintest of leads by a mere feeling, and lays down his badge to start a private investigation of his own.What follows is a Dostoievskian psychological drama. Gabriel Roland plays the Italian father who welcomes Curtis as one of the family, and he finds happiness and even a perfect fiancée in the family (Marisa Pavan, like another Natalie Wood as the West Side Story Maria). The character and development of this film is very much like Edward Dmytryk's "Give Us This Day" about Italian immigrants in Brooklyn 1929, but this is more interesting psychologically. The crisis is inevitable, which breaks out into a total tragedy - which proves to have been the only happy solution.It's a tremendous film, and it will remain actual forever and of as lasting an interest as any Dostoievsky novel.

calvinnme This is really a great early role for Tony Curtis. Curtis plays Joe Martini, a San Francisco cop who got his job on the force through the recommendation of Father Thomasino, and who was in an orphanage from age six after the death of his parents, with Thomasino taking him under his wing and being a father figure to him. So naturally Joe takes it personally when Thomasino is murdered in an alley by an unknown assailant. The priest is beloved in the neighborhood, had no enemies, so the police are stumped. However, they get tired of rookie Joe butting in during the investigation and he turns in his badge so he can investigate on his own.He has one hunch. He was a pallbearer at Thomasino's funeral, and on the way out of the church he sees a man in great distress, his hands clutching a rosary so tightly his fists are bleeding. The man is Sylvio Malatesta (Gilbert Roland), who owns a local fish market. So Joe goes undercover, posing as a guy looking for a job saying that Father Thomasino was going to recommend him to Malatesta, but that he died before he could. Well, it works. Not only does Malatesta give him a job, he invites him to bunk with his family for awhile. So Joe quickly becomes friends with Sylvio, he actually likes him, and in the Malatestas he finds the family he never had.There are a few weird things about Malatesta. Apparently he has walked the floor of his bedroom for years - he still does. And he was once engaged to a girl in Italy during WWII, but then she died and he has shown no real interest in marriage since. So Malatesta is indeed a troubled soul, but his troubles predate Thomasino's death by years, and he has an apparent alibi for the night of Thomasino's murder. Can Joe punch holes in that alibi? Does he even want to now that Sylvio's family has become like his family? Watch and find out.Roland and Curtis are great in this. They have a real brotherly chemistry that makes this film worth watching every bit as much as the murder mystery itself. The only bad thing I can say about the film are the Italian stereotypes. Marisa Pavan plays Sylvio's cousin Anna who plays it over the top with her Italian shrew routine who is either bubbling with anger that comes out of nowhere, slamming doors and throwing things, and then suddenly she is all sweet and doe eyed. It did get tiresome. Then there is Mama Malatesta who acts like a calmed down version of Anna. But besides that, I'd highly recommend this one.

Denisenoe I'm only going to comment on Peggy Maley. This actress appears only twice in the film but her "Veda Pinelli" really stands out. She is enthralling as she possesses an odd sort of tough, working-class glamor. Peggy Maley looks luscious and delightfully feminine in her silky housecoat and later in an average dress set off by clattering bracelets. She even assumes a kind of movie star glamour when she dons sunglasses to cover the black eye she gets from her husband (never seen in the film) for "stepping out." I watched this movie a second time only to see Peggy Maley as the enticing and vulnerable Veda Pinelli.Peggy Maley may be best known for delivering the feeder line, "Whaddya rebelling against, Johnny?" to Marlon Brando in "The Wild One" but "The Midnight Story" may be her best and most vibrant work.Here's to you, Peggy Maley!

secragt Just saw this in a double bill with Six Bridges To Cross (another Tony Curtis noir from the same era, also directed by Joseph Pevney) as part of the American Cinematheque Film Noir Festival. What a buried treasure! Pevney was wonderful at rich characterization and the portrayal of the Italian family in this story is nothing less than one of the most heartwarming and charming in cinematic history! Argentina is priceless as the matriarch, outdoing Olympia Dukakis' similar role in Moonstruck. Well-defined roles, clever psychological dynamics and a downright pithy script lift this far above the average crime melodrama, which you might otherwise suspect this would be based on its seemingly standard "cop goes against system to avenge death of his friend" plotline. However, there is a lot more going on in this picture and the performances are uniformly excellent. More importantly, while there is mucho complexity inviting lots of analytical "academic flapdoodle," this is at the heart a highly entertaining piece which lays out a challenging conflict and finds a way to nimbly avoid the cliches and build to an ultimately satisfying solution. If you are a fan of noir or the versatile Tony Curtis, don't miss the chance to see Curtis shine in the straight man cop role for once... If you just like a good crime drama, you'll also want to check this neglected diamond in the rough!