ada the leading man is my tpye

Joanna Mccarty Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Yazmin Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

kenjha A juvenile delinquent witnesses the murder of his father by mobsters and seeks revenge as an adult. This is a brutal crime drama, with lively direction by Fuller, although he goes a bit overboard with shadows, closeups, and zooms. Robertson is not bad, but seems miscast as the tough guy who, driven by vengeance, singlehandedly takes on the syndicate. The best performances are turned in by the two leading actresses: Dorn (recalling Stella Stevens) as a gangster's moll and Kay (recalling Thelma Ritter) as a mother-figure for Robertson. Also notable are Rust as a ruthless mob henchman and Gates as a federal prosecutor.

bkoganbing Anyone who doesn't realize that Sam Fuller used The Count Of Monte Cristo as his inspiration for Underworld USA has not read too much classical literature. Or seen any of the film adaptations of same. Nevertheless the imprint of Alexander Dumas's classic French novel is unmistakable.Young David Kent suffers the loss of his father who was beaten to death at the hands of four thugs. Later on he takes up a life of crime and goes to jail. By now he's an adult and played by Cliff Robertson. One of the four thugs who murdered dad is dying in the prison hospital and confesses and names to Robertson his accomplices.After that Robertson works as methodically as Edmond Dantes now the Count Of Monte Cristo working his way into the confidences of the mob bosses who were back in the day the same thugs who killed his old man. He makes a lot of alliances of convenience, one being a hooker played by Dolores Dorn, another being a special federal prosecutor played by Larry Gates.Robertson is fine as the old style kind of hoodlum that would have found a home in the Warner Brothers gangster flicks of the Thirties. However for my book Dolores Dorn got her career role in Underworld USA. She registers as both tough and fragile at the same time and she does bring out the humanity in Robertson.As for how it ends, don't think of The Count Of Monte Crist, rather if you've seen the great James Cagney/Humphrey Bogart film The Roaring Twenties than you know how Underworld USA ends.Sam Fuller did a great job with his cast and Underworld USA is a classic noir/gangster thriller not to be missed.

David (Handlinghandel) I had seen this movie only once before, and that was 20 years ago. A lot of the concerns of his masterpiece, "The Naked Kiss," are addressed in it. In some ways, it's more horrifying because it is about what it says it's about: the underworld and, more to the point, the USA. "The Naked Kiss" is, to me, a great movie and also a parable.(As to Fuller's "best": In terms of polish, it's probably "Pickup on South Street." That movie has most of his eccentricities but uses major stars and is suspenseful and exciting.) Cliff Robertson does a fine job here as the single-minded man out to avenge his father's killing. Dolores Dorn is touching as the girl from the underworld with whom he becomes involved.The supporting cast could scarcely be better. Paul Duboy is perfect as the slimy Gelo. Richard Rust is shockingly effective as the underworld henchman.But Beatrice Kay is the standout. She plays the tough female who almost always appears in Fuller's films. (Thelma Ritter's Mo, in "Pickup on South Street, is the most poignant.) We believe that this gal is tough. We also believe that she has a soft side.When I was too young to appreciate it, an older friend gave me a paperback book about actresses in b-movies, called "Dames." On the cover is a shot from this film: Dorn and Kay are leaning on each other. Kay looks tough as a guard dog and Dorn has bandages over one eye.The movie is filled with Fuller's most important concerns: At one point, a rooftop swimming pool is pointed out. It is, one character tells another, for the fat cats -- and now and then for underprivileged children. The hypocrisy of some so-called charity is addressed here. So is Fuller's concern for the well-being of children.I don't think this is out on DVD. You need to find it on VHS. It's absolutely a must.

st-shot Sam Fuller seems to have spared all expense with this low-budget indy which is glaringly short on people and automobiles for a contemporary urban mob film.As a teen Tolly Devlin witnesses his father being beat to death in an alley. Swearing vengeance on all involved he does a bid in a reformatory before graduating to the state pen where he sadistically offs his first victim. Upon release he falls for a dame, dupes a police inspector and exacts revenge on the drug pushing scum now living the high life as respectable citizens.Part of my enjoyment of watching a Fuller film is the way he stretches his budget. A low ratio of filmed takes can contribute to inconsistent performances that suffer from his occasional prosaic and stilted dialogue which is the case with Underworld. The Desilu style sets look like they were borrowed without permission after everyone went home and some of the props in the commissioner's office look like some of Fuller's "Big Red One war memorabilia from his den. He can't afford major stars but Cliff Robertson gives a highly credible performance as Devlin and its nice to see perennial minor character actor Robert Emhardt in a more substantial role as the mob kingpin.It is for his tenacity to see his vision through with near complete independence that I am willing to cut Fuller some slack but in Underworld USA he gets sloppy with his editing and montage and his pacing becomes erratic in an environment that's glaringly artificial. It deserves to be whacked.