Black Tuesday (1954)

Black Tuesday (1954)


Plot Summary

 Vicious gangster Vincent Canelli (Edward G. Robinson) pulls off a daring prison escape just moments before going to the electric chair, taking with him Peter Manning (Peter Graves) - a bank robber and cop killer who was to die right after him. Taking several hostages along, they try to get their hands on the loot from Manning's robbery to finance their escape from the country.

This is a little known and rare Edward G. Robinson film and one that shows that even in the 1950s Robinson could still pull off the gangster role to perfection. The promotional poster above is very accurate as this is indeed the most ruthless i've ever seen Robinson on film as he's a vicious gangster who goes around slapping women around, beating up on people (friend and foe alike) and killing without any sense of remorse. This movie was a cheaply made independent picture but despite that, it works mainly because the 2nd half turns into one of those "confined spaces" type of movies where the actors have to carry the film and they do so quite well in this.

I have to give major props to Milburn Stone for his portrayal of Father Slocum as he's the moral voice of reason in the movie. The moral debate between him and Robinson really makes the movie as Stone's character tries to see the good in everyone even the hardened Robinson but in the end he comes to the conclusion that Robinson's soul is not worth fighting for. The only hiccup to this is that Robinson and Graves tries to justify their breakout and taking hostages by saying that they deserve a chance to live and that they're doing this to save their lives. Well, as pointed out by Slocum you more or less forfeit your chance for living when you gun down people without remorse.

This isn't a perfect film by any means as the whole breakout from jail is improbable to say the least and the ending doesn't quite fit. I guess you could say that Graves' character finally had enough but it's far too abrupt. Nonetheless this movie has tons of great acting and dynamics to it like Jean Parker who played Robinson's moll who is the only person able to control Robinson from completely going off the rails and killing anyone in his way. Towards the end of the movie she is killed by the cops and you'd think that Robinson would come to his senses and give up but he becomes even more strident and ready to fight back.

I also would like to mention (and I didn't get his character name so I can't identify the actor) the guy that played the police inspector in charge of the hostage situation. After getting a ransom note demanding that Robinson and his cronies are allowed to escape or they'll kill a hostage in a half hour the inspector has to face reporters and tell them he just can't negotiate with a cold blooded killer and that he and the police force will have to shoot them all down. He even goes so far as to say he's a bad catholic for allowing a priest to die. There's a great moment when he tries to get Robinson to give up and when he cant he asks to speak to Slocum and express his sorrow and tell Slocum that he can't help the it based on the situation. Slocum of course, understands and doesn't blame the situation on him.

There's also the subplot involving the daughter of one of the jailers who was blackmailed into helping with the breakout and the newspaper man who was kidnapped and had his invitation to the execution taken by one of Robinson's men on the outside. It's one of those romantic subplots but thankfully the script doesn't get bogged down with their feelings as it's rather subtle about how they come to care for each other which is pretty rare for a movie of this vintage.

All in all this was a fantastic movie despite the cheapness of the production and some of the more improbable moments/abrupt ending. This is one rarity worth seeking out if you can and I give this *** stars.