Vice Squad (1953)

An unsuspecting man, Jack Hartrampf, the owner of a funeral parlor, is seen coming out of a tryst with a young woman. Little prepares him for watching from the shadows as two criminals kill a policeman who discovered the pair were up to no good. Jack is of two minds, on the one hand it is his civil duty to report what he saw, on the other, he is a married man who cannot be involved in a scandal. He is taken as a witness, anyhow.At the police station the day is starting for Capt. Barnaby, a hard working man facing another tough day at the center of all sorts of police matters needing his attention. The death of one of his men hurts Barmaby as well as enrages him. He knows Jack Hartrampf saw exactly what happened, but he cannot make the man go out of his way to help. With the help of his highly paid lawyer, Hartrampf is released, but Barnaby has a way to get him back as a material witness.Capt. Barnaby hears from a man being held at the station about a possible robbery at a bank. The criminal has heard on the street this piece of information, which he uses to get out of detention. Barnaby's life is further complicated when Mona Ross, the owner of a "escort service" knows one of the potential bank robbers, one Al Barkis. He uses his leverage in keeping two of her girls to get the woman to cooperate."Vice Squad" the MGM release was one of the better B type films of the era, something that was the case of releases that were produces as fillers as double features. Arnold Laven directed this crime drama set in the Los Angeles of the time. The screenplay is by Lawrence Roman, an adaptation of the novel "Harness Bull" written by Leslie White.At the time the great Edward G. Robinson was perhaps not the bright star of his early career, but he kept making movies which he made better by his intelligent approach that was his hallmark. He was also a marked man in the era of the Hollywood 'witch hunt'. Mr. Robinson is a pleasure to watch in "Vice Squad". Here he plays a good man, a far cry for this start in the cinema. He carries the film on the strength of his performance. There are things that will appear as politically incorrect in the way Barnaby torments the poor milquetoast of Hartrampf, something that was not an issue at the time when the film was made. His methods might not have gone according to the book, but he got the results expected of his rank.Paulette Goddard has the second billing as Mona Ross. Her role is a small one, but she is a welcome presence in the story. The supporting players enhance the picture, especially Porter Hall as Hartrampf. Edward Binns and Lee Van Cleef are the criminals at the heart of the plot; both men give good performances.Joseph Biroc, a veteran cinematographer gives us a glimpse of different parts of Los Angeles as it looked in those years. The musical score is credited to Herschel Burke Gilbert. "Vice Squad" is one of the best films of the genre thanks to Arnold Laven inspired direction.

"Vice Squad" starts out just fine with a promise of noir-ish crime action but quickly descends into just another so-so cop melodrama. Edward G. Robinson does his best with the poor script but his character is completely unlikeable. Paulette Goddard appears as the proprietor of an "escort service", which is a 50's euphemism for a bordello and turns in a credible performance. You'll have some fun spotting the various 40's/50's character actors that make up the rest of the cast. My biggest problem with this film is the incredibly high-handed antics of the police, who apparently never heard of the US Constitution. They consistently violate just about every article in the Bill of Rights in their pursuit of a cop killer. Poor old eyewitness Porter Hall is harassed and framed on the orders of Eddie G. When the cop killer (Ed Binns) is finally cornered, the cops save the taxpayers the cost of a trial by the simple expedient of filling him full of lead. View at your own risk!

Vice Squad starts off like a sip of espresso: dark, strong, with a scorched aftertaste. But soon it grows lukewarm. It had the makings of a solid ‘50s crime drama but dilutes them with quirky human-interest vignettes that bear no relation to the central story. Less film noir than a dutiful police procedural, it looks like an attempt to reprise the more intense Detective Story of two years earlier.Still, it's not a bad movie, if humdrum, centering on the killing of a cop by two members (Ed Binns, Lee Van Cleef) of a gang planning a bank job. All the plot strands lead to Chief of Detectives Edward G. Robinson (did anyone ever enunciate English more precisely?). Among them are witness Porter Hall, reluctant to get involved because he was seeing his mistress (Joan Vohs); his big-shot, big-mouthed attorney, Barry Kelley; ritzy madam Paulette Goddard, deputized to pick up information from clients she and her girls `escort;' reluctant stoolie Jay Adler; and gang member Adam Williams, who's losing the nerve to go through with the heist. Populating the more remote subplots are Percy Helton, who thinks he's pursued by `television shadows' and a phony Italian `Count' pulled in for marriage bunco. The bank job comes off, but not quite as planned, as plainclothes police are planted on the scene. But Binns and Van Cleef manage to nab a hostage....The busy plot advances clearly enough (despite some lapses in continuity: The mistress' name is `Vicki' in an address book but `Vickie' on her mailbox). The most arresting part of Vice Squad are the scams, subterfuges and outright blackmail the police use to pressure witnesses to talk. They're presented not as expedient short-cuts to find a policeman's murderers but as routine – business as usual. In that regard it reflects the super-patriotic climate of America during the Red-Scare years, though there's not a Communist in the movie, let alone any suggestion that officers of the law may be overstepping their bounds.

This is not one of Edward G's best films. In fact it may be his worst but it is still watchable. It's pretty much a run of the mill 50's crime story which centers around the activities in one day of a detective's life. Good black and white photography with excellent location shots.....not much use of studio sets. This adds to the realism and if you like old cars, the street scenes are for you! Edward G. is, as usual, top notch and for once gets to be a good guy. An aging Paulette Goddard, whose star was really on the wane, is adequate as the madame of an "escort service"....a thinly disguised brothel....her wordplay with Edward G. is sharp and ever so sexy. The supporting cast is familiar to all......and Lee VanCleef pops up as a killer (what else?) in one of his early films before he became an icon in Italian westerns. This is an enjoyable, throw-away film that is worth catching on some late night weekend. Anything with Edward G. is always one to watch.