Product Details

• Actors: Kirk Douglas, Eleanor Parker, William Bendix, Cathy O'Donnell, George Macready
• Directors: William Wyler
• Writers: Robert Wyler, Philip Yordan, Sidney Kingsley
• Producers: William Wyler, Lester Koenig, Robert Wyler
• Format: Black & White, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English, French
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Paramount
• DVD Release Date: October 25, 2005
• Run Time: 103 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000ANVPUG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #62,988 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Detective Story (1951)" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

An embittered cop leads a precinct of characters in their grim battle with the city's lowlife while wife Parker suffers from neglect. Based on Sydney Kingsley's Broadway play, this seminal movie was a prototype for everything from "Hill Street Blues" to "NYPD Blue." Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Director, Best Actress--Eleanor Parker, Best Screenplay.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Kirk Douglas Movie August 23, 2005

By Terence Allen VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

Detective Story, based on a Broadway play, is one of Kirk Douglas' finest performances. Playing a New York city police detective, the movie plays out like a day-in-the life of Douglas' character and his precinct, with an assorted cast of characters.

But Douglas dominates the proceedings. His detective is full of razor-sharp anger and vitriol, which has carried over into his personal life. Douglas plays it to the hilt,and his supporting cast is excellent, including Eleanor Parker, William Bendix, Joseph Wiseman, and Horace McMahon.

A mixture of police procedure, comedy, drama, and outright tragedy, Detective Story has been long overdue for DVD release.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Raw Depiction of Policework November 24, 2005

By David Baldwin

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Though adapted from a stageplay "Detective Story" feels neither stagey or dated. I attribute that to an excellent script that is centered on character developement and not as a straight police procedural. It's interesting as an examination of policework pre-Miranda. What is also interesting is that it is the earliest film to tackle, though implicitly, the issue of abortion that I can recall. Kirk Douglas' account of Jim McCloud, a detective so myopic that he sees no gray areas in fighting crime and allows it to spill into his personal life, gives one of the best performances of his career here. The underappreciated Eleanor Parker is excellent as McCloud's wife. William Bendix as McCloud's hard-drinking yet compassionate partner is also outstanding. Lee Grant and Joseph Wiseman give colorful turns as a shoplifter and burglar, respectively. Also noteworthy is the presence of George MacCready who later appeared with Douglas in Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, "Paths of Glory", in the cast.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Detective Story June 25, 2007

By John Farr

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Before "Homicide" or "Hill Street Blues" came this gritty, hard-hitting cop drama based on Sidney Kingsley's play. Honed to tense perfection by Wyler, the film is a showcase for fine, colorful ensemble acting by William Bendix (as the no-nonsense lieutenant), Lee Grant (reprising her role as a mousy shoplifter), Bert Freed (as McLeod's sensitive partner), and Joseph Wiseman (as a hilariously "innocent" Italian burglar). But it's Douglas's fierce, tragic performance as a modern lawman who still sees the world in stark black and white terms that provides the gut-twisting dramatic ironies. Absorbing and devastating, this "Story" gets under your skin and stays there.