Customer Reviews

Detective Story (1951)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Kirk Douglas stars as Detective Jim McLeod, a NYC policeman struggling to bring criminals to justice. McLeod is relentless and somewhat inflexible - he's always convinced that he's doing the "right thing." Namely, he's a one-man army in a quest to make the streets safe for New Yorkers. Of course, if he has to beat up a few suspects along the way, well no harm done right? Despite the title, there isn't a big case to solve here - just a series of vignettes that arise during one night in the precinct.

Legendary director William Wyler ("The Best Years of Our Lives") helmed "Detective Story." He scored one of his record 12 directing nominations for the movie, and his work is solid, although "Detective Story" is far from his best effort. Wyler was always able to get terrific performances from his actors; however, the acting is actually somewhat uneven here. Douglas is rather ham-handed, and Eleanor Parker is just plain boring as his wife (she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress for the part). However, William Bendix as a fellow detective and Lee Grant as a shoplifter really score. Grant also received an Oscar nomination for her role, which was her first movie role. Immediately afterwards, she was blacklisted and worked very little during for the rest of the 1950s.

When "Detective Story" was released in 1951, it was considered a raw portrait of police and criminals. Since that time, dozens of movies and umpteen incarnations of "Law and Order" have made most casual watchers experts on police methods as well as the flaws of the detectives themselves. Thus, what power this film may have had once has been severely blunted. If you approach this film expecting a brutal police drama, then you're likely to be disappointed. Furthermore, I've often seen "Detective Story" classified as film noir. The tone of the film is somewhat dark, but the story is too straight-forward and clean-scrubbed to truly be film noir. However, it's still a solid drama, worthy of attention.

For many years, I've wanted to see "Detective Story," and I was very pleased when it was finally released on DVD. Overall, the movie is a good period piece - a film that once was raw but now is fairly tame. The DVD transfer is good and includes subtitles; however, it offers no extras.

This classic police mellow-drama is a perfect fit for the talents of young Kirk Douglas. He is an inflexible, angry cop. He is righteous with out compassion for any accused showing up at this rundown New York cop shop. They must be all guilty, otherwise they wouldn't be there. He has set himself up as jury & judge. There is one particular case that has haunted him for years. He consistently violates police procedure to say nothing of the law to apprehend those he believes to be guilty. One of his partners is William Bendix a kindly but tough cop. He is seeking mercy for one of Douglas' collars. He is inflexible & will hear none of it. Eleanor Powell plays Douglas' wife. She becomes involved in one of his cases which tests his principals. He does not handle it well. Things end badly very noir-like. See this if you like the police/detective tv shows of today. You'll recognize where some of their style came from.

Kirk Douglas has always excelled in roles where he plays the maverick loner, walking the fine line between anger and insanity. Thus his role as Det. Jim McLeod in "Detective Story" is a real showcase for his acting talents. This is not a crime drama in the conventional sense where there is any real action or crime to solve, even though you have a room full of New York City police detectives on screen for just about the whole movie. Instead it is a character study of Jim McLeod, played by Kirk Douglas. McLeod's motivation in his work is not to solve crimes or even protect the innocent. Instead, he is motivated by a desire to root out evil by his definition of the word. Evil is something McLeod claims that anyone can easily spot. McLeod's world view doesn't differentiate between the one-time bad act of a basically good person, such as Arthur Kindred (Craig Hill), a young man who impulsively stole from his employer in a last ditch attempt to impress a girl he believed he loved, versus the misdeeds of a lifetime criminal, such as the homicidal maniac Charlie (Arthur Kindred), that has also been apprehended by the detective squad that same day.

When confronted by a mistake in the past of the person nearest to him, his own wife, McLeod is equally unforgiving. His rage and disgust is so great, you're not sure what bothers him more - the discovery of his wife's past or the failure of his own nose to sniff out the misdeed prior to this. By the time McLeod realizes his own inflexibility and lack of empathy have cost him what he loves the most, it is too late to undo the damage, and this leads to one last tragedy.

This is Douglas in perhaps his finest if not most huggable role, and is recommended viewing for that reason alone. William Bendix makes up for the lack of likeabilty in Douglas' character as Detective Lou Brady, who likes to temper the letter of the law with a little humanity. Then there's a very young Lee Grant as a shoplifter who just can't stop babbling. Finally, there's Horace McMahon as Lieutenant Monaghan, head of the detective squad and the kind of boss we'd all like to have. There are no extras included on this DVD.

There is an irony in the title of Sidney Kingsley's play "Detective Story", written for the screen by Philip Yordan and Robert Wyler. It sounds like a story of a detective pounding his beat, visiting crime scenes and tracking down criminals on the mean streets. In fact, the action takes place within the confines of the 21st Precinct Police Headquarters in New York City. And its ideas are within the mind of Detective Jim McLeod (Kirk Douglas), a self-righteous, uncompromising cop who appoints himself both judge and jury to law-breakers. "Evil's got a smell of its own. A child could spot it," he says. He's been persecuting an abortionist, Karl Schneider (George Macready), for a year, and Schneider has agreed to surrender himself to police custody. But his lawyer (Warner Anderson) wants assurances from Police Lieutenant Monahan (Horace McMahon) that his client will not be physically harmed. And the lawyer accuses McLeod of having personal, not professional, reasons for hounding Schneider. "Your moral indignation is beginning to give me a quick pain in the neck!," Monahan complains, hoping that McLeod will restrain himself.

The single set and the constant dialogue make "Detective Story" feel a bit too much like a play for my taste. But this is a formidable performance from Kirk Douglas. It's the most memorable role I've seen him in. The main conflict that will eventually place McLeod in a torturous position is the case of the abortionist. But other criminal cases that come into focus during breaks in the main storyline serve to illuminate McLeod's character. A nervous woman who has been arrested for shoplifting (Lee Grant) provides a periodic amusing distraction and respite from the film's intense emotions. The wonderful character actor William Bendix is Lou Brody, McLeod's partner of opposite temperament. Eleanor Parker is a warm, elegant presence as McLeod's wife Mary. McLeod's black-and-white world view has been the torment of many accused criminals, and now it becomes the confine from which McLeod himself cannot escape. "Detective Story" is a psychological drama and morality play that is neither original or surprising, but it is well-conceived and powerfully brought to life by a superb cast. There are no bonus features on the Paramount 2005 DVD. Subtitles are available in English, dubbing in French.

Adapted from a Broadway play, "Detective Story" is in the Grand Hotel genre; two of the New York actors here made their film debuts--Joseph Wiseman, as the insane, homicidal burglar, and Lee Grant, as the gay and spirited Brooklynese shoplifter...

"Detective Story" is not so much a tale of detection but a focusing on the life and character of just one detective, James McLeod (Kirk Douglas).

McLeod is no ordinary detective, he is a fanatic, dedicated to the law and excessively brutal in dealing with criminals... He is particularly upset about abortionists, and it gradually becomes apparent that this is a psychological block in his mind... Some tragic happening in his past has caused him to look upon abortionists in a pathological light, and the abortionist in this film, played by George Macready with his patent brand of quiet, sinister refinement, has a hard time in the hands of McLeod...

The abortion angle of the original play was taken to the screen, partly because of censorship, and partly because the close-up, immediacy of the camera requires rage to be clearly more explained than on the stage...

Therefore, the film abortionist is also the manipulator of an adoption ring and a farm for unwed mothers... Whenever he appears at the precinct the abortionist is accompanied by his lawyer, although he might also have hired a bodyguard, since the fist-swinging McLeod is not above encircling his suspects...

As the story progresses, the reasons for McLeod's vicious temper and his hatred for crime are revealed as deriving from his love-hate attitude toward his father, a man of crooked tendencies... His mania makes life hard for his gentle wife Mary (Eleanor Parker) to whom he is nevertheless greatly attached...

Detective McLeod is understandably shattered when he discovers that his wife was once herself the subject of an abortion, and that the man who performed the illegal operation was the abortionist now at his mercy, Karl Schneider (George Macready).

"Detective Story" is light on plot line but rich in its different cast of characters... It is, in fact, a series of character studies, one major and many minor...

Kirk Douglas carries the burden of McLeod and makes the tormented policeman painfully believable--it is almost a nonstop, swirling performance... Around him Wyler arranges an expert team of actors: William Bendix as a tough but warm-hearted veteran cop; Horace McMahon as the precinct lieutenant who tolerates the frenzy of McLeod because he realizes he is doing his job honest1y and well; Eleanor Parker as the wife, driven to near-distraction by her husband; and several weirdly amusing criminal types, of whom those played by Wiseman and Lee Grant are shining examples, all of them moving through the dirty, oppressive atmosphere of a police station on any given work day...

"Detective Story" is an adaptation of a stage play, and it shows.
It just so happens that it shows quite nicely, thank you very much.

The story is "opened up" trivially, to give us a scene on the street, or in the back of what used to be called "paddy wagons", but it's really all in the upstairs quarters of the 21st Precinct detective squad.

Kirk Douglas gives a fine performance as Det. Jim McCloud, and the three or four plot lines all course through him at various points in the movie. He's the main reason you should see this film.

He's a hot-headed, impossibly principled detective with all sorts of issues. Without giving a ton away, there's problems with his dad, his wife, some psycho criminal, an evil physician, one of the most wretched lawyers put to film, a perky shoplifter, a pitiable petty thief...plus a smart C.O., his buddy lieutenant, the ever-chattering desk sergeant and a host of one-line and one-scene bit players that fill the film to the gills with detail and flavor.
There's plenty of juicy melodrama, a few nifty plot twists and expositions; it's all performed exceedingly well by the expert cast.
The transfer is crystalline.

The reason this isn't a full five-star for me, starts right about the 95 minute mark. The tale gets a bit TOO hokey for me; the hard-boiled quality gets tossed out for a few minutes, and although I realize it was the author's intent NOT to leave all the plot strands neatly tied up, I think this is one case where leaving the audience wanting more is not necessarily a good thing.

Besides that kvetch, I loved this tense, terse little film.

Kirk Douglas as usual is very powerful. All the actors are exceptional!
There is great angst,drama and humor in this movie.
Powerful movie and subject matter.
My favorite scene is when Elenor Parker tells her husband she is leaving him because..... Watch it and see for yourself!!
Great, great, movie.