Customer Reviews

Let No Man Write My Epitaph

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Nick Romano's father is killed in the electric chair and his mother and surrogate family band together to ATTEMPT to take care of the young lad who is a sweetheart. I say "ATTEMPT" because as the plot moves along, it becomes clear the adults cannot even care for themselves, let alone care for the young Nickie Romano Jr. The movie opens with young Nickie walking West Madison Street in Chicago distributing homemade Christmas cards to the main players in this graphically real flick. What a delight as a young boy. (See also "The Man with the Golden Arm" starring Frank Sinatra.) Shelley Winters is great as Nickie's Mom, tormented by her way of life and her desire to care for her son. Burl Ives is fantastic as an old alcoholic lawyer/"Judge" in love with Shelley Winter's character, Nellie. Ricardo Montalbon, young and debonair is the villain and is cool, suave and debonair and hooks Nellie and others on heroine. James Darren is the teenage Nickie, with a 28 inch waist, oh to be young again! ;-)~ ! Jean Seberg is an upclass uptown girl living in a penthouse with her father and in love with Nickie. Her character is a little too gushy and probably the only one not aging well with this flick from 1960, but, that's a minor irritant. The price of admission is worth it for this flick just to see ELLA FITZGERALD sing and play piano.....WOW! There is a character who has lost his legs up to the knees and rides around on a little skateboard he pushes with his arms. He sells newspapers from a little shed and is probably, ironically, the happiest character in the story. The characters are well developed, and since this is also taken from a William Motley book, I imagine the characters are even developed further in the book. Read the reviews of Willard Motley's book "Knock on any Door" as well: Knock on Any Door

This is a great movie. Shelly Winters, Burl Ives and James Darren are all well cast. Jean Seberg is good as James Darren's love interest. Ella Fitzgerald does well in her role as the drug addicted singer and Ricardo Montalban is deliciously rotten as Louie the pusher. Fans of the Young and The Restless will recognize Jeanne Cooper as Fran the street walker. Please release to DVD perhaps in the wide screen format.

Plot Outline: In this sequel to "Knock On Any Door"(1949), the residents of a New York tennament building band together to insure that the son of Nick Romano does not follow in his fathers footsteps...to the electric chair. Top Notch Cast with Shelley Winters & Ricardo Montalban ( Fantasy Island ).

It's an old black and white movie so it wasn't perfect (not the seller's fault) but the movie works fine. I was grateful to find a copy. I always loved the movie and hadn't seen it in years.