Underworld U.S.A.

Hardboiled crime noir awaits in this gleaming hi-def edition of the great Sam Fuller's "Underworld U.S.A.," a hybrid of mobster movie and "Untouchables"-style law-and-order morality fable.

When 14-year-old Tollie (David Kent) sees four men beat his father the death in a back alley on New Year's Eve, he doesn't simply quail and slink away; this is one tough kid already (he's just been out rolling drunks and defending his ill-gotten gains from fellow young thugs), so it's to be expected that he'd vow revenge. A career of cracking safes lands him jail where, some years later, he's finally able to set his plan in motion. Gaining access to the one killer he actually saw, Tollie (who has grown up into Cliff Robertson) allies a little psychological leverage to find out the names of the other three. Once he knows who they are, he begins putting together an intricate plan to see each of them die.

Working in Tolly's favor is the fact that the three surviving murderers -- each a top heavy in his field, be it narcotics or prostitution -- are already in the sights of a crime commissioner named Driscoll (Larry Gates), who is also some Tolly knows from the night of his father's death. Working both sides against each other, Tolly maneuvers the killers and their associates -- like Gus (Richard Rust), the fresh-faced, but cold-blooded, assassin who dons dark glasses for each kill.

But when Tolly tries to manipulate Cuddles (Dolores Dorn), a platinum blonde who's crossed paths with organized crime and almost died for it, he finds himself pulled just a little bit off his trajectory -- a feat that not even his surrogate mother, the former tavern owner Sandy (Beatrice Kay), has managed, all her chiding of Tolly notwithstanding. A happy ending will mean a trail of corpses behind him and a life together with Cuddles, but the tiniest slip in Tolly's carefully contrived schemes will mean a cold and lonely grave.

Cliff Robertson is fully in command of the role: Centered, poised, often able to throw out a smirk, and forever calculating. He's a charmer, and he knows how to use that as his most effective weapon. Fuller's script strays from time to time into professorial mode, but more often than not it's marked by episodes of violence that seem shocking for 1961 (the year of the film's release) -- such as a young girl being run down by the dark-glasses-sporting Gus, or a brief, savage beat-down that concludes with a man being positioned, like a puppet, in front of an assassin's gun.

The 1080p transfer, and the pristine image it services, glows in pure black and white glory; you can enjoy Hal Mohr's cinematography as a work of art in itself. The music, by Harry Sukman, gets its own isolated track (a Twilight Time signature extra), but the score isn't the main selling point here: That would be Fuller's muscular storytelling and solid direction, together with Robertson's tour de force performance.

There are a couple other extras, though, one of which -- a brief hot take from Martin Scorsese on the film -- feels like it was salvaged from the leavings of the other, the much more complete and informative featurette "Sam Fuller Storyteller," in which a mixed bag of filmmakers -- Wim Wenders, Curtis Hanson, Scorsese, and Tim Robbins (!) -- offer their insights and anecdotes about Fuller, as do his wife Christa and daughter Samantha.

A talented spinner of tales all his life, Fuller peered deep into the human soul -- in his work in the tabloids, in his military service in World War II, and as a writer -- and derived both style and substance from what he saw. What he then did with that material was to fashion magnificence.

Check this one out! It will haunt you.

"Underworld U.S.A."
Blu-ray
$29.95
https://www.twilighttimemovies.com/underworld-u-s-a-blu-ray/