Down Three Dark Streets was recently presented on TCM's Noir Alley, hosted by Eddie Muller. Muller did his usual superb commentary on the role of the movie in film history, making reference to Gordon Gordon and Mildred Gordon, who wrote the screenplay based on their books about FBI agent John Ripley (Gordon Gordon had briefly been an FBI agent), played in Laven's film by Broderick Crawford (who later played J.Edgar Hoover in Larry Cohen's 1977 film The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover). Although I would not call this movie a film noir (not enough neurosis and fatalism, among other things) it is an excellent police procedural, as Rip's partner Zack Stewart (Kenneth Tobey) is shot and killed and Rip has to investigate the three crimes Zack was working on -- car theft, murder, extortion --to find out why he was killed, crimes that affected three women: Connie Andersen (Martha Hyer), a floozie whose lover is a killer; Kate Martell (Ruth Roman), a widow and mother who is being extorted; and Julie Angelino (Marisa Pavane), whose husband is involved in a car theft ring. Broderick Crawford is effectively low-key with the women in each case, though there is an undercurrent of some feeling for Kate, though it never goes anywhere.
Laven and his cinematograper Joe Biroc -- an experienced professional who worked with Sam Fuller, Frank Capra, Robert Aldrich and others -- shoot mostly on location in the many seedy areas of Los Angeles, with a violent climax directly under the famous HOLLYWOOD sign. Laven directed only a handful of movies before making his way to television, where he directed twenty-two episodes of The Rifleman (1958-1963) and episodes for many other series. After Down Three Dark Streets Crawford mostly worked in TV, including five years of Highway Patrol in the fifties,while continuing to do occasional movies.
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