Vice Squad

1953

Crime / Drama / Film-Noir / Mystery / Thriller

4
IMDb Rating 6.7/10 10 1134 1.1K

cop-killer bank robbery vice squad police drama

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Plot summary

A Los Angeles police captain (Edward G. Robinson) ties the case of a slain policeman to a bank robbery, all in a day.

Director

Arnold Laven Photo
Arnold Laven

Top cast

Paulette Goddard Photo
Paulette Goddard as Mona Ross
Lee Van Cleef Photo
Lee Van Cleef as Pete Monte
Edward G. Robinson Photo
Edward G. Robinson as Capt. 'Barnie' Barnaby
K.T. Stevens Photo
K.T. Stevens as Ginny
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
808.8 MB
990*720
English 2.0
NR
24 fps
1 hr 28 min
Seeds 7
1.47 GB
1484*1080
English 2.0
NR
24 fps
1 hr 28 min
Seeds 16

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Doylenf 6 / 10

Edw. G. Robinson in low-budget but tightly knit tale...

EDWARD G. ROBINSON viewed this period in the early '50s as his B-film era, but VICE SQUAD is an efficient, if low-budget product that gives him a chance to show his stuff in a story about the day to day activities of a police precinct in '50s L.A. PAULETTE GODDARD gets top female billing in what is essentially a cameo role as her career was obviously in decline at this point. She's sassy and brittle as the head of an escort club who agrees to cooperate with Robinson's police investigation.Robinson is seen adroitly handling a number of sticky situations, including the death of a policeman and the reluctance of a witness to talk; the discovery that a bank heist is about to take place; and the effect of the cop killing on a gang of car thieves. It's interesting to catch an early glimpse of LEE VAN CLEEF as one of the car thieves.There's a film noir look to Joseph Biroc's first rate B&W photography with excellent use of light and shadows and it's directed in brisk style by Arnold Laven. All of the intertwined stories are smoothly coordinated but the tension doesn't start building until about forty-five minutes into the bank heist sequence.Actually the police tactics shown are pretty underhanded, so it's not exactly a flattering portrait of police procedures--but they do seem credible.Packs just as much suspense as another crime melodrama with a New York locale--THE NAKED CITY. The shots of L.A. in the early '50s establish atmosphere from the start. Well worth viewing.
Reviewed by planktonrules 7 / 10

Nothing extraordinary, but everything falls together very well

While this isn't a great Edward G. Robinson film, it is a very good one and a rather realistic view of police work--complete with a 1950s-style ignorance of the Bill of Rights! Like the movie DRAGNET, police harassment and ignoring of some basic rights are okay provided it results in a conviction! But, unlike DRAGNET, this film isn't nearly as dark in tone nor are there any of the wonderful Jack Webb comments, such as "the first shot tore him in half,...the second one made him a crowd". Instead, Robinson plays a police captain that is quieter and less "Noir" but nonetheless still pretty sneaky in order to catch a cop killer and foil a bank robbery. Because the film tends to be more realistic than many cop dramas and avoids the trademark camera-work and snappy dialog of Noir, it is more a police film than an example of Film Noir. Still, it's awfully good and watchable--with good writing and pacing. Not great, but you could do a lot worse!
Reviewed by bkoganbing 7 / 10

The Cop And The Madam

Vice Squad takes a documentary style approach to a single day in a police captain's life and what he might encounter.Of course the murder of a police officer doesn't ever qualify as an ordinary day, but even on those days when an entire force is mobilized looking for a cop killer, still more mundane matters intervene.Edward G. Robinson was in his B film period which is roughly between All My Sons and The Ten Commandments. Still Robinson always brought a certain class to the films he was doing and Vice Squad is no exception.Second billed in the cast is Paulette Goddard who is a madam at a bordello. She was on a blacklist of sorts herself at the time, not for politics, but because she had antagonized the powerful Cecil B. DeMille during the shooting of The Unconquered. Her career was winding down, but she would be marrying Erich Maria Remarque and be leaving the screen shortly for Switzerland.Goddard and Robinson have a nice bond between them. It's obvious he lets her operate because she can be most valuable as a snitch in a pinch. In fact she does come through with some information that starts the case being cracked.Funny though, ten years earlier Robinson and Goddard as co-stars would have commanded an A list budget, even five years earlier. Hollywood could be very fickle at times. Still for a B police drama, Vice Squad has an impressive cast list of quality players. Best in the film is Porter Hall, a two timing funeral director who Robinson knows saw something, but won't crack because he was spending a night with his girlfriend instead of being out of town as he told his wife. How they manage to keep him 'in the system' so to speak is really quite ingenious much to the exasperation of his lawyer, Barry Kelley who runs a close second to Hall.Mixed in with the hunt for a cop killer are more routine matters like exposing a phony Italian count, dealing with Percy Helton's imaginary crimes and a TV interview for publicity's sake. All in the life of a Vice Squad captain.Fans of Edward G. Robinson and Paulette Goddard will like what they see and Vice Squad is a nice tightly scripted and edited police drama.
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