Tuesday's Overlooked Films: The Mob Starring Broderick Crawford

This 1951 crime drama stars Broderick Crawford is a precursor to better known On the Waterfront which hit the theaters three years later. This promotional still from the movie shows Crawford and Neville Brand who looks just like a thug in the movies I've watched with him in the cast. Crawford and Brand later get into a good fight scene. The movie takes place in a port city somewhere north of New Orleans. St. Louis, maybe. I didn't catch where if it's given in the movie. Crawford is a burly actor who makes for a good, tough cop (he won his Academy Award for playing Willie Stark in All the Kings Men). I liked him in this role where he goes undercover to investigate the mob involvement along the wharf. Charles Bronson has an uncredited bit part as a longshoreman. Richard Kiley and Ernest Borgnine also play meaty roles. Be sure to check out how the cops run a tail job in the days before the electronic transmitters were used. Even though the dialogue is corny in spots, The Mob is a good, solid film I found entertaining to watch.