The Lawbreakers: Difference between revisions

| based onbased_on = ''"[[The Asphalt Jungle (TV series)#Episodes|The Lady and the Lawyer'']]" episode of the television series ''[[The Asphalt Jungle (TV series)|The Asphalt Jungle]]''

| editing = [[Ben Lewis (editor)|Ben Lewis]]<br/>[[Herbert W. Wrench]]

'''''The Lawbreakers''''' is a 1961 American film directed by [[Joseph M. Newman]]. Made in a [[film noir]] style, the [[crime drama]] is based on the pilot episode of the 1961 [[television series]] ''[[The Asphalt Jungle (TV series)|The Asphalt Jungle]]'' and stars an ensemble cast including [[Jack Warden]], [[Vera Miles]], [[Robert Douglas (actor)|Robert Douglas]], and [[Arch Johnson]].<ref name="imdb">{{IMDb title|0140320}}</ref>

==Plot summary==

Allen Bardeman ([[Robert Douglas (actor)|Robert Douglas]]) is a prominent, married [[lawyer]] who collects money from the [[numbers racket]] for the [[Organized crime|syndicate]]. His [[legal secretary]], Angela Walsh ([[Vera Miles]]), is also his mistress, and he provides her with a house of her own, where Sam Henry ([[Robert Bailey (actor)|Robert Bailey]]) &ndash; a corrupt [[New York City]] administrator who acts as a "bag man" for the syndicate &ndash; makes a weekly visit to pick up money from Bardeman. Bardeman{{'}}s lavish lifestyle and tax problems have placed him deeply in debt. Angela urges him to solve his money problems by staging a robbery of the syndicate{{'}}s money, using a man he knows will doplay itthe role of armed robber for him. She then visits Ed Rackin ([[Ken Lynch]]), a nightclub owner who looks out for the syndicate{{'}}s local interests and who Henry also visits to collect syndicate numbers proceeds. Their conversation reveals that Bardeman is unaware that they know one another, and that Angela isand schemingRackin withare Rackinscheming to make off withtake Bardeman{{'}}s money after the staged robbery and run off together.

Bardeman arranges to have the robbery take place at Angela{{'}}s house during Henry{{'}}s weekly visit. During the robbery, Henry unexpectedly pulls a gun on the disguised robber, who shoots and mortally wounds Henry. The robber turns out to be Rackin, who drives off in Henry{{'}}s car with the money and the dying Henry. When the police find Henry{{'}}s body at the wheel of his car alongside a road soon afterwards, [[New York Police Department]] [[Police captain|Captain]] Matthew Gower ([[Jack Warden]]) and his homicide squad launch an investigation into his murder.

Gower is an idealistic and honest cop and outspoken critic of the corruption he finds all around him in the city government and police force. He has faced repeated reprimands and disciplinary action, including a demotion from deputy inspector to captain, at the hands of the corrupt [[Police Commissioner]] James Deane ([[David White (actor)|David White]]), who punishes him when he interferes in syndicate activities. When [[Mayor of New York|Mayor]] Harold Emshaw ([[James Seay]]), facing pressure from the press to clean up the city government and police department, removes Deane from his position, he appoints Gower as acting commissioner, promoting him over the head of his superior, Chief Inspector Gus Honochek ([[Arch Johnson]]). Gower sets about creating a hand-picked team of honest detectives to work directly under him to investigate organized crime activities, including [[Sergeant]] Frank Orte ([[Douglas Odney]]) and the resentful Honochek.

Gower{{'}}s men quickly determine that Henry was a syndicate collector, and observe Rackin meeting Joe Selkin ([[Robert H. Harris]]), a syndicate troubleshooter, at the airport. They secretly begin to follow Selkin. Selkin visits Bardeman{{'}}s office, accuses Bardeman of stealing the missing money, and orders him to return it by the following morning. After Selkin leaves, Angela comforts the panicky Bardeman. She urges him to call Rackin and tell him to bring the money to Bardeman; she tells Bardeman to threaten to tell Selkin that Rackin has the money if Rackin does not bring it. Bardeman agrees to make the call. Meanwhile, when word of Selkin{{'}}s visit to Bardeman reaches Gower, Gower and Orte begin to suspect that Bardeman is a frontman for the syndicate

Rackin visits Bardeman in his law office that evening without bringing the money and pulls a gun on Bardeman. When Bardeman tells Rackin that he has a way of protecting himself from such threats, Rackin shocks him by replying that he knows because Angela told him; it is the first time that Bardeman realizes that Angela and Rackin know one another. Rackin then shoots Bardeman to death and removes the audio tape from a [[tape recorder]] in Bardeman{{'}}s desk drawer that Angela had told him would be making a recording of the encounter. When Angela arrives at the office the following morning, she enters Bardeman{{'}}s office, sees his body on the floor, checks to make sure the tape is missing, and then collects a second tape recorder that has been running overnight and was hidden under a statue in the office. She then feigns emotional distress and calls the police.

That same morning, Selkin, unaware of Bardeman{{'}}s death the evening before, calls Rackin and orders him to kill Bardeman for not delivering the stolen money on time. A delighted Rackin agrees, realizing that the syndicate suspects only Bardeman of having stolen its money, and does not tell Selkin that Bardeman already is dead. Immediately afterwards, Honochek brings Selkin in for questioning. Orte reports to Gower that ballistics evidence shows that the same gun killed both Henry and Bardeman, and Gower hypothesizes that someone else was involved in Henry{{'}}s murder and then killed Bardeman to avoid having to split the money stolen from Henry. When Honochek reports that Selkin had called Rackin that morning, Gower informs Selkin &ndash; much to Selkin's surprise &ndash; that Bardeman had been murdered the previous evening and orders Selkin held on suspicion of homicide. Deciding that Rackin is the man who can tie together Bardeman{{'}}s death with syndicate activities, Gower orders Honochek to tail Rackin.

In the spring and summer of 1961, [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] broadcast a television series in the United States entitled ''[[The Asphalt Jungle (TV series)|The Asphalt Jungle]]''. Produced by [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television]] in a [[film noir]] style, it was a gritty, hard-boiled [[police drama]] starring [[Jack Warden]], [[Arch Johnson]], and [[William Smith (actor)|William Smith]] (billed as "Bill Smith") as detectives in the police force of an unnamed city in the [[NewMidwestern YorkUnited Police DepartmentStates]] detectives specializing in investigating the activities of organized crime. Although inspired by the acclaimed 1950 film ''[[The Asphalt Jungle]]'', which in turn had been based on the 1949 [[W. R. Burnett]] novel of the same name, the television series had nothing in common with either the film or the novel other than its title, using new characters and storylines. Premiering on April 2, 1961, it drew mediocre ratings, and ABC cancelled it after airing its thirteenth episode on June 25, 1961.<ref name="mcneil">McNeil, Alex, ''Total Television: The Comprehensive Guide to Programming From 1948 to the Present'', New York: Penguin Books, 1996, p. 64.</ref><ref name="Brooks and Marsh">Brooks, Tim, and Earle Marsh, ''The Complete Directory to Prime-Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present, Sixth Edition'', New York: Ballantine Books, 1995, {{ISBN |0-345-39736-3}}, p. 63.</ref><ref>[httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=uAr4AgAAQBAJ&pg=PT92&lpg=PT92&dq=the+asphalt+jungle+tv+series&sourcepg=bl&ots=Xcx22VEMyL&sig=XPiqUcWWOfI1lYle4y6Ts-fvafU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=R6wdVOS3HcG7igL90IGICA&ved=0CFcQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=the%20asphalt%20jungle%20tv%20series&f=falsePT92 Hughes, Howard, ''The Filmgoers' Guide to Great Crime Movies'', New York: I. B. Taurus & Co., Ltd., 2006], {{ISBN |978-1-84511-219-6}}, unpaginated.]</ref>

MGM Television filmed ''The Asphalt Jungle''{{'}}s pilot episode, "The Lady and the Lawyer", in 1960. ABC aired it as the series{{'}} second episode on April 9, 1961. Unlike other episodes of ''The Asphalt Jungle'', it did not include Smith or his Sergeant Danny Keller character as the third featured detective alongside Gower and Honochek, instead featuring Douglas Odney as Sergeant Frank Orte, although it used the series{{'}} standard opening credits that included Smith.<ref>[httphttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt0516145/ IMDb entry of "The Lady and the Lawyer"]</ref> Anticipating the show{{'}}s cancellation and deciding to create a theatrical film for distribution in [[Europe]], MGM Television shot an additional 30 minutes of footage using the same cast and crew as "The Lady and the Lawyer." [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] used the additional footage to re-edit and expand "The Lady and the Lawyer" to create ''The Lawbreakers'' as a 79-minute theatrical film, which, like "The Lady and the Lawyer," included Odney and his Orte character and did not include Smith or his Keller character.<ref name="noirworthwatching">[http://noirworthwatching.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-lawbreakers-1961-they-were-grooming_23.html Noir Worth Watching: The Lawbreakers (1961)]</ref> ''The Lawbreakers'' was released in Europe and elsewhere in 1961 after the cancellation of ''The Asphalt Jungle''; for example, it was released in August 1961 in [[West Germany]], and it eventually was released on various dates in such countries as [[Brazil]], [[Finland]], [[Italy]], [[Mexico]], and [[Sweden]].<ref name="imdb" />

In recent years, ''The Lawbreakers'' has been exhibited at the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in [[New York City]] and has received favorable reviews from online film bloggers, who have described it as tightly edited and directed, providing an informative and thorough depiction of the operations of both organized crime and the police, and featuring a surprisingly talented cast of character actors, considering its origin as a television series episode. Vera Miles{{'}} performance as a film noir ''femme fatale'' and Joseph M. Newman{{'}}s direction have been singled out for praise.<ref name="noirworthwatching"/><ref name="grost"/><ref>[http://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=16393 Mystery*File: Movie Review: THE LAWBREAKERS (1961)]</ref>

[[Category:1960s1961 crime films]]

[[Category:American black-and-white films]]

[[Category:Black1960s English-and-whitelanguage films]]

[[Category:FilmFilms scoresscored by Johnny Mandel]]