Hoodlum Empire Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Hoodlum Empire Blu-ray Movie Review

Hearings impaired.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 14, 2013

The general consensus might be that so-called “reality television” is a relatively recent phenomenon (leaving aside for a moment just how real some of these shows actually are), but the earliest days of television were rife with all sorts of “reality” programming, efforts that were often easier to produce and much less costly to broadcast than actual scripted fare. At around the same time that audiences were just beginning to tune in in droves to the likes of Uncle Miltie and I Love Lucy, the United States Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce (which became known more colloquially as the Kefauver Hearings, after their chairman Senator Estes Kefauver) started captivating civic minded Americans when the hearings were broadcast in something akin to the sensation that was caused by the Watergate Hearings some two decades later. The Kefauver Hearings were such a “hit” with the audience that it didn’t take the bean counters in Hollywood long to figure out there were opportunities for feature films at least tangently tied to them, and several films that bear some imprint of the Senate’s look into organize crime appeared over the next couple of years. Some of these, like Robert Wise’s The Captive City, were quasi- documentaries (which in this particular case featured Senator Kefauver himself), while others, like this little remembered 1952 outing, take a highly fictionalized approach to the same subject matter. While the storylines are markedly different, there is a certain similarity to another recent Olive Blu-ray release, the 1951 Humphrey Bogart film The Enforcer, another outing which posits a crusading fighter for justice out to reign in the nefarious activities of a major mobster.

Hoodlum Empire attempts right off the bat to gain a “ripped from the headlines” imprimatur by advertising itself as “A Bob Considine Story”. Considine was a well respected and at that time rather famous writer who had written extensively about World War II (including from the battlefront) and who later hit the bestseller lists as co-writer of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and The Babe Ruth Story. Considine was also one of the first print media reporters to matriculate to a lucrative and long lasting radio career, though in whatever medium he worked, Considine was often accused of having a right leaning bias, something that might be evident in at least some of Hoodlum Empire, a film that is almost laughably gung ho about “truth, justice and The American Way” at times, at least as filtered through an early fifties’ prism of overt religiosity and conformity.

The major problem with Hoodlum Empire is that it attempts to personalize its story, something that might seem like a good idea but which in this case is pumped full of jingoistic undercurrents and a slew of flashbacks which interrupt the narrative flow of the main “gangster chronicle”. Our hero is Joe Gray (John Russell), a onetime crook who began to see the light of a more moral way of life during World War II. In post-War America, hearings are underway to ferret out organized criminal activity, an inquiry led by Senator Bill Stephens (Brian Donlevy), a man who (in just one of way too many coincidences lining this film) was Gray’s commanding officer in the war. Stephens had had his suspicions about Gray’s background, especially after Gray babbles semi-incoherently after having been wounded in a battle, but things come to a head in “contemporary” times when Gray, who has supposedly gone straight, might have to spill the beans about his former way of life and, perhaps more to the point, “name names” in terms of who is calling the shots in the world of organized crime.

As turgid as Hoodlum Empire is on a dramatic front, it’s yet another fascinating little film for its diverse casting. Russell never really hit the big time, despite having a long career that tended to veer mostly toward Westerns for one reason or another, but Hoodlum Empire perhaps points out why that brass ring always seemed to elude him. For all his stalwart good looks, he’s a surprisingly uncharismatic star, one who kind of goes through the motions without ever generating much interest, let alone electricity. The supporting cast here is aces, however. Claire Trevor plays Connie, Gray’s jilted girlfriend, who has gone on to shack up with Gray’s uncle Nick Mancani (Luther Adler), the crime boss that Stephens is trying to bring down. Gray has discarded Connie in favor of Marte (Vera Ralston, who became the wife of Republic’s head honcho Herbert J. Yates at around the time Hoodlum Empire was being filmed), a French lass who had dispatched a Nazi who was about to take Gray’s life during a fierce battle. Forrest Tucker is also on hand as Mancani’s vicious right hand man.

It’s the supporting cast that gives Hoodlum Empire whatever minimal color it has. Adler is actually a hoot as a tough Italian mob boss, dancing through the role like a boxer hopped up on speed. Adler, one of the driving forces behind The Group Theatre and heir to one of the theater’s most prestigious acting families (his sister was the noted teacher Stella Adler), had a kind of odd film career. Adler was a pugnacious looking individual and never was able to really find roles that suited his unusual temperament, but in Hoodlum Empire he chews the scenery with appropriate élan and is a lot of fun to watch. Trevor of course built most of her career on playing floozies and molls (always with the requisite heart of gold). Her somewhat more duplicitous character here gives the actress at least a little room to stretch her wings. Tucker, whom Baby Boomers will remember from F Troop, is surprisingly effective as a pretty nasty guy who wants to make sure that Gray can't divulge any damaging information. Ralston had a fairly inconsequential film career, despite Yates’ attempts to make her into a star (something that actually led to lawsuits from Republic’s shareholders), and it’s easy to see why in this film. Like putative star Russell, Ralston has little charisma and kind of coasts through her role, doing okay but never really touching the audience the way an overly sympathetic character like this really should.

With a leading character who fails to connect, and an overly convoluted structure which keeps pausing every few minutes to give us yet another flashback, Hoodlum Empire is never really able to work up much momentum. There's also a frankly cheap look to some of the film, especially in the protracted battle sequence, where it's only all too obvious we're inside a studio (you can almost make out the back wall in a couple of shots that are supposed to be "outside"). With some questionable (if understandable given the historical context of the film) elements like soldiers breaking into the Christian hymn “Faith Of Our Fathers” at one point, Hoodlum Empire is a little time capsule of an era that was perhaps too insistent on what constituted “true” Americanism. It’s easy to “hiss” villains, but when the good guys are as bland as they are in this movie, it’s pretty hard to really root for them.

Hoodlum Empire Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hoodlum Empire is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. This is yet another generally very solid high definition presentation from Olive, with good contrast and pleasing detail. The elements have their requisite minor age related wear and tear, but the biggest drawback to this particular release is some stock footage that is noticeably more washed out and ragged than the bulk of the film. Otherwise, though, this effort is another great example of leaving well enough alone. While that means that no restoration has taken place, it also means that there's no egregious digital tweaking that interferes with a filmic appearance.

Hoodlum Empire Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Hoodlum Empire's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track has some minimal distortion, especially in the early going, but settles down to provide a surprisingly full bodied audio presentation, one which delivers the dialogue cleanly and clearly as well as offering quite a bit more dynamic range than might be expected, courtesy of the flashbacks to World War II. Fidelity is very good throughout this track, without even much hiss to hamper the high end.

Hoodlum Empire Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

Hoodlum Empire Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is yet another really odd choice for Olive to bring to Blu-ray. I have to hand it to this "little label that could" (and often does), for there's no other distributor that I can think of that so regularly offers such a variety of lesser known films on high definition. But Hoodlum Empire unfortunately doesn't have a lot to recommend it other than a very colorful supporting cast. Few contemporary audience members are going to know enough about, let alone care about, the Kefauver hearings to place the film in its proper historical context, and even worse, the film itself wastes its "ripped from the headlines" opportunity by spending too much time on labored flashbacks. Some cult film lovers may well still want to check this out, and the good news is this is another nice Olive release in terms of video and audio quality.