Crime in the Streets (1956) on Netflix
NR19561h 31mCrimeDramaThriller
A gang rumble lands a Hornet in jail, and Frankie Dane blames the neighbor who called the police. Frankie plans to get even, while social worker Ben Wagner tries to reach him.
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- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb6.6/101,571 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Frankie Dane, eighteen, leads a New York street gang called the Hornets and listens to no one. After a rumble with the Dukes, a Hornet named Lenny Daniels is arrested for holding a captive youth at zip gun point, and Frankie decides to get even with McAllister, the neighbor who told the police. Social worker Ben Wagner keeps trying to understand Frankie rather than condemn him; Frankie's mother, whose husband left when Frankie was eight, has no better luck. Frankie draws two friends, Lou Macklin and Angelo 'Baby' Gioia, into a plot against McAllister. Richie, Frankie's ten-year-old brother, overhears it, and Baby's father slaps him and pleads with him to stay away from Frankie.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Crime in the Streets (1956)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Don Siegel wrote in his memoirs that he never met Reginald Rose, but heard from producer Vincent Fennelly that Rose was unhappy with some changes the director made to the script.
- Making Crime in the Streets led Allied Artists to cancel another of its films, William F. Broidy's Sweet Violence, because the studio felt the two movies' plots were too similar.
- The bulk of Crime in the Streets was shot on a single set, an expressionistic New York street designed by Serge Krisman and lighted by cameraman Sam Leavitt; Siegel said the set cost $35,000 but saved him shooting time.
- The script for the film was turned down by the Hollywood Production Code for being too brutal, and it had to be reworked to get approval.
- Reginald Rose's television play was rejected by several sponsors who deemed it too sympathetic towards juvenile delinquents, and its title was changed from The Alley to Crime in the Streets at the request of The Elgin Hour.
- Sal Mineo, who had previously appeared in Rebel Without a Cause, earned the Hollywood nickname "The Switchblade Kid" from his role in Crime in the Streets.
