cult film freak: GENE NELSON, STERLING HAYDEN & CHARLES BRONSON 'CRIME WAVE'

Charles Bronson in CRIME WAVE Year: 1953 Rating: ****

The steady and stalwart yet vulnerable and manipulated buried lead in CRIME WAVE aka THE CITY IS DARK... overshadowed by rigid cop Sterling Hayden, a young Charles Bronson, lead thug Ted de Corsia and a thoroughly demented Timothy Carey... is played by Gene Nelson...

Prhaps the most incredible dancer before and after, he remains cool and tough in his first ultra-serious role as Steve Lacey, an ex-convict paid a surprise visit by three of his old friends...

Phyllis Kirk, Tod de Corsia, Gene Nelson and Charles Bronson, CRIME WAVE

You can put quotes on that since these guys are hardly pals. They all shared a prison stint, and the trio, after escaping, kill a cop... One gets shot and now they need a place to hole up DESPERATE HOURS style, much to Lacey’s even-keeled, slowburn chagrin...

He has a great job as an airplane mechanic, and a beautiful wife in Phyllis Kirk’s Ellen, who, during the eleventh hour, has to weather Timothy Carey going so dynamically, eye-blinking wacko he’s well worth the wait...

from CRIME WAVE

Especially after all the edgy build-up where Bronson’s Ben Hastings has his own narrowed, non-trusting, lethal eyes on a shifty veterinarian; de Corsia’s Doc Penny stresses an upcoming (and ultimately rushed) bank job...

And Sterling Hayden in a fitfully basic, toothpick chomping role as Detective Lt. Sims, doing a low budget version of what John McIntire wanted from Hayden's gang in ASPHALT JUNGLE: to bust ‘em all…

from CRIME WAVE

We go from the scantly designed, noticeable anemic budgeted police station set to the fitfully claustrophobic apartment locale, the best scenes involve flowing exterior direction by André De Toth out on the gritty streets, for real...

As if the City of Angels consisted only of purgatory alleyways and dilapidated buildings: A viciously sparse canvas that the characters exist in and can’t escape from: the good guys, the bad guys, and like all true Noirs, those ambiguous unlucky souls caught desperately in-between.