Chicago Confidential

Brian Keith never reached the soaring heights of Hollywood, typically relegated to supporting roles (and television), but he possessed a certain charm that was perfectly capable of carrying smallish films like Sidney Salkow’s Chicago Confidential. Keith plays ambitious State Attorney Jim Fremont who endeavors to bust up a crime syndicate that has taken control of a labor union. When the union treasurer is murdered en route to meeting Fremont to disclose evidence of racketeering, the state traces the murder weapon to raggedy alcoholic Candymouth Duggan (the exceptional Elisha Cook, Jr.), who had stumbled upon the gun but is soon bribed by crooked union vice president Ken Harrison (Douglas Kennedy) to tell the police that he saw union president Artie Blane (Dick Foran) at the scene of the crime (Harrison is working for the syndicate and wants Blane’s job). After Blane is arrested, the skeptical Fremont and police captain Jake Parker (Paul Langton) ramp up the investigation, which leads to a nightclub impressionist (and a meta moment when he imitates noir fixture Edward G. Robinson on stage), an audio laboratory, and a trashy bar where corruption festers and bargirls (b-girls), paid to entertain patrons, are preparing to depart for vice assignments in the Philippines. Beverly Garland plays Blane’s fiancée Laura Barton, whose attempts to clear Blane lead to her own kidnapping. With a bargain-basement budget, the film suffers from substandard acting and writing in parts, but Salkow still creates an entertaining yarn set in a sleazy milieu wonderfully worthy of the noir label.