Hell on Frisco Bay

Based on a novel by William P. McGivern, whose work was also adapted into Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat (1953) and Robert Wise’s Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), among other noirs, Frank Tuttle’s Hell on Frisco Bay is a controlled, deliberate, even quiet gangster noir which, one could argue, doesn’t make particularly good use of its full color and widescreen CinemaScope format. It’s a straightforward tale: former policeman Steve Rollins (Alan Ladd), just released from San Quentin, tries to track down a man who supposedly has evidence that could clear his name (he was framed) so he can continue in his law enforcement career. This immerses him in the underworld of waterfront racketeering, a milieu now run by mob boss Victor Amato (Edward G. Robinson), who proceeds to dispatch, one by one, anyone who gets in his way. Meanwhile, Rollins’s wife Marcia (Joanne Dru) pleads with him to take her back despite her infidelity while he was in the pen. In an ethereal, almost ghost-like performance, the legendary Fay Wray plays an aloof actress and the love interest of Amato’s number two, Joe Lye (Paul Stewart), while Nestor Paiva plays Louis Fiaschetti, the former boss of the docks who meets his fate at the hands of Amato’s thugs (“If you behave yourself, maybe I’ll let you be the janitor”). Across the cast and crew, this is nobody’s best film by a long shot, but Max Steiner’s dramatic score is impressive, and the climax on a motorboat in the titular bay is a fine capstone.