Slaughter on 10th Avenue

As longshoremen labor corruption films go, it’s unfair to compare Arnold Laven’s Slaughter on 10th Avenue with Elia Kazan’s earlier masterpiece, On the Waterfront (1954), but Laven directs an admirable variation on the theme: investigating the murder of dock worker Solly Pitts (Mickey Shaughnessy), novice assistant district attorney William Keating (Richard Egan) can’t find any witnesses willing to risk their lives by testifying against corrupt union bosses. Aside from Egan, whose understated performance begs the question why he didn’t lead more crime films, Slaughter on 10th Avenue boasts an exceptional noir cast: Charles McGraw as growling police lieutenant Anthony Vosnick, Dan Duryea as ruthless defense attorney John Jacob Masters, Jan Sterling as the scared but open-minded widow, Madge Pitts, whose trust and cooperation takes some time for Keating to earn. Even an unexpected Walter Matthau shows up as shady (and slightly cartoonish) union boss Al Dahlke. Jackman’s camera provides plenty of interesting angles, including from behind a ringing telephone and from a patient’s point of view on a hospital stretcher, and Laven sets up effective suspense at night like flashlights invading Madge’s bedroom windows as she sleeps and a jump-out-of-your-seat moment involving Madge, her little dog, a truck, and an alley.