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The Lineup

1958, Movie, NR, 85 mins

The Lineup: Review

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A brutal but absorbing crime tale, THE LINEUP stars character actor Wallach as a killer-for-hire working for the mob. Three packets of heroin are smuggled into San Francisco and it's Wallach's job to recover them from the unsuspecting travelers they have been planted on. He is accompanied by Keith, a strange criminal associate obsessed with writing down the last words of Wallach's victims. A seaman who realizes what he has been given is killed by Wallach and so too is the servant of a couple who have been given the second packet. The third shipment is contained inside a Japanese doll owned by a little girl. Wallach befriends her mother and discovers that the child has opened the doll and used the heroin to powder her dolly's face. Rather than kill the mother and child, Wallach goes to see the underworld boss, Taylor, a vicious, cold-hearted cripple who meets Wallach in his wheelchair on the balcony overlooking a skating rink. Taylor refuses to accept Wallach's explanation about the missing heroin, believing the killer has grabbed off the dope for his own purposes. Taylor says with a sneer to Wallach: "You're dead." Wallach goes berserk and hurls Taylor off the balcony, killing him. He flees with Keith and Jaeckel, a nervous get-away driver. Police detectives Anderson and Meyer, who have been tracking Wallach, now catch up with him after a wild chase wherein Keith and Jaeckel are killed. Rather than surrender, the stoic Wallach shoots it out with the cops and is himself killed. This is vintage Siegel, a director who specialized in film noir productions but always on the ultra-violent side, as depicted in such films as THE BIG STEAL (1949), RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11 (1954), CRIME IN THE STREETS (1956), and BABY FACE NELSON (1957). THE LINEUP is no exception, as it probes the evil character of a contract killer who murders without mercy until he is faced with a dilemma which causes his downfall. leave a comment
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