Crime, Inc. (1945)

Crime, Inc. is one of those films that fans of film noir will find interesting for reasons that don’t necessarily have to do with the story itself. Tom Neal, as reporter Jim Riley, is the one to solve the crime spree and help bring the killers to justice. It is a very different role than the one he plays as Al Roberts, the harried lead in Detour, which is perhaps his most famous film noir role. It’s the film I saw first—and many times—before seeing Crime, Inc. (Tom Neal’s personal life was as tumultuous as his role in Detour; you can catch up on some of the details at Wikipedia.)

Sheldon Leonard goes against type in his role as Captain Ferrone in Crime, Inc. Leonard had many bit parts, mostly in film noir and mostly playing gangsters and other unsavory types. He had a deep voice, and with his particular way of enunciating words, he was the perfect actor for intimidation. But in Crime, Inc., he plays a police captain trying to bring order to a city undergoing gangland warfare. His position is even more difficult because of (you probably guessed it) police corruption in his own department.

You can watch Crime, Inc. for free online. Click here to see it at the Internet Archive. I watched the film on DVD, but the copy at the Internet Archive seems to be a better print.

The film starts with people going to a nightclub called Smitty’s Café and looking for a fun night out. Smitty’s Café is small and not particularly glamorous, but people are dining, and a woman sings as part of the act at the club. Two men show up and shoot and kill two nightclub patrons. Everyone else makes a run for it, including the café employees and the band members. When the police show up to round up witnesses and question them, no one will even admit that they saw anything. Captain Ferrone arrests them all to see if a night in jail will jog their memory. Then he calls in the newspaper reporters, including Jim Riley, who have been waiting to get their story. Captain Ferrone tells the reporters very little, only that Vanny Denton and Dutch Cripe were shot at 11:05 p.m. and that the two victims were members of the Bugs Kelley mob.

Jim Riley stays after the other reporters leave; he and Captain Ferrone appear to be on friendly terms. Ferrone asks Riley if he knows who Bugs Kelley has been “squeezing” lately. Riley says that he doesn’t know, but the next day, he pays a visit to Kelley. Neither Riley nor Kelley knows who is behind the rival crime syndicate or their murder of two of Kelley’s men. Riley would like to know so that he can break the story; Kelley would like to know so that he can exact his revenge.

(This article about Crime, Inc. contains spoilers.)

Jim Riley thinks all the killings (it is implied that Denton’s and Cripe’s deaths aren’t the only ones so far) are connected and that the crime syndicate is run like a business. The police, including Captain Ferrone, think his ideas are ridiculous. But as a newspaper reporter, Riley is persistent, and he continues his journalistic investigation, still intent on getting to the story first. He calls Bugs Kelley, who invites him on a drive to Atlantic City instead of offering any more inside information. On the way, Kelley tells Riley that his real name is Mike Egan and that he should use his real name in Atlantic City. When they arrive, Kelley takes Riley to a nightclub and introduces him to the woman singing. She is Betty Van Cleve, aka Betty Egan, Mike’s sister.

Kelley wants Riley to act as a big brother to his little sister because he is going away for a while. He doesn’t explain what he means by “away for a while,” and Riley naturally worries about it. Betty thinks her brother is in the insurance business, and Riley knows that this isn’t true. Riley is attracted to Betty, which only adds to his discomfort about the entire evening and the lies being told. But on the way home, Kelley gives Riley his blessing about dating his sister, which makes everything only a little less complicated.

I found Kelley’s alias and his sister’s innocence about his profession a little unbelievable. I know the film was made way before the computer age and the introduction of the internet, but surely she picked up a newspaper once in a while. If Kelley was such a notorious gangster, stories about him and pictures of him must have been printed in the newspapers at least once in a while. I think a sister would have recognized her brother, even in grainy newspaper print.

Kelley’s “going away” has to do with his appearance as a witness before a hearing related to the murders of Denton and Cripe. Kelley maintains on the witness stand that he is a life insurance agent. (Again, didn’t Betty Egan hear about this story? Atlantic City is just a short drive away from her brother’s place of illegal operations, and murders would have made big news beyond the immediate local area.) The next witness following Kelley is Adolphe Lutz, a waiter in Smitty’s Café when the murders happened. He is shot outside the building where the hearing takes place and before he has a chance to offer his witness testimony.

The level of violence starts to escalate even more. Kelley and his henchmen are killed at the Wax Works Museum at Coney Island; Betty Van Cleve has moved after her brother’s death, and Jim Riley has lost track of her. He is worried about why she moved and is more determined than ever to learn the facts. He consults an informant, Val Lucas, who works for Assistant District Attorney Dixon. It isn’t long before the assistant district attorney and Lucas are killed, too. Dixon was murdered because of a rat in the police department. A secret commission is organized to get to the bottom of the murders and to rid the city of organized crime.

Jim Riley does find Betty Van Cleve again, but they are now in danger, too, thanks to Jim’s investigation and Betty’s relation to Bugs Kelley. Riley is brought before a grand jury to testify about his news sources. He refuses to reveal their identities, and he is asked to join the secret commission. He agrees to this and gives the following information: the location of two companies, National Brokers Inc. and the International Export Company, both doing business in the Arcade Building, and the names of police officers who have been calling the International Export Company regularly.

Another reason that Crime, Inc. is interesting for film noir fans is because of the story itself, specifically Jim Riley’s idea of a crime syndicate run as a business. His theory allows him to follow leads that might not seem plausible to others. The police think that his ideas are ridiculous, and many in the police department want this particular trail to run cold because they are the ones profiting from criminal activities. But Riley is proven right about this and the other details of his investigation. Several officers are involved, as are employees in the district attorney’s office. This type of corruption is what has made the rival syndicate so successful. Its members can stay one step ahead of law enforcement, and they know a lot of inside information about their criminal rivals.

Crime as a business sounds like a novel idea, even today, but it also makes sense: People go into crime to make money, and a business/crime organization makes sense if they want to succeed at their chosen profession. Another film noir example of a criminal organization run like a business is New York Confidential (1955), where Charlie Lupo, played by Broderick Crawford, runs his criminal affairs from an office in an office building.

Click here to see my article about New York Confidential.

Jim Riley and Betty Van Cleve live long enough to give the film a happy ending. The ending feels a bit rushed, a bit too tidy; it might be more appropriate for a romantic comedy than a film noir. But Crime, Inc. is very much a B film. Production Releasing Corporation (PRC), which produced and distributed the film, was a member of the Poverty Row film producers, so perhaps there was no more time in the schedule or money in the budget to go for a more a conventional noir ending. It’s still a film noir: The happy ending is hardly a match for all that corruption and violence and murder.

April 15, 1945, release date  •  Directed by Lew Landers  •  Screenplay by Raymond L. Schrock  •  Based on the book Crime Incorporated by Martin Mooney  •  Music by Walter Greene  •  Edited by Roy V. Livingston  •  Cinematography by James S. Brown Jr.

Leo Carrillo as Anthony Charles (aka “Tony”) Marlow  •  Tom Neal as Jim Riley  •  Martha Tilton as Betty Van Cleve (aka Betty Egan)  •  Lionel Atwill as Pat Coyle  •  Grant Mitchell as Wayne Clark  •  Sheldon Leonard as Captain Ferrone  •  Harry Shannon as Police Commissioner Collins  •  Danny Morton as Bugs Kelley (aka Mike Egan)  •  Virginia Vale as Trixie Waters  •  Don Beddoe as Deputy District Attorney Dixon  •  Rod Rogers as Val Lucas  •  George Meeker as Barry North  •  Crahan Denton as Vannie Denton  •  Michael Mark as Adolphe Lutz  •  Stanley Price as Eddie Garr  •  Jack Gordon as Jud Stecker

Distributed by Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC)  •  Produced by PRC