“The Brothers Rico” is an unusual noir in that much of the action takes place in the daylight - noir master Burnett Guffey flatly lit most of the interiors without shadows, apparently in the interests of economy. At least until a happy ending that looks like it was tacked on at the studio’s insistence. The excellent screenplay - Hollywood Ten blacklistee Dalton Trumbo had an uncredited hand in it - is based on a story by French writer Georges Simeon, and in Karlson’s hands it produces a taut, gripping crime thriller. But because their mother “took a bullet” for Gates, Conte decides to trust him when he orders Conte to track down his younger brother, played by James Darren (with Kathryn Grant as his wife). The older one (Paul Picerni) turns up long enough to warn our hero not to trust the fatherly, silver-tongued mob boss (Larry Gates). Of course, he gets pulled back in when his brothers go on the lam after participating in a mob hit. The latter film’s sinister Don Barzini, noir veteran Richard Conte, is superb as the owner of a Florida laundry who thinks he’s put his past as a mob accountant far, far behind him. One of the highlights of the Sony set is Karlson’s classic “The Brothers Rico” (1957), one of the first movies before “The Godfather” to present the Mafia (called “The Organization” here) as a business.
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The DVD release runs 100 minutes, including a compelling 12-minute prologue in which Clete Roberts interviews the real-life survivors - cut for most TV showings. If there’s a flaw in this tough-minded expose, it’s the rather quick wrap-up when Kiley steps in for his slain father and persuades the governor on the phone to impose martial law to bring dad’s killers to justice.
Bing Crosby) is very good as an employee of Andrews who (unfortunately for her) offers to serve as a witness when McIntire decides to run for attorney general.
McIntire does until his war- decorated son (Richard Kiley) returns from the service and arouses his sense of outrage. This is a suprisingly violent and lurid film for the era, with character actor Edward Andrews (minus his trademark horned-rimmed glasses) giving the performance of his career as the honey-toned rackets boss who tries to persuade his lawyer pal (John McIntire) to stay out the latest efforts to clean up the city. They feared he was going to end their gambling and prostitution rackets, which mostly preyed on soldiers visiting from nearby Fort Benning. Wonderfully filmed on location in Alabama, it’s the more or less true story of what the nation’s press labeled “the wickest city in America” after the state’s new attorney-general designate was murdered on the orders of gang bosses. Karlson more than lives up to his reputation among noirists with the film many of them reckon to be his best, “The Phenix City Story” (1955), an Allied Artists release that’s been impeccably restored and remastered on the Warner set. The big revelation for me in this month’s pair of long-awaited noir sets from Warner and Sony is director Phil Karlson, who I’ve long known primarily for his TV work (his famous two-part espisodes of “The Untouchables” were released theatrically as “The Scarface Gang” and “Alacatraz Express”).
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