Few onscreen words reassure me more than “written, produced, and directed by Samuel Fuller”. I love Fuller’s work, and consider everything that he was involved with to be worth your time. Not every one of his films is truly great, but he has an impressively high hit rate, especially when it comes to his film noirs.
Underworld U. S. A. is a tale of crime, murder, and revenge. It introduces us to a young Tolly Devlin, a kid who is set on a dark and dangerous path through life after witnessing his father being murdered by gangsters. Tolly is in and out of trouble, and as an adult (played by Cliff Robertson) he is determined to deal with those responsible for the death of his father. He does that by getting information that allows him to gain the trust of criminals he then aims to manipulate and trick into their destruction.
As well as Robertson in the lead role, who does well as a tough anti-hero, there are enjoyable performances here from Beatrice Kay, Dolores Dorn, Robert Emhardt, and Paul Dubov, respectively portraying two women who care about our leading man and two tough gangster boss types who could be near the top of a tree that is long overdue being chopped down. Richard Rust is also enjoyably threatening as Gus, the main assassin used by the gangsters.
While not top-tier Fuller, this is a typically entertaining and sharp noir from a master. About as dark and bitter as can be, with the signs all there early on that things may not end well, this somehow manages to feel well-balanced and narratively cohesive, despite being influenced by a couple of different sources (a magazine article of the same name by Joseph F. Dinneen, and a book, “Here Is To Crime”, by Riley Cooper).
In case it wasn’t obvious from my opening words, I am primed to enjoy any Samuel Fuller movie. This is a solid crime flick, even if the 99-minute runtime makes it feel a bit saggy in places, and any fan of the sub-genre should find enough to enjoy here. There are better Fuller films to check out first though, but this is one that deserves to be somewhere on your watchlist.
7/10
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