ALAN LADD IN 13 WEST STREET (1962)

 

Legendary actor Alan Ladd was certainly no stranger to B movies. Before he became an overnight sensation in the classic THIS GUN FOR HIRE (1942), Ladd had been acting in the movies for ten years, often in low budget programmers and sometimes uncredited. It wasn't until he met actress-turned-Hollywood agent Sue Carol, whom he eventually married, that his fortunes began to rise. His first film as Carol's client was RULERS OF THE SEA (1939). After that, he began to work more frequently, but still in mostly small roles. In 1940, Ladd appeared in eleven features, one serial (THE GREEN HORNET), and four short subjects. In 1941, he made seven features, including Universal's THE BLACK CAT, a brief appearance at the end of CITIZEN KANE, and two short subjects.

His small role in 1942's JOAN OF PARIS got him enough attention for RKO to offer him a contract paying $400 per week. But he turned down that offer for a better chance at Paramount. Ladd won the part of Raven the hired killer in THIS GUN FOR HIRE and signed a long-term contract with the studio. Paired with the new sultry screen queen Veronica Lake, Alan Ladd had found his niche. He and Lake followed with another hit the same year, THE GLASS KEY. Ladd was established as one of the most popular male stars in the business. 

Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake in all their Film Noir glory in THIS GUN FOR HIRE (1942)

Alan Ladd's film career continued with many great successes. One of his last films under his Paramount contract was the classic Western SHANE (1953). He formed his own production companies, Ladd Enterprises and Jaguare Productions to make films for himself as star and for others. His last work was a highly praised supporting role in THE CARPETBAGGERS, released in 1964 following his death at age 50 in January of that year. 

Ladd's penultimate film role was in 13 WEST STREET (1962), a well-made crime thriller produced by Ladd Enterprises and released by Columbia. Running a fast-paced 80 minutes, the film provided plenty of action and a solid performance by its veteran star. Ladd plays Walt Sherill, a scientist living in Los Angeles. After working late one night, Sherill runs out of gas on a deserted street. As he begins walking, he's almost run down by a car driving at high speed. When he shouts at the driver, the car comes back and stops. Five well-dressed teenage boys get out and begin harassing him. Their leader is Chuck Landry (Michael Callan). He says he's fed up with adults telling him what to do. When the boys start beating Sherill, he tries to fight back. Before they run off, the boys leave him with a broken leg, a head injury, and plenty of bruises. Sherill wakes up in the hospital to see his wife, Tracey (Dolores Dorn), and his boss, Paul Logan (Kenneth MacKenna), keeping watch. A police detective, Seargent Pete Koleski (Rod Steiger), arrives and starts asking questions. Sherill remembers a boy named Bill who said he knew Sherill. He also remembers hearing the name Chuck and something about the boys having trouble at a bar that same night.

Alan Ladd with Michael Callan (Right)

Koleski begins an investigation. Mrs. Sherill's brother (Ted Knight) is the principal of the local high school. She and the detective go there to find out if any male students have a record of criminal activity. Bill Quinn (Arnold Merritt), the gang member who knows Sherill, and who attends the school, sees them and informs Chuck and the other guys. They decide to intimidate Sherill into dropping the matter. They throw a rock through a window of his home and follow up with a threatening phone call to his wife. After this, Sherill is impatient with the police and their lack of progress. One night, while driving, he believes he spots the attackers' car. He follows the car until it stops at a gas station. When he angrily opens the passenger door, he sees a hysterical teenage girl begging him not to hurt her. This incident lands Sherill in jail for the night. After he's released, Koleski warns him to let the police handle the case. When the gang reads about this in the newspaper, they go to Sherill's house, beat him up again, and tell him to leave them alone or they might have to kill him. Sherill, now walking with a cane due to his injury, uses it to beat one of the boys before they run off. 

Sherill, angry and frustrated, begins to unravel. He waits outside the local high school, hoping to see a boy who looks like he may have been recently injured. Spotting a kid with one arm in a sling, Sherill begins harassing him. A police officer shows up to assure him the boy is not under suspicion.  

Meanwhile, Koleski has discovered that Chuck and his gang were thrown out of a local bar right before the encounter with Walter Sherill. Besides being too young to drink in the first place, the boys had insulted two of the patrons, a Black man and a Mexican man, resulting in an altercation. Koleski surmised the boys took out their displaced anger on Sherill. The Black man (Bernie Hamilton) gives them a lead on a boy named Everett Bush (Chris Robinson). Bush has an alibi that's backed by his parents. Sherill now decides to take matters into his own hands by hiring a private detective (Stanley Adams) to start following Bush. He also buys a gun. His obsession with finding his attackers is causing him trouble with his wife, the police, and gets him suspended from his job.

Sherill's interference finally results in tragedy. Bill Quinn has been identified as a friend of Everett Bush. Quinn works at a local drug store. When Sherill goes there to confront him, Bill sees him and runs away. He goes to Chuck for help. Chuck warns him to keep his mouth shut or he'll wish he was dead. When Sherill tracks down Bill at his home, he finds that the boy has hanged himself.

Chuck Landry is finally identified. When questioned by Koleski at his home, Chuck lies and is backed up by his mother (Margaret Hayes). Chuck calls the gang to meet at a park to coordinate their stories as the police get closer. The detective Sherill hired to tail Everett Bush sees the boys meet and calls Sherill to let him know. Koleski is there. They head for the park. When the gang drives away, the detective follows, once again calling the Sherill home to keep them informed. Chuck realizes he's being followed. In a high-speed chase, they run the detective off the road and he is killed. Tracey, on the phone with the detective, hears the man screaming and the sounds of the crash. She calls the police. Bush and the other gang member (Mark Slade) are devastated by what they've done. Chuck coldly tells them to get out of the car and drives off alone. 

Sherill and Koleski reach the park and find it deserted. They phone Tracey, who tells them about the crash and the location the detective gave her. Chuck shows up at the Sherill home. He confronts Tracey with a gun and then tries to sexually assault her. When he hears Sherill's car outside, he runs away on foot, heading for his house. Sherill follows Chuck home and beats him savagely. He knocks the boy into a swimming pool, grabs him, and starts to drown him. Suddenly, he has a change of heart and pulls Chuck out of the water just as Koleski and Tracey arrive. Chuck is taken into custody.

Dolores Dorn and Michael Callan

13 WEST STREET is not just an exciting thriller, but also an engrossing character study of a man losing control of his senses after experiencing acts of violence. The film is similar in theme to two other B movies of the period, both involving gang violence and home invasions disrupting the lives of ordinary citizens. One is JOY RIDE (1958), starring Ann Doran, Regis Toomey, and Rad Fulton. In this film, a group of juvenile delinquents decide they have to take a ride in middle-aged Toomey's new Thunderbird. When he doesn't go along with the idea, they retaliate by breaking into the man's home and terrorizing his wife. The other is KEY WITNESS (1960), starring Jeffrey Hunter, Dennis Hopper, and Corey Allen. Businessman Hunter stops at a drugstore to use the telephone. While there, he witnesses a murder committed by Hopper and his gang. When Hunter tells the police what he saw, the gang has it in for him and his family. Of all of these films, 13 WEST STREET is the most serious in tone, its violence more shocking. Alan Ladd is quite convincing and physically energetic. He makes you wonder if perhaps Raven, the hit man from THIS GUN FOR HIRE, might have survived, moved to the suburbs, and was waiting for the right time to get back to work.

Michael Callan gives the most impressive performance as the sociopathic Chuck Landry. He is completely believable as a cold-hearted killer who is becoming more unhinged with every scene he's in. Callan had played another cool juvenile delinquent type, although not a killer, two years earlier in BECAUSE THEY'RE YOUNG. He was already in his late 20's but looked young enough to be playing troubled teenagers.

Rod Steiger brings quite a bit of intensity to the role of Seargent Koleski, a man who is understanding of Walt Sherill's anger and frustration, but also increasingly resentful of the man's dangerous interference into the investigation. Steiger underplays the role to good effect. I must admit the actor's cultured voice makes one expect him to start quoting Shakespeare at any moment.

Dolores Dorn seems like a poor choice to play Ladd's wife, and not just because of the obvious age gap. Throughout most of the film, Dorn plays Tracey as if she were little more than a moderately inconvenienced housewife, rather than a woman whose husband is going mad with a desire for vengeance. However, during the scene where Tracey is confronted by Chuck Landry in her home, Dorn comes through perfectly.

There is also a marvelous performance by beautiful Jeanne Cooper, forever known as matriarch Katherine Chancellor on the long-running soap opera THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS. Cooper plays the aunt of Bill Quinn, the gang member who kills himself. In her few minutes of screen time, Cooper makes quite an impression as a woman who experiences a quick succession of emotions. At first polite when Walt Sherill shows up at her home insisting on speaking to her nephew, she quickly becomes suspicious of his motives and asks him to leave. After her horror at discovering the boy dead in his room, and after the police have been called, she has these mournful, accusatory words for Sherill: "I hope you can sleep well tonight." It's one of the film's most memorable moments. Cooper was a fine actress who deserved much more opportunity in films than she was given.

Alan Ladd and Jeanne Cooper make a tragic discovery.

13 WEST STREET was directed by Philip Leacock, who also directed another one of my favorite films, LET NO MAN WRITE MY EPITAPH (1960). The screenplay, by Robert Presnell, Jr. and Bernard C. Schoenfeld was based on the 1957 novel The Tiger Among Us by Leigh Brackett.

This post is part of THE 'FAVORITE STARS IN B MOVIES' BLOGATHON sponsored by FILMS FROM BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER. https://www.filmsfrombeyond.com