Forgotten Film Noir: 99 River Street (1953)
The Boxing Noir You Probably Haven't Seen, but Should
You could certainly be excused for watching the first 10 minutes of 99 River Street (aka Crosstown) and dismissing it as just another “coulda been a contender” flick about a down-and-out fighter trying to cope with life outside the ring. But if you walk away at that point, you’ll miss one of the most neglected film noir firecrackers of all time.
Ex-fighter Ernie Driscoll (John Payne) sits in his apartment watching himself on television. It’s one of those “Fight Classics” programs featuring Ernie’s bout against the heavyweight champion three years earlier. Although he’s soundly beating the champ, Ernie gets a cut on his eye, which stops the fight and ends his career.
Now he’s stuck in a dead-end job as a cab driver with a wife named Pauline (Peggie Castle) who’s fed up with his low-paying wages, longing for the finer things Ernie will never be able to give her.
So what, right? We’ve only seen this scenario a zillion times in other movies and TV shows. Then what makes 99 River Street worth your time? The picture is filled with twists and turns, excellent performances, nasty villains, and some of the most brutal fight scenes you’ll see in classic film noir. If you didn’t know better, you’d think you were watching a real fight with real punches: noses get crushed, heads jerk from the impact of gloved fists. We know we’ll see much more fighting, and we do, but not necessarily inside the boxing ring.
Yet the brutality isn’t only physical. Pauline holds nothing back in telling Ernie what she thinks of him, but Ernie takes plenty of abuse from his friends as well. When Linda (Evelyn Keyes), an aspiring actress friend, pleads with Ernie to help her out of a jam she’s in, and Ernie discovers he’s been duped, it’s almost as powerful as a barrage of blows to the face.
It isn’t long before Ernie gets framed for a crime he didn’t commit, and the way the story plays out is both convoluted and engaging. Karlson throws a lineup of memorable characters our way and gives us a prime noir leading man frantically trying to make sense of it all before he loses everything.
Director Phil Karlson’s aggressive storytelling style refuses to allow the viewer to sit complacently. (That aggressive style is certainly on display in the poster below.) Karlson keeps things moving quickly with increasing momentum, a trademark of many of the director’s films. (For more on Karlson’s career, read the excellent article “Phil Karlson and the Cinema of Ass-Kicking” by Jake Hinkson.)
99 River Street rises above the expectations of a low-budget movie and should be included on any list of memorable film noir titles.
The picture is getting a rerelease on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber on August 13, 2024. This disc appears identical to the 2016 Kino Blu-ray, including the same extras, featuring an audio commentary by Eddie Muller. It’s unclear, however, whether this disc is struck from a new 2K scan of the same source material that produced the earlier release. Regardless, if you don’t own this one, you should.
I’ll cover more new releases in my August video in a couple of weeks, so keep an eye on (or subscribe to) my YouTube channel.