Rent The Lineup (1958)

Terrific - The Lineup review by sb

FILM & REVIEW In the Naked City Jules Dassin took his cameras out of the studio and shot the whole thing on the streets of New York - Don Siegel used the same trick using San Francisco as his canvas. Heroin is being smuggled in using unwitting tourists as carriers but the cops become aware when one robbery/pickup goes wrong and a local cop gets killed. To clean up two very strange bagmen are sent to sort out the mess. They are Julian (Keith) and Dancer (Wallach) who have this very odd relationship- Julian is the senior man whose job seems to be to keep Dancer in check as it’s soon apparent the latter is a stone cold psycho. They go round the city collecting the drugs from the various Oriental gifts but soon things to unravel and the body count rises. It’s a very cold and cynical film for it’s time and Wallach is just superb is the hitman always bordering on boiling point as the Police net closes in……the use of the cities locations are terrifically used and the final showdown is a master class in tension. Cracking stuff from one of the finest directors of his generation. - 4/5