City of Shadows

"The inside story of a criminal empire spawned on city streets...its laws executed in back alleys in bullets and blood"

Jun 2 1955 Approved 1h 10m
Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

After several years of supporting parts, Victor McLaglen once more landed a leading role in Republic's City of Shadows. McLaglen plays Big Tim Channing, an ageing but powerful gangster who raises young newsboy Dan Mason as his own son. Upon reaching adulthood, Mason (John Baer) becomes a law student, with the covert (and illegal) help of Channing. Despite his checkered past, Mason opts for honesty when he falls in love with Fern Fellows (Kathleen Crowley). This decision ultimately spells the doom for Mason's mentor Big Tim.

Plot

Dan Mason, a twelve-year-old newsboy, is an expert at figuring all the angles; so, when Kink, veteran bartender at Billy's Steak House, catches him winning a big jackpot in the battered old slot machines that belong to seedy Tim Channing, he not only defies them to do anything about it but shows Tim how he can corner the slot-machine racket and, at the same time, put his big-racketeer competitors Tony Finetti and Angelo Di Bruno out of the running. Thusly begins a partnership between the larcenous---but big-hearted---Tim and the precocious newsboy that lasts and prospers while he is growing up. Reaching college age Dan studies law, showing a greater aptitude for finding loopholes in the law than an inclination to uphold it, despite the advice of his law-school Dean and the wholesome companionship of his roommate Roy Fellows, whose father is a retired judge. But Dan meets Roy's sister Fern and his family, and the sincerity and friendliness of Roy's parents and the open adoration of Fern make him begin to work on the right side of the law instead of against it. So, after graduating from law school, Dan agrees to go to work for his old friend Tim...but only if it is honest work. Tim promises him it will be, but then Finetti and Di Bruno show up from the old days and Tim is put into a compromising position..and things aren't going just exactly as Dan planned and Tim promised.

Written by

Houston Branch

Directed by

William Witney

Production Countries

United States of America

Production Companies

Republic Pictures

Languages

English

Awards

N/A

Scores
# of Votes
151
Average Rating
5.6 out of 10
Metascore
NA
Popularity
NA