Maverick1962 Review of The Big Operator

The Big Operator (1959)

Nostalgic reminder of late 1950's b/w wide screen gangster movies

[7/10 · 31 January 2021]

I loved this picture, The Big Operator, because it reminded me of the pictures I went to see as a young teenager in the late 50's. I remember seeing Steve Cochran in I Mobster at the time and really liked him. He's the good union man in The Big Operator, married to Mamie Van Doren, when he's approached to lie on the witness stand against the corrupt union boss played by the diminutive Mickey Rooney. Rooney, who is terrific, if not slightly over playing his James Cagney style Mr Nasty, has kidnapped Cochran's kid, played by Jay North. He's holding the kid in order to blackmail Cochran into retracting his evidence against Rooney. Ray Danton, Jim Backus, Jackie Coogan and Mel Torme are along for the ride as well as some other famous characters in smaller parts. Torme, or the velvet fog, is surprisingly effective as Cochran's tough little pal. For a world class jazz singer, he's a surprisingly good actor too. The underrated Leo Gordon is on hand for the really brutal stuff and he should have made it much bigger on screen as he was an actor at the time in a similar vein to Charles Bronson. I believe he was also a successful writer for movies. The ending is a bit far fetched but this little B movie gripped me from beginning to end and Rooney and Cochran are worth the entrance fee.