Pier 23 (1951) User Reviews

The Same Thing Keeps Happening; It's The Format

[boblipton · 5/10 · 29 November 2022]

Here's the second of three movies starring Hugh Beaumont as Dennis O'Brien, a guy who makes his living running a bait-and-tackle shop on the San Francisco harbor, and by doing odd, sketchy jobs. Basically they took two scripts for the Pat Novak For Hire radio show, changed the names and hey presto, you've got a second feature from Lippert. This explains the fact that the same things happen in both segments: Beaumont is hired for a sketchy job, finds himself knocked out to wake up with a corpse and homicide cop Richard Travis ready to fit him for a frame. This impels Beaumont to do Travis' job for him, using drunkard buddy Eddie Brophy to phone him with key plot points.

The changes to the scripts are minimal; Beaumont even does a voice over. There's fun with the casting, talent available on the cheap, including Ann Savage, Mike Mazurki, and Joi Lansing. But it works better as radio.

"Shicker" actually means drunk in Yiddish. Was there some kind on in joke in the perpetually inebriated professors name?

[sol1218 · 5/10 · 20 May 2008]

(Some Spoilers) San Francisco boat shop owner Dennis O'Brien hasn't been doing any business lately due to the sagging post-war economy on the docks. Supplementing his day job as a private dick Dennis get's a lot more work and action, as well as women, that he ever expected in that deary and empty shop of his.

The film "Pier 23" has our hero Dennis together with his constantly drunk companion Prof. Shicker get involved and eventually solve two different murder cases. The first has to do with an escapee from the "Rock"-Alcatraz Island Federal Penitentuary-who ends up dead in a shoot-out at the swanky Nubian Club in downtown San Francisco. The escaped convict was out to get some $5,000.00 in bookie money that the manager of the Nubian Club ripped him out off while he was in prison.

The second murder case involves Dennis solving the mystery of why a professional wrestler-Willie Klingle-was not only allowed to wrestle despite having a serious heart condition but then purposely murdered in the ring by his opponent the guerrilla-like Ape Danowski. It later comes out that Willie was assured by the wrestling promoter Nick Garrison that the "Fix" was in and that Ape was going to throw the match.

In both cases, or episodes, Dennis is constantly harassed and badgered by SF police inspector Lt. Bruger who's more interested in pinning the murders on Dennis, without any proof whats so ever, instead of finding the actually perpetrators!

The film is very hard to follow since you have no idea that your watching two, not one, movies at the same time until its just about over. Dennis is so cool at his job as a private detective that he comes across as if he's totally detached from reality. Only once did Dennis, in all the tight spots he found himself in the movie, show any real fear or emotion. That's when Ape Danowski grabbed Dennis in a python-like headlock almost squeezing the life out of him.

Dennis' good friend and leg-man or the guy who dug, or drank up, all the information for him Prof. Shicker ,who's always chasing out the bars in the neighborhood, was the obviously comedy relief in the movie. Alaways on target with his tips Prof. Shicker's ability to stay lucid, in spite of him always being drunk, and on top of things made him a valuable asset in Dennis' unique and unorthodox crime solving methods.

A Lippert Pictures throwaway...dull, stiff, stiff, and dull...

[secondtake · 4/10 · 2 April 2010]

Pier 23 (1951)

There are so many holes in this film, the best thing about it is it's less than an hour long.

It is set in a unique place, on the docks of San Francisco across from Alcatraz. And the entertainment wrestling is a fun addition, though it comes just a year after Dassin's "Night and the City" which does everything, including the wrestling, that this movie wishes it did. (I saw "Night and the City" last night, purely by coincidence. There is even one actor carryover, the wrestler/thug in both movies played by Mike Mazurki.)

But the man who wishes he was Robert Mitchum (or Bogart, or Widmark) is a clumsy, clunky Hugh Beaumont. Even his role in the movie is nebulous. He seems to just work in a boat shop, and yet shady characters keep coming to him and getting him involved in shady things. He resists, and then agrees, again and again. And he's given a continuous stream of film noir phrases, those clipped comebacks that are great when they're original, and terrible when they are imitative. There are night scenes, guns, and several femme fatales.

But I'm not sure there's a plot to speak of. Rather, there is a series of little incidents that get explained from one to the next, with an occasional smack on the head between. It's patched together and weirdly dull, partly because it was intended to be second string fare right from the start, and constructed so that it could be broken up for shorter television episode broadcast, too. One script fits all? This was a Lippert Pictures strategy, and Robert L. Lippert managed to have a full fledged career doing bottom level movies like this (eat your heart out Ed Wood) and is maybe most famous for helping get Sam Fuller's career going. Fuller directed three films for Lippert for free

But that's "history," and this is a movie, flesh and blood. And you know, writing, camera-work, acting, directing, a lot of things are required to make either a good movie or a good television show, and when you don't have any of them quite right, or to put it another way, when you have all of them only half right, it's rough going. I'd skip it.

The marriage of radio, films and television

[horn-5 · 17 November 2007]

In the early days of television (circa late-40s to early 50s)the makers of many of the cheapjack, poverty-row syndicated series---Guy Madison's Wild Bill Hickock, Reed Hadley's Racket Squad, others) would take two or three of the 30-minute television episodes, stitch them together and peddle them to the small-town and/or b-feature theatre-exhibitors as a "NEW" feature-length film. The film-exhibitors knew better, but most of these films were booked into towns and areas of the country where television coverage was, at best, spotty and often non-existent. Basically, a large percentage of the audience that saw these "films" in a theatre didn't own a television set or live in an area that had a television station. Plus, there was the large-and-profitable overseas market to be tapped.

Exhibitor-producer-distributor-showman Robert L. Lippert took this concept in another direction; his plan was to make three feature films, each of which had two separate 30-minute plots with continuing characters, book them into theatres and, after, they had exhausted the B-feature theatrical-circuit, cut them in half and sell the six 30-minute segments to television. Either as a series or a stand-alone 30-minute gap-filler.

Thusly was born "Pier 23", "Roaring City" and "Danger Zone." Three films in six segments featuring a San Francisco, hard-boiled private-eye named Dennis O'Brien. Made for theatres with intent-to-sell-to television. William Berke---has anyone actually ever seen a billing credit for him as William A. Berke...don't bother, the answer is no---directed and produced all three films with screen plays credited to Julian Harmon and Victor West on all. And each carried a "based on a story by Herbert H. Margolis and Louis Morheim" credit. And where did these "based-ons" come from? Well, each and everyone of them had been "heard" before when they were used on a syndicated radio-series called "Pat Novak, For Hire." Mr. Novak was a hard-case, San Francisco private-eye who averaged getting knocked-out twice in every 30-minute radio episode. Dennis O'Brien maintains that average when he gets his about four times in each of these three films.

If you must

[nova-63 · 4/10 · 29 November 2012]

I like Edward Brophy. He was best playing a mug with a twinkle in his eye. But he is miscast here as the "intellectual who likes the sauce". He just can't make it work. He sounds cardboard trying to play the professor. Likewise, I enjoy Hugh Beaumont. To me Beaumont was similar to Alan Ladd, great in the right role, but with a rather cold screen persona.

Let's be honest, these were made on the cheap and relied heavily on the stars to bring life to very average scenarios. Personally, I think the Brophy/Beaumont team fails. I like them both, but it doesn't work here. Compared with the TV detectives series of the era the Dennis O'Brien mysteries are fine, but if you are looking for a lost gem from the detective genre you won't find it here.

The actual crimes are less interesting than watching and hearing Hugh Beaumont play a toughie!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 2 December 2022]

Dennis O'Brien (Hugh Beaumont) is a private detective in San Francisco. A priest comes to him with a strange request...to meet a man who will be escaping from Alcatraz Federal Prison and convince him NOT to commit murder! Apparently, the priest heard this plan during a confession and cannot tell the police. Unfortunately, the plan goes completely haywire...folks die and the story gets a bit convoluted.

The plot is a bit tough to follow unless you pay close attention. However, I still recommend you see it because this B-noir picture has great style and it's nice to see the Beaver's dad being a glib toughie. It's also unusual and interesting to see Eddie Brophy playing so far against type. Instead of the usual somewhat dimwitted mob-type, here he's an erudite alcoholic professor...with a cool patrician accent! Well worth seeing.

Interesting low-budget Film Noir that is above the usual cut.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 18 March 2010]

This is actually two stories in one film, two days in the life of detective Hugh Beaumont whom you all remember as daddy Ward of "Leave It to Beaver". He first must solve the mystery of a murdered cop whom he believes to be an escaped prisoner from Alcatraz, then crooked goings-on in the boxing ring. Both episodes are tied together with the help of alcoholic Edward Brophy who appears to be an informer along the lines of Thelma Ritter in "Pickup on South Street". It all has the makings of early TV crime drama, but has the crispy hard dialogue of noir, as well as some great period info on San Francisco's docks in the early 50's. In the first segment, there is savagely dangerous blonde Ann Savage (of "Detour" fame), her dark haired sister Eve Miller and a blonde waitress (Joy, aka Joi Lansing) that it might be difficult not to confuse with Savage. Both Savage and Lansing get some good lines (although Lansing's participation is nothing more than a well written walk on), and Beaumont's first person narration is very interesting as well. There is a good payoff for Savage at the end of the first half that wreaks of irony. The second half isn't as interesting. I noticed that the dirty man who sits next to Beaumont at the Boxing match looks almost like Joe E. Brown. Mike Mazurki is the heavy, and Margia Dean is the bad girl here. She is made dark haired, probably not to confuse the viewers with the two blonds from the first half. Edward Brophy, a veteran character actor, changes his voice from his usual squeak to more theatrical. As a drunk who intends to be drunk when he enters the next world, he is the archetype classic film drunk that is good natured and silly rather than dangerous or pathetic. The fadeout with Brophy will either make you laugh or groan, but he milks it for all it is worth as if he was John Carradine spouting Shakespeare up and down Hollywood Blvd. Far from perfect, but filled with bits that make film noir today probably the most sought after classic genre to be released on DVD.

Fast paced, versatile noir with great laidback Beaumont performance

[adrianovasconcelos · 7/10 · 23 November 2022]

Director William Berke - an illustrious unknown to ignorant me - does a good job of keeping this B picture ticking and riveting. To that end, he is ably assisted by Hugh Beaumont, who posts perhaps his finest performance ever.

Beaumont plays a laidback private detective off the Embarcadero in San Francisco, and initially he meets two suspicious sisters, but later he finds out that the real femme fatale is another one, who hangs about with the nefarious Mamakos, alias Garrison, and has in fact taken out a marriage license without anyone - even her hubby! - knowing.

Good and unusually long supporting role for Edward Brophy as the ever philosophizing varsity prof who doubles up as snitch for Beaumont.

The great lumbering Mazurki puts in an appearance on the ring and at Pier 23, the latter proving decisive for the denouement.

Very good cinematography and sharp dialogue for a B pic. 7/10.

Pier 23

[CinemaSerf · 5/10 · 2 January 2023]

Hugh Beaumont is adequate here as private investigator "O'Brien" in this really rather procedural crime drama. Indeed, it comes across as two separate episodes rather clunky joined together. What does link the themes though, is that he always seems to find himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and usually ends up trying to convince folks that he isn't the criminal that all fingers seem to want to point to. This rather dry feature sees him embroiled in a wrestling cover-up for a murder which is completely devoid of jeopardy because that story concludes with half an hour to go! The next sequence sees him trying to persuade a convicted felon not to try to escape from Alcatraz, only to - yet again - get all caught up in some shenanigans that could see him in the "chair". What really doesn't help is the annoying narration - peppered with what they must have hoped were witticisms - that describe what he is about to do before he does it. It is almost as if it were made by a production team with a radio background less used to the audience being able to see what action (activity may be better) is actually going on. Kills an hour, but then so does the hoovering.

Lesser programmer. Hugh Beaumont is Beaver's dad, not really a detective...ah, hum...but Mike Mazurki's always good!

[mmipyle · 6/10 · 17 June 2021]

"Pier 23" (1951) was the third of three Dennis O'Brien mystery feature films released the same year with Hugh Beaumont, each separated at one-half hour so that two episodes of O'Brien solving cases could be had in a quick hour. These were obviously originally planned as a television series of half-hour shows which didn't happen. Beaver's father gets to be almost tiring, watching him get beat up in every episode, chase after broads that nobody would dare have, even as left-over fodder, because they're so duplicitous, fend his way through his live-in whatever ex-professor Edward Brophy's lexicographical bull, and fend off Richard Travis's bad-ass detective cop who always thinks him guilty of murder twice or more during each show.

This one is the best of the three. It's dialogue sounds like an old radio program, though thirties dime novels did it better. Beaumont is still Beaver's dad, and watching him do these is like genuinely trying to make Groucho be Clark Gable. Can be done in a comedy routine, but if played seriously sounds like Groucho playing Carole Lombard and not her husband. This one has Ann Savage, Margia Dean, and Mike Mazurki. Mazurki makes this one definitely worthwhile. I got to see Mazurki two nights in a row. I'd seen him the night before in another film. Now that's good watchin'. He's so good when he's bad, and combine him with Ann Savage and that's some detour. I know: ta-dum.

Average at best. I'm glad I've seen all three and can now give these away. Hey, the three altogether were less than $5. For a Scotsman, that's a bargain with butter.

Undemanding early 50s private eye film

[mrb1980 · 5/10 · 9 May 2023]

Hugh Beaumont starred as private detective Denny O'Brien in three short features in 1951: "Pier 23", "Roaring City", and "Danger Zone". The three were all set in San Francisco, ran about 60 minutes, and had two plot lines, thus could be used for television episodes.

Beaumont had had a fairly long career in B detective movies when he made these films, and was certainly at ease in front of the camera. The plots were all pretty much the same: 1. O'Brien would be called upon to do an unusual job (placing a bet on a fixed boxing match, bidding on a mysterious package at an auction, etc.); 2. Some tough guys would rough up O'Brien and he would awaken next to a dead body; 3. SFPD inspector Bruger (Richard Travis) would suddenly appear and grimly accuse O'Brien of murder; 4. O'Brien would have to somehow exonerate himself. Along the way O'Brien was assisted by his drunken roommate Professor Shicker (Edward Brophy) and would tangle with snarling gangsters and hard-boiled "dames".

The supporting casts were mostly unknowns, although sharp viewers will spot Joy Lansing, Mike Mazurki, Ann Savage, Tom Neal, Raymond Greenleaf, Ralph Sanford, and others. The acting was typical of the era, with the smart, fast-talking private eye, cynical cops, and tough blondes. The primary appeal of these films is of course the presence of Hugh Beaumont, who would become legendary as the benevolent dad Ward Cleaver six years later. Brophy's never-ending eloquent speeches get a little irritating at times, and the presence of Richard Monahan (from the turkey "Untamed Women" a few years later) as a bartender is a plus.

None of the Denny O'Brien films is bad, it's just that they're ordinary. I've watched all three and they are predictable and typical of the era, but they're undemanding and fairly entertaining. You may want to watch to see the Beav's dad before he became a sitcom legend.

Worth It For The Dialogue Alone

[grnwltr-11212 · 8/10 · 7 October 2023]

This film, which seems like two episodes of what would have been a very enjoyable early television series, has great hard-boiled narration from Hugh Beaumont as a private eye trolling on the edges of respectability. In the late 1950s a more sophisticated version of his Dennis O'Brien character would arrive on television in the form of Craig Stevens as Peter Gunn. The director, William Berke, working on virtually a non-existent budget, has squeezed terrific performances out of Beaumont and a supporting cast that worked for peanuts but succeeded in creating a small gem of a motion picture. Enjoy.

Quick paced detective film in the noir style

[oscar-35 · 16 September 2009]

*Spoiler/plot- 1951, Pier 23, The famous detective, O'Brien gets mixed up with crooked wrestling referee, an equally corrupt area owner, and a murderous wrestler over some lost prize money stolen and hid away. Second O'Brien case involves a murdered cop, and a ultimate film noir major element a double-crossing 'dame' play for keeps.

*Special Stars- Huge Beaumont plays hard bitten detective Dennis O'Brien. Mike Mazuki plays the grappler wrestler baddie. Ann Savage plays the fem-fatal in the second case.

*Theme- Life can throw you some curves and some of them are on a bad tempered dame.

*Based on- Radio play of Louis Morheim.

*Trivia/location/goofs- Takes place in San Francisco. Some lost seldom seen film noir of the early 50's. DVD has some nice special features on film noir.

*Emotion- A fun and quick paced detective film in the noir style. Interesting to see and hear the dead-pan but colorful dialog of the detective story. Very reminiscent of TV's fast talking cynical SGT. Joe Friday of "Dragnet'. Lovely to see some of the ladies of these stories get some real meaty roles for them to chew-up-the-scenery over. Fun to see early film of the consummate late 50's TV's sitcom calm dad, Huge Beaumont play another wise-guy character role not seen before but thoroughly enjoyable to watch.