The Street with No Name (1948) User Reviews

Classic Fox Noir.

[jpdoherty · 7/10 · 22 February 2011]

"THE STREET WHERE CRIME FLOURISHES IS THE STREET THAT EXTENDS RIGHT ACROSS America. IT IS THE STREET WITH NO NAME............"

J.Edgar Hoover.

From the vaults of 20th. Century Fox comes this excellent crime thriller THE STREET WITH NO NAME. Produced for the studio in 1948 by Samuel G.Engel it was directed with great care to detail and atmosphere by William Keighley. Crisply photographed by master cinematographer Joe MacDonald, it was beautifully written for the screen by Harry Kleiner and was filmed by Fox in their customary forties semi-documentary style that they had started producing with great success in 1945 with "The House On 92nd Street".

Richard Widmark is Alec Stiles. The vicious over dressed leader of a gang of hoodlums who are terrorizing the city with their well planned robberies and killings. Determined to outwit and bring them down the FBI, under Inspector Briggs (Lloyd Nolan), trains an undercover agent Gene Cordell (Mark Stevens) to infiltrate the gang to find out just how and from who they are getting their information prior to every job they undertake. After gaining Stiles' confidence and becoming a trusted gang member Cordell's life is put in grave danger when the mysterious informer he seeks exposes him to Stiles. The picture ends with an exciting and action filled finale in a well staged shootout between the gang and FBI agents.

The acting is good throughout. Mark Stevens heads a nicely chosen cast as the undercover agent. Stevens, an actor who had some degree of success was a mildly appealing leading man in the forties and fifties. After many bit parts billed under his real name of Stephen Richards ("Objective Burma"/"Pride Of The Marines") he changed his name and with the exception of "Cry Vengeance" (1954) and "Timetable" (1956) - which he also directed - appeared in his fair share of indifferent movies. THE STREET WITH NO NAME was one of his better and more memorable efforts. Mark Stevens died in 1977. Also good to watch is Lloyd Nolan. Here repeating his role as the FBI's Inspector Briggs from "House On 92nd Street" and there's a nice contribution too from John McIntire as Steven's fellow undercover agent. But there is no doubt the picture belongs to Richard Widmark. This was the actor's second movie after his blistering nominated debut performance the previous year in "Kiss Of Death" Here as Stiles he is just as mean but without the Tommy Udo snigger. Two years later Widmark would give what is arguably his greatest performance when he played the racist young thug in "No Way Out" (1950).

As was usual with Fox during this period for this type of picture there is no music score except for a robust march theme heard over the opening and closing credits. Nevertheless THE STREET WITH NO NAME remains a memorable noir and a classic crime thriller.

In 1955 Fox remade the picture as "House Of Bamboo". This was a most unfortunate decision. Its noir antecedents were utterly lost in the totally unsuitable Cinemascope/colour presentation. Moreover, its daft and questionable decision to relocate the entire story to a Tokyo setting makes one wonder what sort of brainstorm Fox's head of production was going through at the time and did he even see the original. Hmmm!

THE STREET WITH NO NAME (William Keighley, 1948) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 9 April 2008]

This underrated noir, efficiently handled in all departments, has rather unjustly been overshadowed by its higher-profile color remake – Samuel Fuller’s HOUSE OF BAMBOO (1955), which I’d watched before but will re-acquaint myself with now thanks to the original (scheduled as part of my ongoing Richard Widmark tribute).

The film (whose title is allegorical) deals with F.B.I. rookie Mark Stevens infiltrating a criminal gang headed by Widmark; the Bureau gave Fox (who produced it) their full co-operation: the studio, in fact, had already made THE HOUSE ON 92ND STREET (1945) in a similar vein and, though THE STREET WITH NO NAME is marked by that earlier title’s innovative semi-documentary style, it actually ties in more with the gangster pictures of the 1930s. Incidentally, director Keighley had been responsible for a number of these over at Warners – including BULLETS OR BALLOTS (1936), which I may well check out presently on the strength of my positive response to this one!; Besides, the hero’s undercover activity and the suspense inherent in such a situation anticipates Raoul Walsh’s WHITE HEAT (1949) – while its scenario, also involving the concurrent presence of a ‘rat’ operating within the Bureau itself, would be replicated nearly 60 years later in Martin Scorsese’s THE DEPARTED (2006)!

At first glance, Stevens looks like an unlikely tough guy but, in retrospect, he acquits himself surprisingly well; Widmark – in his second film – has graduated from sadistic thug to unscrupulous gang boss (memorably introduced, with his face half-hidden behind a handkerchief during a night-club ‘job’, spitting a line at the orchestra conductor: “O.K., Stokowski…dry up!”). The film is also blessed with a terrific supporting cast (including Lloyd Nolan, John McIntire and Ed Begley – all of whom play F.B.I. operatives – Donald Buka being especially noteworthy among the criminals as Widmark’s taciturn but ruthless right-hand man, and only one prominent female figure in Barbara Lawrence as the typically-abused gangster’s moll).

As expected, Joe MacDonald’s shadowy lighting emerges to be an indispensable asset here – rendered even more effective (and realistic) by locations carefully-chosen to fit the desired mood of every sequence. A remarkable outburst of violence at the film’s climax (set inside a warehouse) is equivalent, then, to the icing on the cake.

Few-frills agent-in-peril noir benefits from Widmark, Stevens

[bmacv · 8/10 · 19 February 2002]

J. Edgar Hoover, it now seems, was a mediocre crimefighter but a master orchestrator of his own publicity (and only secondarily that of the FBI). The Street With No Name stands as one of the better films dedicated to kissing his assiduously cultivated legend. Most directors assigned these tasks in the noir cycle wrote off such idolatry as a cost of doing business, clearing it away quickly so as to get on with their moviemaking; William Keighley follows this sensible agenda.

FBI agent Mark Stevens goes undercover to infiltrate the mob in that cesspool of crime, Center City, USA. In the boxing ring, he attracts the attention, slightly open to inference, of boss Richard Widmark, a dapper ("I like my boys to look sharp") cutthroat with a morbid fear of drafts and sneezes. With the aid of confederate John McIntyre, Stevens reports the gang's plans back to the FBI. Alas, a high-placed informant in the police department reports the FBI's plans back to Widmark.

So the movie boils down to the agent-in-peril story. Keighley tells it cleanly and briskly, eschewing the complexities (both visual and moral) of Anthony Mann's T-Men, released just a few months earlier. It's strongest in the feel for Center City's raffish tenderloin, with its fleabag hotels, pool halls and walk-up gyms. Stevens, McIntyre and Lloyd Nolan (as Stevens' superior) give workmanlike jobs with the rather staid roles scriptwriter Harry Kleiner supplies. His few-frills approach reins in Widmark, too, who's always better when he's unfettered and shooting over the top.

The Street With No Name suffers a bit from staying so resolutely all-guy; thus Barbara Lawrence suffers, too, in an underwritten and inconsequential part as Widmark's abused moll. A little more cool yin might have balanced out all that hot, hard yang.

NOTE: In 1955, Samuel Fuller remade -- and rethought -- this movie, using the same screenwriter and cinematographer (Joe MacDonald, now working in color) as House of Bamboo, set in postwar Tokyo.

Catch Stiles Gang. Signed: Hoover.

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 4 October 2007]

This story of an FBI undercover agent (Mark Stevens) who infiltrates the gang headed by Alec Stiles (Richard Widmark) is introduced by a lengthy warning about how, unless the new gangsterism is stopped, three out of four of us will become its victims. This teletype message is signed simply "Hoover," meaning J. Edgar Hoover, President-for-Life of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Everybody knew who he was at the time. He was an anti-crime icon. This immediately raises the question, "Instead of signing it Hoover, why not just H"? After all, a simple "N" was good enough for Napoleon. A second question, not nearly so interesting, is how the hell Hoover knew that 75 percent of us would become victims of the new gangsterism? A third question, of no importance whatever, is what IS the new gangsterism? The film seems to tell us that it has something to do with organized criminals using modern methods of technology but history hasn't demonstrated the case.

Anyway, this is a pretty good combination of the kinds of docudramas popular in the later 1940s, usually directed by Henry Hathaway and narrated by the stentorian Reed Hadley, and the equally popular noir films of the time, all wet streets at night and corrupt cops and blond molls and the secret government undercover agent always nudging up against the possibility of being outed somehow. Still relevant when you come right down to it.

Loyd Nolan carries over his character of Inspector Briggs from "The House on 92nd Street." Ed Begley provides a red herring. Barbara Lawrence is 19 years old, slender, and beautiful as Widmark's wife. Widmark is sort of like his Tommy Udo character from "Kiss of Death," but more organized, less psychopathic, and without the wolf man hairpiece. John MacIntire is Steven's FBI contact in the seedy slums of "Center City." Mark Stevens is actually not too bad. His technique is a little stiff in the boxing ring, but it's Stevens, not a double, who's doing the dancing around. Stevens also does his own flying leap onto the deck of a departing ferry. This is unusual if for no other reason than that, had he twisted an ankle or broken a leg, it would have cost this mid-budget production a fortune. One thing that can be said about these kinds of films: they had great character actors, and they were good at what they did.

The crew were good as well. The photography here, by Joe McDonald, is outstanding, full of distorted shadows and phantom menace, and it's matched by the set dressing. Check out the basement of the gym, and the room where the armament is stashed. It looks positively USED, except maybe for the superfluity of cobwebs that reminds one of a Halloween display in a supermarket.

Most of the plot is as suspenseful as the ending is unbelievable. The thugs prop up the unconscious Stevens so that he can be riddled by the police who believe they are interrupting a burglary. But Stevens' body slides off the safe door and slumps to the floor. That's a pretty stupid way to prop up an unconscious man. Then too, why should the cops riddle the first thug they catch sight of at a break-in? Without a word of warning? And why, later, do they do the same thing to Widmark's character? No wonder they called it "Center City" instead of "Los Angeles" or "San Pedro." But, whatever it's called, the location shooting is just fine. The chief city street -- Main Street in downtown L.A. -- is really shabby. Stores sell old clothing and leather jackets. There are gymnasiums and penny arcades and hamburger joints and flop houses. Stevens rents a room in one of these joints and when he enters it for the first time and sees how dilapidated it is, he smiles -- because it's perfect cover for him. I vaguely remember some of the dialog from the first time I saw this. Corrupt cop on phone to Widmark, outing Stevens: "Do you know a fighter named George Manly?" Widmark: "Yeah." Cop: "You shouldn't." I remembered too the wordless, deliberate pursuit of Stevens by Widmark through the darkened gym, after Stevens has fired Widmark's Luger to get the slug. It's long, and it's utterly silent, except for a heavy bag in the gym, swinging a little and creaking slightly. Nice job.

Nice Gang/Noir

[Michael_Elliott · 30 May 2010]

Street with No Name, The (1948)

*** (out of 4)

A couple gangland killings prompt the FBI to sent agent Gene Cordell (Mark Stevens) into a mob being ran by the hot-tempered Alec Stiles (Richard Widmark). The two strike up a good working relationship but soon informants tip off Stiles and Cordell must try and find a way out before getting killed. This crime/thriller has a lot in common with THE HOUSE ON 92ND STREET, although a lot of issues in that film are corrected here. Thankfully all the introductions and most of the narration is cut out in this film as the screenwriters obviously thought viewers would be smart enough to follow the story without having to have someone tell us what's going on every few minutes. By not having the narration we're greeting with some fine performances as both Stevens and Widmark really nail their characters. Stevens comes off very good as the undercover agent as he perfectly fits the role and comes across smart enough to be able to do everything we see here. It should come as no shock that Widmark steals the film as the snake gangster. There's a scene where he beats up his girlfriend that is so perfectly shot and acted that it really does seem like Widmark is getting a kick out of doing it. He has that certain toughness and coolness that makes his character very cold and he does all of this without a single problem. Ed Begley has a supporting role and does great work with it and we get strong performances by Lloyd Nolan, Donald Buka and Barbara Lawrence. This film has been labeled a "film-noir" but I really didn't see it as this has a lot more in common with the gangster films being released by Warner a decade earlier rather than any of the mysteries or dramas coming from various other studios around this time. The use of shadows will certainly remind folks of noir but that's pretty much it. As a crime film, this here works extremely well because we've got a hero we can care for and a villain that we love to hate. The actual story being told certainly isn't anything too original but it's entertaining enough to work and keep the viewer captivated from start to finish. Keighley's direction is top-notch throughout and he has no problem building up a nice atmosphere that hangs thickly over the film. Fans of Scorsese will also notice a few touches in both GOODFELLAS and THE DEPARTED.

Another documentary style noir thriller from Fox...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 30 March 2007]

Fox was so encouraged by the success of films like THE HOUSE ON 92ND STREET, BOOMERANG and KISS OF DEATH, that it seemed only natural they would pursue this genre for many years during the '40s. The outcome of this pursuit is a film like THE STREET WITH NO NAME.

New hot property RICHARD WIDMARK is given another chance to shine as a sneering villain who runs a gang the police are anxious to put out of business. They send a mole (MARK STEVENS) to infiltrate the mob and get the goods on Widmark--not unlike the situation in Cagney's WHITE HEAT.

While this one doesn't approach the finesse of Raoul Walsh's WHITE HEAT, it's a solidly entertaining piece of crime melodrama given punch by some good overall performances. Aside from Widmark and Stevens, the cast includes reliable Fox contract players BARBARA LAWRENCE, ED BEGLEY, DONALD BUKA, and JOHN McINTIRE.

Based on an actual FBI case, there's some narration in the manner of other Fox films in this genre. Upcoming MARK STEVENS has the most interesting role and does well with it. Stevens is a young actor who never got his full due at Fox, although he appeared in a number of strong films.

Summing up: Well worth seeing if you're a fan of film noir.

Crime & The Appliance Of Science

[seymourblack-1 · 7/10 · 5 November 2009]

"The Street With No Name" is a superior example of the docu-noir style which became so popular in the late 1940s. With its story based on an actual FBI case, real FBI officers taking roles in the movie and the action being shot in the locations where the events actually took place, it's clear that every effort was made to make the end product as authentic and convincing as possible. The result, in this case, is an absorbing thriller which proceeds at a great pace whilst also managing to incorporate some extremely tense sequences.

The cinematography by Joseph MacDonald is interesting because it utilises two main styles. The passages featuring the criminals are predominantly shown in shadowy film noir style, whilst those depicting the FBI generally feature a more bland, high key look. Employing these styles, of course, conforms with the traditions of film noir and documentary film making, however, the symbolism involved is also clear.

An FBI agent Gene Cordell (Mark Stevens) is furnished with a false identity (George Manly) and a criminal record and given the task of getting into a gang which is suspected of having recently carried out three murders in Center City. Cordell uses his considerable boxing skills to impress gang boss Alex Stiles (Richard Widmark) who also happens to be the owner of a gym where local boxers train. Stiles, who prides himself on running his organisation on "scientific lines", uses a corrupt contact in the Police Department to check on Manly's criminal record and is so impressed by the feedback he receives that he invites Manly to join his outfit.

When the Stiles gang plan a robbery at a local mansion, Cordell passes the information back to his colleagues and the FBI and the police jointly stake out the place. The operation has to be aborted however, when Stiles calls off the job after receiving a tip off from his contact in the Police Department. Cordell then goes to the gang's arsenal and locates and fires Stiles' revolver so that forensic tests can be run on the bullet to check if the gun was used in any of the recent murders. Stiles soon realises that his gun has been fired and a fingerprint check that he arranges with his police contact reveals that the gang has been infiltrated by FBI agent Cordell. Stiles' struggle to execute his plan and Cordell's efforts to achieve his objectives, bring the men into deadly conflict in an exciting and action packed conclusion to the story.

Mark Stevens gives a solid performance as the confident and courageous Gene Cordell and Richard Widmark is absolutely compelling as a cunning, crafty and neurotic criminal who's convinced of the need to employ increasingly sophisticated methods in order to remain successful. This shrewd side of his character is complemented by an unrestrained brutality which enables him to be both a merciless killer and a violent wife beater.

The attention given to the different "scientific" methods used by both the criminals and the FBI provide an unusual and interesting additional dimension to the events depicted and suggest that in 1948, these methods were fully expected to form an important component of any future battles between the worlds of crime and law enforcement.

Taut Tale

[abooboo-2 · 8/10 · 15 December 2000]

At first, the docu-drama approach feels like kind of a safety net that prevents the viewer from losing himself completely in this striking noir universe, but the intricacies of the police work were interesting to watch unfold and this is still a strong film. Particularly memorable are the taut, virtually noiseless chase scenes that take place in suitably dark, nightmarish settings, like the one where crook Widmark sniffs out undercover cop Stevens at the hideout. I also liked the colorful low life lingo such as when one of the thugs tells Stevens to "pick yourself a boom-boom" as they suit up for their big score.

Great to see Richard Widmark doing what he does best - playing villains, of course. Few actors could match Widmark when it came to that staple of screen heavies: losing their temper. This guy slaps people's faces with a karate-like precision that's remarkable. And just the way he tells some flunkie henchman he doesn't want around to "blow" is pure heaven. In a role like this, he owns the screen; he's like a well dressed rat always scavenging for his next meal.

I was reading a Cornell Woolrich story about a year ago and one of the characters used a Mark Stevens' picture as an alibi for where they had been at a certain time. Never having heard of Stevens I assumed it was just a made up movie star name and movie title ("I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now".) Imagine my surprise when shortly thereafter I looked up his name and found out that there certainly was such an actor, a borderline leading man who apparently enjoyed some level of stardom during a 30 or so film career. Judging by his appearance here, he's a good, functional actor, though he has the sort of face it's easy to forget. Which is probably why he was selected for this part, as he isn't asked to carry the film (he's off screen for about half the running time) and as an undercover agent he's naturally required to blend in with his new environment. He does that quite well.

Classic Noir with intrigue, suspense , twists , violence and great acting

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 6 November 2021]

Inspector Briggs : Lloyd Nolan enlists in the state organization to rookie FBI agent Gene Cordell : Mark Stevens, as he is assigned to a dangerous mission : to infiltrate himself into a nasty band led by an evil mobster named Styles : Richard Widmark . Things go awry when a corrupt mole at the police station is delivering information to the gangsters. The FBI Goes Undercover To Nab A Cold-Hearted Killer in This All-Star Crime Thriller With A Unique Storytelling Twist!. Counter Attack! A New Era Of Violence In The Making... A New Kind Of Gangster On The Loose! Here's The Real-Life Drama Of The FBI Counter-Attack Where Law And Order Break Down!

Classy Noir with thrills, supenseful , tension, plot twists and shady characters . Including a semi-documentary style at times , in fact the film's opening prologue states: ''The motion picture you are about to see was adapted from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Wherever possible, it was photographed in the original locale and played by the actual F. B. I. Personnel involved¨. Stars Mark Stevens providing a good acting as the new FBI agent, along with Loyd Nolan as a tough chief who leads the investigations against the ominous criminal organization. But the best acting goes to the great Richard Widmark, giving an extraordinary show as a ruthless gangster with sadistic tendency by killing , hitting enemies and mistreating his girlfriend, the beautiful Barbara Lawrence. The Street with No Name(1948) is one of three consecutive Richard Widmark Noir films where he performed an evil gangster along with Kiss Of Death and Road House. They're well acccompanied by a remaining and effective support cast , such as : John McIntire, Ed Begley, Howard Smith, Donald Buka, Lane Chandler , Howard Smith , and Joseph Pevney , subsequently a notorious filmmaker .

It contains an atmospheric cinematography in black and white with plenty of lights and shades by Joseph MacDonald , who along with Nicolas Musuruca , John Alton and John Seitz are the best cameramen that worked in the Noir Film genre . The picture was competently directed by William Keighley. This filmmaker was expert on Noir as proved in Each dawn I die, Ladies they talk about, G Men, Bullets and ballots and The Street with no name . Rating : 7/10 . Better than average.

Inspector Briggs Solves Another

[bkoganbing · 9/10 · 31 December 2005]

The success of The House on 92nd Street set a whole new trend of film making for 20th Century Fox. For the rest of the forties, that studio had a lot of success with a certain kind of documentary/noir type film.

In The Street With No Name, Lloyd Nolan repeats his characterization of FBI inspector George Briggs. Briggs, who used an undercover operative in The House on 92nd Street, uses another one to track down a gang of thieves in the mythical Center City in midwest USA.

The undercover guy is Mark Stevens and the gang he finds an infiltrates is led by Richard Widmark in his second film. Widmark's not a psycho like he was in Kiss of Death, but he's just as mean and vicious.

Widmark also has a pipeline into the local police and a real cute gimmick in recruiting members for his gang. It's a race against time for Stevens to track down the informer before he's informed on. Director Bill Keighley keeps the suspense at a fever pitch in this one.

Keighley also has a good feel for the flavor of the seamy world of Center City where Widmark operates from. This is noir at it's best.

What's in a name anyway

[sol1218 · 7/10 · 20 May 2010]

***SPOILERS*** Back on the screen after busting a Nazi spy ring FBI Inspector George Briggs, Llyod Noland, is now on the hunt for a crime ring in Center City that's using other peoples identities to commit their many violent crimes. Rolling or robbing unsuspecting men or transients in the skid row section of town of their drivers licenses and social security cards these no good rats rob banks and fancy night clubs in some cases gunning down innocent people and then dropping their identity cards thus implicating them in crimes that they didn't commit!

It's when the gang robbed a local bank and gunned down the bank's security guard that they made the biggest mistake in their lives by having the FBI, in that bank robbery is a federal offense, put on the case. Getting FBI Agent Gene Cordell, Mark Stevens, to go undercover as a bum on Center City's skid row the FBI, or his boss Inspt. Briggs, hopes he'd get himself recruited inside the crime ring and finds out not just how it operates but who's in charge of it. The FBI also provides Cordell, now calling himself George Manly, with a phony rap sheet showing how good he is in not only committing major and violent crimes but also being able to get off being convicted in committing them.

In no time at all Cordell/Manley's gets himself noticed by the Center City mob boss Alex Stiles (Richard Widmark) who, by having his boys lift his phony social security card, knows a good and successful hood when he sees one. Or better yet his rap sheet provided to Stiles by a member high up in the city's police department. Slowly gaining his boss-Stiles-confidence as an effective and loyal hood Manley also starts to get the goods or evidence on Stiles and his gang in a number of violent crimes that they committed all over Center City that can put them away for life; and in Stiles case in the electric chair. The big problem for Manley/Cordell is that if he's ever caught by or exposed, as an FBI Agent, by Stiles' gang he'll end up being their latest murder victim!

***SPOILERS*** Nowhere as good at the earlier FBI movie, also staring Llyod Noland as Inspector George Briggs, "The House on 92nd Street" the film "Street With no Name" has the FBI now involved with just garden verity American criminals who, unlike the Nazis and Soviets, are anything but a threat to the nations existent or even national security. The most interesting thing in the movie is that the involvement of local police, never the FBI, corruption that's by far more effective for the Stiles Mob then anything else in the film. With the mobbed up police officials, or official, actively aiding the Stiles Mob in their recruitment of local hoodlums into their ranks the Stiles Mob wouldn't have been as effective as it was in committing and getting away with its many crimes in the movie! It's in uncovering the mole in the Center City Police Department that all the efforts of the FBI together with undercover FBI Agent Cordell and his back up man Cy Gordon, John MaIntire, who ended up almost getting knifed to death by one of Stiles hoods the knife wielding psycho Shivvy played by Donald Buka, paid off!

***MAJOR SPOILER*** The one thing that bothered me about the film is just how unprofessional the local police and possibly even the FBI agent acted in the movie's final sequence. In them not even bothering to arrest and apprehend the bad guys but mindlessly gunning them down, when they were in no way a threat to them, like a bunch of Dirty Harry's who shoot first and asked questions later. It was as if the police & FBI just wanted to save the state and Federal Government the both money and trouble of trying them!

Richard Widmark at his nastiest best

[chris_gaskin123 · 9/10 · 15 November 2005]

The Street With No Name was one of Richard Widmark's first movie roles and he plays a similar role in this as he did in Kiss of Death. He certainly plays a nasty piece of work here and is also a wife-beater.

It is told in semi-documentary style and shot well in black and white, is very atmospheric and has a good music score too.

Also in the cast are Mark Stevens, Lloyd Nolan, Barbara Lawrence and John McIntire (Wagon Train). Great parts from all.

The Street With No Name is worth checking out if you get the chance. Great stuff.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.

A cabbie saves the day

[AAdaSC · 7/10 · 20 March 2011]

Gene (Mark Stevens) infiltrates a gang led by Alec (Richard Widmark) with the intention of discovering who is responsible for a series of recent shootings and robberies. Gene makes his reports to Inspector Briggs (Lloyd Nolan) and has an undercover contact to help him, Cy (John McIntire). However, Alec suspects that one of his gang is betraying him and he then gets a phone call which confirms things to him....

This is a boys film about gangsters. The only woman with any kind of role - Judy (Barbara Lawrence) appears briefly and gets slapped about - I'm not sure her role has any relevance. The story is good and both the main characters, Mark Stevens and Richard Widmark, play their roles convincingly. A slight irritation is the narrator at the beginning - I wished he would just shut up and let the film take its course. Similarly, there are a few overlong sequences of police checking but overall it's a good film. However, it would have all ended differently were it not for an unsung hero, a cab driver (Charles Tannen).

not too much here

[deng43 · 5/10 · 12 October 2005]

OK, everyone seems to think widmark is the cat's meow in this one. well, he is the standout, but he is just doing what widmark does, and he does it better in other,better films. there isn't a lot more to say about this one. it is not noir. yeah, it gets dark and gives you the shadows now and then, but it just ain't noir. the film was either constrained by the censors to explain, over and over, why this picture needed making for 'public education' - thus the incessant monotone, droning voice-over, or it was simply made as overt propaganda. either way it is simply a docu-style film about cops getting the bad guys. nothing new and exciting here. for its time it might have been something, but that time has come and gone and the film is pretty flat.

Richard Widmark & Mark Sevens in a Suspenseful Semi-Documentary

[Kalaman · 27 October 2003]

"The Street with No Name" is an effective and very suspenseful noir with semi-documentary techniques that are reminiscent of those by Henry Hathaway. Directed by William Keighley, an able action director ("G-Men", "Each Dawn I Die"), it stars Richard Widmark as the creepily murderous mob boss Stiles and Mark Stevens as the innocent looking FBI agent in peril. The film often feels like a painfully dated propaganda for the FBI and its ingenious ways of infiltrating a crime ring after a murder of two innocent people. But the realistic location shooting and the presence of Widmark & Stevens make it watchable.

Luger love

[ctomvelu1 · 6/10 · 9 September 2010]

Man, where do they dig up these golden moldies? A 1948 pre-television era programmer, STREET is the story of the FBI infiltrating a gang of robbers who have graduated to murder. It is told In semi-documentary fashion and uses a voice-over, which today makes it look absolutely hilarious, as if we were watching one of those 1950s duck-and-cover Cold War shorts. But when this baby finally gets going, it really gets going thanks to Richard Widmark as the incredibly nasty and nefarious head of the gang. Mark Stevens, an Alan Ladd lookalike without the acting talent, plays the FBI agent who infiltrates the gang. There are some very silly shots of Stevens running here and there, while being tailed by the bad guys the whole time, as he makes contact with his boss (who else but Lloyd Nolan) and other FBI agents. Widmark, who is superb as the chief bad guy, has put together a gang that acts like the East Side Kids in suits and ties. They're about as menacing and scary as -- well, they're not menacing or scary at all. Some decent location photography for the time. An historic curiosity.

Semi-documentary adapted from actual FBI files!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 13 December 2017]

NOTES: William Keighley, Best Director of 1948, for The Street With No Name. - Photoplay Magazine Gold Medal Ward. Locations: Los Angeles, California; Washington, D.C. Filming completed: 7 March 1948. Re-made in 1955 as House of Bamboo.

COMMENT: Semi-documentary adapted from actual FBI files, shot, wherever possible, in the actual locations and using as many as possible of the actual FBI personnel - so says the Foreword.

Of course, when it is boiled down, very few members of the FBI are actually employed in the film, except in newsreel-like shots of the laboratory and fingerprint filing department. Louis DeRochemont didn't produce this one, so it seems likely that a great many of the dialogue scenes were lensed in the studio. One tell-tale evidence of this is the quality of the photography - immaculately smooth and polished with attractively glossy blacks and deep contrasts in what seem to be the studio scenes, whereas the photography is much more rough and ready in what are obviously actual location exteriors (the Center City streets, the ferry terminal). One exception is the climax in the factory (it certainly looks like an actual factory), which is beautifully photographed with noirish, deep-etched, atmospheric lighting.

Another clue is that Keighley's direction tends to be more meticulous, more stylish and more polished than other Fox semi-documentary productions like Boomerang and House on 92nd Street.

Yet another clue is that the script is more obviously an entertainment subject than a straight documentary recreation of actual events. Take the business of disguising the police informant for instance and then pointing a blatantly obvious finger at the police chief, glasses glinting evilly and face twitching with exaggerated nervousness, as he races off to make telephone calls at important points in the plot. What a cop-out when it is revealed he is not the person responsible and no attempt whatever is made to explain his previous odd behavior and irrational mannerisms!

While Reed Hadley still handles the narration, the film is only a semi-documentary on the surface. But who cares? Two thrilling action scenes will thrill the fans, and Widmark's followers will not be disappointed.

solid film from Fox

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 10 March 2021]

Richard Widmark stars with Mark Stevens, John McIntyre and Ed Begley in "The Street with No Name" from 1948. Having made such a splash as Tommy Udo, Fox wanted to continue cashing in on Widmark as a bad guy. And let's face it, he played them well.

I expected this to be one of those dry docudramas that rose up in the late '40s and '50s. It did start that way, but then turned into an exciting and interesting story. The FBI becomes involved with bringing a gang of murdering thieves, led by Alec Stiles (Widmark), to justice. To do this, they send in a plant, Gene Cordell (Stevens).

Stiles sees someone he thinks might fit in with his gang and asks a mole in the police organization to check him out. In this way, he's able to get the FBI records. "Gene Cordell" becomes "George Manly" and is drafted into the Stiles group.

When a plan for a robbery is thwarted due to a tipoff, Stiles begins to think someone in his group is a snitch.

Good drama that holds attention.

Another stellar Widmark performance

[DJJOEINC · 10/10 · 20 May 2007]

The Street With No Name -an excellent film noir from Fox- featuring a charismatic Richard Widmark as the leader of the Stiles gang.I saw most of the elements of this movie earlier this month when I saw House of Bamboo which lifted several parts of this plot and transported them to post WWII Japan.This movie dispenses with the trite romance that threatened to throw it's remake off the rails and is a straight FBI v the bad guys movie- mixing tons of location shooting with stock footage(like another Fox film House on 92nd Street that also featured Lloyd Nolan as agent Briggs) this movie manages to capture a vivid and raw underworld that draws the viewer in. The chase scenes in this movie are well done and the use of minimalistic sound and shadows combine to make a memorable movie. The DVD has commentary by film historians and is worth renting and worth owning if you like Film Noir flicks . A+

Good Police Story

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 24 November 2007]

In Center City, a housewife is murdered in a night-club by a gang of thieves. When a security guard of a bank is killed by the same gun during a heist, the crime becomes a federal offense under FBI jurisdiction. When the prime suspect is released and executed in the same night, FBI Inspector George Briggs (Lloyd Nolan) recruits the rookie agent Gene Cordell (Mark Stevens) to follow the last paths of the victim undercover in the identity of George Manly. Gene meets the powerful gangster Alec Stiles (Richard Widmark) in a gymnasium, and later he is invited to join his gang. Working with his also undercover liaison Cy Gordon (John McIntire), Gene finds evidences to incriminate Stiles. However, he discovers also that somebody from the precinct is feeding Stiles with classified information.

The beginning of "The Street with No Name" is frustrating, actually a FBI (and J. Edgar Hoover) propaganda in a documentary style. However, the development of the story is good, with great performances and a magnificent cinematography in black and white. The conclusion is also disappointing and totally unbelievable. Harry Kleiner spares Gene Cordell in a silly and unsatisfactory resolution of a suspenseful story. The plot would be credible is Gene was shot in the end. I do not understand why the genre "film-noir" is listed in IMDb for this typical police story. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Rua Sem Nome" ("Street Without Name")

Great crime movie, but barely film noir

[gbavedas77 · 8/10 · 1 October 2004]

I viewed The Street With No Name for the first time in a long time last night and it was as exciting as the first time I watched it---What a great movie! Based on real FBI files and shot on location where possible: Awesome!!! It's an early Donnie Brosco with a very dark, wonderful twist. The movie is a statement on corruption and just how hot it can get for the person/people trying to bring down a very powerful, influential criminal gang of thugs. While the movie does play on the "good guys not being so good" element of film noir, the genre as a whole is just as much about how the movie is shot as it is about characters, and how this movie was shot is where this film falls short of being film noir. While the movie is a very dark crime movie and a lot of the scenes are filmed outdoors on rainy nights, the movie merely gives a nod to the lighting/shadowing aspects of film noir as there are quite a few day scenes and/or scenes that are shot in very well lit rooms (i.e. the boxing gym, the FBI offices, etc.). Furthermore, getting back to characters, this movie is missing one key element if it is to be considered film noir...Aside from the lighting, how women are portrayed in this film also causes it to fall far short of film noir: I won't give up the details, but watch the movie and you'll see what I mean if you know about the roll a woman should play in a noir film. Finally, Although I liked his part in The Kiss Of Death a little more---boy was he evil in that movie--- Richard Widmark does a great job in this, one of his earlier films, and the rest of the actors do a very competent job in playing their parts as well. An 8-8.5 in my book: A great movie, but i don't know if it should be considered film noir.

Another visually stunning quasi-documentary from Fox...with Richard Widmark!

[secondtake · 7/10 · 19 March 2010]

The Street with No Name (1948)

Lloyd Nolan appears as George Briggs, FBI agent (exactly as he did in Henry Hathaway's 1945 House on 92nd Street), and again, we see the FBI steadfastly solve a crime. This time it isn't that largest of themes, the atom bomb, but a more routine and gripping one, robbery and murder. Short parts of the film are basic FBI training dramatizations (well done, but a little undramatic), and there is sometimes the inevitable omniscient narrator, a little heavyhanded, but the rest of the film cooks along really well. Watch for some great noir scenes, including an edgy shootout in a factory.

Most interesting is the presence of Richard Widmark (in his second film after after Hathaway's Kiss of Death). He is an interesting addition to any movie, from snarling bad guy in Kiss to navy officer in The Bedford Incident. The plot moves at a good clip, and the mayhem compounds as the FBI gradually builds leads (and uses its huge resources), and then the straight drama gets going, and the movie takes off. There are some great night shots, and once the lead agents get out on their own in the layered jazz of the city, it gets edgy and pretty exciting. It never becomes something completely self-sustaining and special, however, due to the need to explain the FBI's tireless and all too flawless efforts.

Director William Keighley had an uneven career, but some high points including the legendary Robin Hood of 1938. Street with No Name pulls together a lot of great scenes, from sleazy hotel rooms to a boxing gym. I enjoyed this a lot more than the seemingly similar (in budget and intent) House on 92nd Street (also 20th Century Fox). You'll notice that there is a lot of trading and overlap of talent in these Fox films, and these are basically B- movies that have the hook of actual FBI promotion built in. Efficient stuff, made for a quick appearance and some short term money (the directors knew these were not classics).

Because we know the FBI will steadfastly succeed, a certain suspense is removed. But maybe that's comparing it to classics like Fox's Kiss of Death, which isn't fair. The Street with No Name is sometimes dazzling, and definitely a qualified pleasure.

intoxicating

[christopher-underwood · 8/10 · 1 August 2008]

Impressive documentary style noir with a commanding performance by Richard Widmark. Apparently utilising real cops, FBI and internal and external locations, this is a most involving and believable little thriller. The opening is a bit dated with it's 'raise the flag' and breast beating stance in the name of J Edgar Hoover, but once this gets going it is really intoxicating. The night streets of 'skid row' are dripping with shadows as one character after another slips in and out of doorways to pool house or strip joints. There is a major sequence in a boxing gym with a couple of fights in progress and training going on around whilst a bunch of hoods take and place bets on this and that. Good tale, very well told and beautifully photographed.

This hymn to the FBI has its moments, thanks to Richard Widmark and some grubby Los Angeles locations

[Terrell-4 · 6/10 · 30 January 2008]

The only Washington bureaucrat I've ever heard of who could strike fear into the hearts of gangsters, suspected Commies and U.S. presidents alike was J. Edgar Hoover. Even when he was wearing a house-dress while cleaning his home, he must have been a fearsome presence. The Street With No Name is, like The House on 92nd Street filmed three years earlier, a semi-documentary hymn to the house that Hoover built, reverently produced by Darryl Zanuck and complete with the equivalent of organ music (a stirringly patriotic dum- de-dum film score) and a heavenly chorus (one of those stentorian voice-overs that Reed Hadley used to do so well). However, unlike The House on 92nd Street, which now seems dated and cringingly naive, The Street With No Name contains elements that hold up fairly well...but you have to get past all that FBI worship, which is difficult to do.

Alec Stiles runs a smart, murderous gang which has moved from numbers to gambling to heists, and along the way has started to kill those who get in its way. Gene Cordell is an FBI agent who is ordered to go undercover, work his way into the gang, earn Stiles' confidence, and then blow the whistle. Stiles is no dummy but Cordell, posing as a tough drifter named George Manley, pulls it off. Life gets dangerous for Cordell when an informer in the police department tips off Stiles. Stiles has to call off a major robbery at the last minute, and then sets out to identify the rat. He doesn't know it's Manley, but he knows it has to be someone in his gang. It all comes together in a tough, murderous shoot-out. Sound a little like House of Bamboo? It should. House of Bamboo, located in Tokyo and with Robert Stack in the Cordell role and Robert Ryan in Stiles' shoes, was based on The Street With No Name.

What's good about The Street With No Name? Mainly, the look of the film. Most of it was shot in grubby Los Angles locations, often at night, with damp streets and harsh lighting. The crummy, second-floor hotels, the sweaty boxing center (you can pay 25-cents and watch two losers pound each other for three rounds), the deserted factory, the night-time ferry building...all look awful, which means they look great. Alec Stiles' wife, played by Barbara Lawrence, is a fine noir dame, full of whiny, petulant sexiness. Two members of Stiles' gang also make an impression, Donald Buka as Shivvy, Stiles' right-hand man who never seems happy and prefers a knife, and Joseph Pevney as Matty, always grinning, who loves blondes and would turn in his own mother. Richard Widmark as Stiles gives the movie its energy. This was Widmark's second movie, a year after creating a vivid Tommy Udo in Kiss of Death. There's a good deal of Udo's menace in Stiles, but Widmark makes him a lot smarter. We'd be negligent if we didn't also give credit to Alec Stiles' nasal inhaler. Stiles has a thing about fresh air and germs; he uses his nasal inhaler the way some children use their fingers.

But then there are the not-so-good things. The movie is constantly interrupted with scenes that show how steadfast and resourceful the FBI is, especially with all their new-fangled technical resources in Washington. Every time we stop to see these FBI resources in action (ordered by Lloyd Nolan, reprising his role as George Briggs from The House on 92nd Street), the movie stops, too. The voice-over and the grandiose FBI music have the same effect. Another major defect is Mark Stevens as Gene Cordell/George Manley. Stevens was a good- looking B-level leading man, but a limited actor without much screen presence. This is, in my view, the same fatal flaw in House of Bamboo when Robert Stack was cast as the good-guy tough guy. Neither actor is believable. They drain tension. Fortunately, Widmark and Ryan by the power of their performances still make the two movies interesting.

I can't think of too many actors who were able to parley creepiness into major leading-man stardom. Widmark, with his skull-like face and easy giggle, is not a guy I would have bet on to be a serious leading man for the next 25 years. It shows, I suppose, that even in Hollywood talent sometimes counts for a lot.

Distinctly middling

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 15 May 2022]

A distinctly middling noir effort, with a fairly interesting storyline but lacking in sufficient atmosphere and suspense to make it one of the better ones of its genre. This one is most notable for featuring a typical charming Richard Widmark in a bad guy role and he certainly makes the most of it, similar to Attenborough in BRIGHTON ROCK.