The 1952 Organized Crime-Revealing Movie "The Turning Point" Directed by William Dieterle

I think of German actor (Faust, Waxworks, Sex in Chains) turned Hollywood director William Dieterle for such Paul Muni biopics as "The Story of Louis Pasteur" (1935), "The Life of Emile Zola" (1937) and "Juarez" (1939). I guess that "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1941) was a segue from biopics of historical figures to noirish look (though that fantasy lacks the urban setting I consider criterial of noirs). And I had seen a Dieterle noir, "Dark City" (1950), the movie that introduced Charlton Heston to the big screen. Until the final five or so minutes, I thought that too much of "The Turning Point" (1952) took place by daylight for it to be a noir. There is certainly the corruption rife in the noir universe, but the racketeer-exposing John Conroy played by Edmond O'Brien (DOA, The Hitch-Hiker, The Barefoot Contessa) seems too pure of heart to be in a noir film.

The cynical newspaperman Jerry McKibbon, played by William Holden between "Sunset Boulevard" and "Stalag 17" seems a better fit, though he turns out to be rather noble'"noble despite himself as Holden would be in "The Bridge on the River Kwai," and the female lead (Alexis Smith) does get the man she loves most killed, though not otherwise fitting the bill of "femme fatale." The cagy crime boss played by Ed Begley (who would later win an Oscar as the boss of a southern town in "Sweet Bird of Youth" who has Paul Newman's character castrated when he won't stay away from Boss Findley's daughter) ia a menacing incarnation of gangsterism, one who is unconcerned about collateral damage (incinerating a building full of tenants, for instance) to keep his financial records out of the hands of the Conroy Commission.

There is a lot of speechifying by Conroy and McKibbon, but after McKibbon locates a witness who could bring down the mob and some of the enforcers see them meeting, the action ratchets up, first with a chase and then with a hit contracted on McKibbon to be executed at a boxing match. With a spiral staircase in the chase and the walkways above the arena in the second, Dieterle showed that he could be an action director, though credit must be shared with editor George Tomasini (who went on to edit Hitchcock classics Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Norhwest, Psycho, and the Birds, and also edited "Stalag 17" for which Holden won an Oscar) and cinematographer Lionel Lindon (who would win an Oscar for "Around the World in 80 Days," shoot "I Want to Live!" and "The Manchurian Candidate" as well as many "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" television shows.

Holden and O'Brien (who would later be reunited in "The Wild Bunch") were excellent and unhistrionic in "The Turning Point." Tom Tully (The Caine Mutiny) was, too, as Conroy's father, a cop on the syndicate payroll. As in other movies, I found the tall, Canadian-born Alexis Smith (Gentleman Jim, The Horn Blows at Midnight, The Two Mrs. Carrolls) unengaging. To me she looked too much like a horse to be a romantic lead. And her acting chops did not impress me either. She made her male costarts look better, I guess. Dieterle could direct romances (Portrait of Jenny, for instance), but perhaps a large share of the blame for the perfunctoriness of the romance should go to Horace McCoy (author of the 1935 roman dur They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and of many screen projects, including "King Kong") who wrote "Corruption City" (published in book form in 1959), the basis for the movie.

The televised 1950 hearings of the Special Committee on Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, chaired by Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver, showed that criminal syndicates operated in these United States, and Conroy in "The Turning Point" is a local version combating denial that organized crime existed. Kefuaver himself lectured the audience in another 1952 movie about newspaperman's investigation into a local bookie operation and showing gambling being one part of criminal syndicates who had politicians and policemen in their employ, "The Captive City" (1952), written by Alvin Josephy , directed by Robert Wise, lensed by Lee Garnens, with John Forsythe playing the reporter.

Not currently available on DVD, "The Turning Point" can be streamed on Netflix (here).