The Underworld Story (1950)

The Underworld Story (1950) is a journalism and media murder family intrigue race relations noir starring Dan Duryea, and directed by Cy Endfield.

Also starring Herbert Marshall, Gale Storm, Howard Da Silva and Michael O'Shea with Da Silva playing the loud-mouthed gangster Carl Durham, one of his last roles before becoming blacklisted.

The newspaperman played by Duryea in The Underworld Story is similar in attitude to that played by Kirk Douglas in Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole (1951) —  a reporter that does anything for publicity for himself regardless of ethics.

The Underworld Story is a strange name for a film that is largely about newspaper ethics, and which features little about the underworld, which albeit forms an occasional backdrop for the action.

The film noir look never dies — The Underworld Story (1950)

Still — The Underworld Story does feature a complete stock set of journalism and media noir style characters — an idealistic young newspaper proprietor — an ageing magnate who finds his moral values just in time — his rotten son —  and the sadistic and over-confident gangster.

Meeting the Kingpin in The Underworld Story (1950)

Corruption and betrayal are yet integral to the film noir style, and the opening scenes of the movie which show the gunning down of a witness do highlight the film's considerable cinematic qualities, which all the story to unfold — the fact of unscrupulous journalist Mike Reese (played by Dan Duryea) becomes increasingly upset at his own behaviour, in order to find his heart of gold.

Howard Da Silva in The Underworld Story (1950)

There is also a strong suggestion around The Underworld Story that as well as telling this so-called underworld story, we are also in a manner of speaking exposing the aftermath of the Hollywood HUAC hearings which began in 1947. 

On the steps of the Hall of Justice at the opening of The Underworld Story, mobsters kill a gangster who agreed to appear as a secret witness and wound the DA Muncey (played Michael O’Shea). Under suspicion of committing this killing is drugs kingpin Carl Durham (played by Howard da Silva).

DA Munsey blames the shooting on the city’s newspaper and the unscrupulous reporter Mike Reese, who ran the front-page story about the secret testimony when he promised to withhold it.

Mike is fired and announces later that he is blacklisted from other jobs, and so he escapes the city to live in the suburbs where he buys an interest in the community Lakeville newspaper. 

Like other classics of the journalism and media noir style, The Underworld Story unpretentiously unravels a tale of corruption on all fronts of respectable American society and shows the frightening power of the press to influence public opinion.

Gale Storm in The Underworld Story (1950)

Mike Reese: Now you take the last three issues of the Sentinel. I'll bet they're flat. Weddings... Birthday parties... Strawberry festivals.

Cathy Harris: Well, that's why the paper sells. Everybody likes to see his name in print.

Mike Reese: Yeah, that's the theory, but look at the telephone book: they have to give that away.

George Parker: We're too close to the city to compete on news. The big papers sell out here.

Mike Reese: I'm talking about local news... but with a slant. Now if Mr. Woofis for instance were seen buying a drink for Mrs. Toofis, that's something that Mrs. Goofis would eat up, not to mention, uh, Mrs. Woofis and Mr. Toofis. But, if Mr. Woofis happens to be an advertiser, maybe we forget all about it.

The Underworld Story remains cynical about the power of the press, and how people manipulate it and use it to manipulate others.  The story that takes over and demonstrates this is the arrest of an innocent young African American woman, for the murder of a local girl.

The story runs that Diane Stanton, the daughter-in-law of newspaper magnate E. J. Stanton (played by Herbert Marshall), has been found murdered in the woods, and the unscrupulous Mike sees this as an opportunity to sell the story to the city papers. 

At the family home, however, Stanton’s immoral and dissolute weakling son Clark (Gar Moore) confesses to his father that he killed his wife because she was going to leave him. But the pair soon learn that the their black maid Molly (Mary Anderson) seemingly stole her missing jewellery, and the unethical pair of father and son decide to frame her for the murder believing because she’s black no one will believe her.

In the midst of HUAC activity within Hollywood, The Underworld Story is also a commentary on the Communist witch hunts of the era and it’s worth noting that director Cy Endfield, screenwriter Henry Blankfort and actor Howard Da Silva would all eventually be blacklisted.

The 1940s may have been a hopeful time in some people's minds, but it turned out that paranoia was not misplaced, and it's worth wondering if the disillusionment of the moviemakers began to feed into the public, or if it worked the other wat around. One of the great attributes which made Dan Duryea such a figure of noir perfection was the fact that he pretty much always played a charming kind of criminal.

That boyish and rakish smile of his could never be taken away, and yet it seemed to suit the bad guy that he often played. As well as being easy on the eye and expressively fond, tragic and scheming all at once, Dan Duryea did manage to beautifully represent human weaknesses of all kinds — such as the lure of easy money.

This wonderful ability to actualise our human weaknesses made of Dan Duryea one of the all time great noir actors. The 1950s were quite a step forward for America, and if film noir were anything to go by, any optimism that had been fostered by victory in World War II and the technological developments spearheaded by the domestic appliances and the television set that began to form the heart of the suburban image that we know as The American Dream merely indicate a madness at the heart of the progress.

The underworld story at the heart of The Underworld Story is harder to pin down. The initial ideas which pit determined journalist Dan Duryea against his boss, and the hard place that is gang-leader Howard Da Silva seems to be perfectly suited to an evening out at the film noir cinema. 

Catherine Harris: Did you ever rob graves, Mr. Reese?

Mike Reese: No future in it.

When the movie hits the small town newspaper and another set of stories commence, it becomes a different film entirely. The story in the small town concerns the murder of a socialite and the fact that her maid — an African American or as some will have it, a black woman — is wrongfully accused.

The plot-forming coincidence upon which the movie hinges is that it just so happens that the murdered woman is the daughter-in-law of Dan Duryea's former publisher, and the real killer is the local mogul’s spoiled son. 

And additional screen chaos and confusion follows as the actress chosen to play her Mary Anderson is certainly white.

Local town mob innocent 'African American' Molly Kane (Mary Anderson) in The Underworld Story (1950)

Despite this, Dan Duryea's character Reese believes the maid to be guilty and the story turns to something film noir does very well indeed — the corruption of the press. This means playing both sides against each other and ramping up local tensions in an effort to sell papers and make money for himself.

As all of this unravels and Reese begins to see that the maid is in fact innocent, journalist Reese has to make a decision about whether he will selfishly continue or allow the innocent maid to face the deatrh sentence.

The film noir look never dies — The Underworld Story (1950)

One of the stranger controversies of film noir casting has to be why the role of the African American maid Molly, was played by a white woman, Mary Anderson. 

To address this there is the question of why the maid would be a Black woman in the first place since her race is not a factor in any aspect of the crime, or the story as a whole. As the writer Henry Blankfort and director Cy Endfield were to the left on the political spectrum, it's possible that they sought to make a civil rights statement that somehow got lost in the cutting or editing, and in fact due to the casting didn't make it to the screen at all.

Herbert Marshall behind the desk in The Underworld Story (1950)

The results are awkward however in the light of history, and viewers in the next century and doubtless beyond will be looking closely to establish why they keep referring to this white woman Mary Anderson was being referred to in the way she was. That is to say, there is an excess of racialised language in The Underworld Story (1950) and this false note makes it seem all the more odd.

The focus of the feature however the misuse of the power of the press, and the brief exploration of racism, and the overbearing class arrogance are powerful additions to beef up the story. Finally, there is a further aspect and that is the influence of organised crime, which was explored to an alarming degree in 1950s film noir. 

Dan Duryea in The Underworld Story (1950)

As in Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole (1951) journalistic greed leads to injustice and it is grubby sight to behold. In both films, the feisty journalist leads — Dan Duryea here and Kirk Douglas in Ace in the Hole — run their stories perilously close to deadly finales.

For what seems at times like a slighter noir, The Underworld Story (1950) does cram in a huge a range of issues. The small local paper that Dan Duryea finds he can influence does in its way show the power of the fourth estate to manipulate public opinion. At the same time however, we see the capacity of the wealthy to influence the judicial process, as well as the USA's never-ending conversation about racism.

Mary Anderson in The Underworld Story (1950)

If a film noir makes an effort to discuss or criticise the Communist witch-hunts of the House Un-American Activities Committee, these are usually hidden. However the subject is fairly open in The Underworld Story (1950) to such a fascinating degree that the feature deserves some kind of special historic reward.

The subject of HUAC in fact is so apparent that the committee members themselves couldn’t have missed them, and there were quite a few blacklistees involved here. The Underworld Story even goes so far as to give Molly, the falsely accused and persecuted suspect, the same surname as HUAC member John E. Rankin, a well known loudmouthed and declamatory congressman from Mississippi — also beheld widely to be a racist.

Howard Da Silva in The Underworld Story (1950)

As a result of this, The Underworld Story, along with Cy Endfield's other dissentious 1950 movie, The Sound of Fury, attracted the anger of the government, and screenwriter Blankfort, and actor Howard Da Silva, and Cy Endfield himself would soon be affronted and dishonoured by the blacklist.

Despite not being hailed as truly iconic film noir, despite having the lighting to show for it and a fairly doomful and sharp script, there is perhaps so much going on it is hard to capture it all. The story for example, of an idealistic journalist, failing his calling and falling for the commercial and social power the press can offer, would have been film enough.

As in The Sound of Fury (1950), Cy Endfield does appear to be interested in yellow journalism and how it's used to manipulate society, but there is also a redemptive angle too, which is pretty new territory for Dan Duryea, who is used to facing the usual film noir ending, either bleeding on the floor or lead away by the cops. Neither happen in The Underworld Story, which affords a great conclusion for audiences, who can't help but relate to Duryea. 

Dan Duryea, main man of film noir in The Underworld Story (1950)

The angle is unusual for a film noir, but as this opportunistic cynic becomes a crusader for justice, we have a journey of epic proportions to behold and proof again that in the 1940s and 1950s, the truth of the moment was always available and on show in the era's most precious medium, film noir.

District Attorney Ralph Munsey: Take it easy, Reese. Things are tough all over. Pretty soon a man won't be able to sell his own mother.

The Underworld Story (1950) at Wikipedia