By Gary Deane
"This is Detroit, fabulous city of untold wealth, of might and muscle, of culture and the sweat of human endeavor and success... This is Detroit, symbolic of America,… pushing its towering smokestacks of industry against the sky... a city conceded to be the Arsenal of America. But now gangsters and organized crime are making a strong bid to gain control of the labor unions so that they can rule the destiny of some 17 million unionized workers. But for the courage of honest union officials, the police, and a political regime of integrity, these criminal elements would already be in control in Detroit. The film you are about to see, ‘Inside Detroit’ shows what has been done and what can be done by men of faith and fortitude to combat this menace.”
And so opens Inside Detroit, starring Dennis O’Keefe as Blair Vickers, an upright union official, and Pat O’Brien as Gus Linden, a labor boss as corrupt as they come. Linden had been put away for five years on the testimony of Vickers but is now out and looking for revenge. His plan is to retake control of the union and to see Vickers dead. Although Vickers has a notion of what's coming, he isn’t ready for Linden’s opening move against him, a bomb hidden in a pinball machine at union headquarters. Vickers survives the blast, though not his brother, Tom. Afterward, Vickers manages to rally, but Linden has more in store for him.
Meanwhile, Linden’s family, as well as his mistress, Joni Calvin (Tina Carver), get dragged into it, which complicates things not only for him but also Vickers. At one time, Vickers had been good friends with Linden and sweet on his daughter, Barbara (Margaret Field) who's never accepted that her father’s a villain. Vickers' personal involvement endangers him further, as the gangster pursues his takeover of the local.
Though Inside Detroit is weighted down somewhat by its separated-at-birth plot line and its sworn task of ensuring justice will be done, several things give this late-period ‘semi-documentary’ noir a proper lift. One is the committed performances of its headliners, O’Keefe and O’Brien, along with that of Tina Carver as O’Brien’s mistress. A minor player in a series of notable film noirs, including A Bullet For Joey (1955), The Harder They Fall (1956), A Cry in the Night (1957), and Chain of Evidence (1957), Carver was often cast in roles equally familiar to Claire Trevor – those as a beaten-down sister-under-the-mink who can only hope that her next trip down the road of broken dreams won’t be her last.
Another is the energetic direction of Fred F. Sears, a practiced storyteller whose credits included The Miami Story (1954), Cell 2455 Death Row (1955), Teenage Crime Wave (1955), and Miami Expose (1956). Sears had a knack for taking lemons handed to him by the studios and turning them into lemonade. All the titles above, with Inside Detroit near the top of the list, are refreshing little late-cycle thirst quenchers. Drink up.
Postscript: “We wish to thank the United Auto Workers of America for their cooperation without which this picture could not have been made.”
