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Pretty much all of his youth and early adult life, Vincent (Lawrence
Tierney) has spent in jail or similar correctional facilities, but his mom
(Lisa Golm) has never stopped believing in him, so she sees to it that he
gets paroled, and sees to it that he gets a job at his brother Johnny's
(Edward Tierney) gas station. Vincent is bitter though, because he blames
everybody but himself that he has spent so much of his life in prison, his
mom, his upbringing, his family's lack of money ... but he especially
blames Johnny, ironically because Johnny proves that he could have had a
choice. Thus Vincent steals Johnny's girlfriend Rosa (Allene Roberts) ... Vincent
has bigger plans though, and with a few men from prison he plans to rob
the money truck that stops by the bank across the street every day. He has
been sharing a cell with someone who was specialized in this, so he knows
one or two things about pulling such a raid - and soon enough, he has got
a meticulously laid out plan tat involves a hearse as getaway car and the
like. Sure, he has to knock out his brother to succeed, and some people,
guards and accomplices alike, are shot dead, but hey, they get away with
the loot, a more than healthy sum that could afford them a troublefree
life just about everywhere. But when it comes to splitting the loot, the
others knock out Vincent and get away with the dough. They don't get far
though, because nobody had planned nearly as far ahead as Vincent, and
police dragnets are almost everywhere. Without any loot at all, Vincent
has become the most wanted man of the country, and wherever he tries to
hide out he's thrown out, until he returns to his mother on her death bed
to ask for forgiveness - but she can't forgive herself and dies cursing
him. Johnny shows up with a gun, and he forces Vincent to drive to a
local junkyard they lived next to when kids where he intends to shoot him
... but then he just can't, and it's all the better, because the police
have soon caught up - to shoot Vincent for him pretty much. In
message and story, The Hoodlum is most certainly not the most
subtle film, and it does contain more than a few clichées on top of that
- but in execution, this film noir from the later days of the genre works
pretty well, it benefits from a subtle directorial effort and fine
camerawork, and it's quite well-cast for a low budget production of its
sort, with Lawrense Tierney giving an especially fine performance. No
masterpiece maybe, but definitely worth a good look at least.
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find The Hoodlum at adultvideouniverse.com
