Slaughter on Tenth Avenue | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Arnold Laven |
Screenplay by | Lawrence Roman |
Produced by | Albert Zugsmith |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Fred Jackman, Jr. |
Edited by | Russell F. Schoengarth |
Music by | Herschel Burke Gilbert |
Color process | Black and white |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 103 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Slaughter on Tenth Avenue is a 1957 American film noir crime film directed by Arnold Laven and starring Richard Egan, Jan Sterling, Dan Duryea and Julie Adams. [1]
The film is a story of crime on New York's waterfront. It is based on the non-fiction book The Man Who Rocked the Boat, an autobiography by William Keating, played by Egan in the film. The book chronicles Keating's experiences as an assistant district attorney and as counsel to the New York City Anti-Crime Committee. In the portion of the book depicted in the film, Keating pursued a murder prosecution for a waterfront hit despite widespread corruption that stretched all the way into the district attorney's office.
The title comes from the Richard Rodgers ballet of the same name, which was featured in the 1936 play On Your Toes . The plot line of the movie has no relation to the play, but the composition by Rodgers is indeed heard in the film, in an adaptation by Herschel Burke Gilbert (under the direction of music supervisor Joseph Gershenson) that was praised as "magnificent". [2]
![]() | This article needs an improved plot summary.(July 2024) |
Thugs working for union boss Al Dahlke ambush and shoot Solly Pitts, an honest man who hires longshoremen on the docks. Solly is wounded and hospitalized, looked after by wife Madge, who trusts Lt. Tony Vosnick to see that justice is done.
District attorney Howard Rysdale turns over the investigation to relative novice Bill Keating. As his marriage to fiancee Daisy Pauly draws near, Keating tries in vain to get longshoremen to speak with him about activities on the docks. An intermediary tries to persuade Keating to collude with Dahlke, who issues vague threats after Bill rejects him.
Witnesses are intimidated and discredited by attorney John Jacob Masters in court, and Bill and Daisy receive an anonymous death threat on their wedding day. Keating goes to the docks for a direct confrontation with Dahlke's men and triggers a near-riot. As the dust settles, the men hear on the radio that Solly's attackers have been found guilty.
The year 1957 in film involved some significant events. The Bridge on the River Kwai topped the year's box office in North America, France, and Germany, and won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Jan Sterling was an American film, television and stage actress. At her most active in films during the 1950s, Sterling received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The High and the Mighty (1954) as well as an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination. Her best performance is often considered to be opposite Kirk Douglas, as the opportunistic wife in Billy Wilder's 1951 Ace in the Hole. Although her career declined during the 1960s, she continued to play occasional television and theatre roles.
Lee J. Cobb was an American actor, known both for film roles and his work on the Broadway stage, as well as for his television role in the series, The Virginian. He often played arrogant, intimidating and abrasive characters, but he also acted as respectable figures such as judges and police officers. Cobb originated the role of Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's 1949 play Death of a Salesman under the direction of Elia Kazan, and was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for On the Waterfront (1954) and The Brothers Karamazov (1958).
Sam Levene was an American Broadway, films, radio, and television actor and director. In a career spanning over five decades, he appeared in over 50 comedy and drama theatrical stage productions. He also acted in over 50 films across the United States and abroad.
Tenth Avenue, known as Amsterdam Avenue between 59th Street and 193rd Street, is a north-south thoroughfare on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It carries uptown (northbound) traffic as far as West 110th Street, after which it continues as a two-way street.
Richard Egan was an American actor. After beginning his career in 1949, he subsequently won a Golden Globe Award for his performances in the films The Glory Brigade (1953) and The Kid from Left Field (1953). He went on to star in many films such as Underwater! (1955), Seven Cities of Gold (1955), The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956), Love Me Tender (1956), Tension at Table Rock (1956), A Summer Place (1959), Esther and the King (1960) and The 300 Spartans (1962).
Douglas Fowley was an American movie and television actor in more than 240 films and dozens of television programs, He is probably best remembered for his role as the frustrated movie director Roscoe Dexter in Singin' in the Rain (1952), and for his regular supporting role as Doc Fabrique and Doc Holiday in The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. He was the father of rock and roll musician and record producer Kim Fowley.
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Julie Adams was an American actress, billed as Julia Adams in her early career, primarily known for her numerous television guest roles. She starred in a number of films in the 1950s, including Bend of the River (1952), opposite James Stewart; and Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). On television, she was known for her roles as Paula Denning on the 1980s soap opera Capitol, and Eve Simpson on Murder, She Wrote.Gunfight at Dodge City.1959
Henry O'Neill was an American actor known for playing gray-haired fathers, lawyers, and similarly dignified roles on film during the 1930s and 1940s.
Slaughter on Tenth Avenue is a ballet with music by Richard Rodgers and choreography by George Balanchine. It occurs near the end of Rodgers and Hart's 1936 Broadway musical comedy On Your Toes. Slaughter is the story of a hoofer who falls in love with a dance hall girl who is then shot and killed by her jealous boyfriend. The hoofer then shoots the boyfriend.
Arnold Laven was an American film and television director and producer. He was one of the founders and principals of the American film and television production company Levy-Gardner-Laven. Laven was a producer of, among other things, the western television series The Rifleman and The Big Valley. He also directed motion pictures, including Without Warning!, The Rack, The Monster That Challenged the World, Geronimo, Rough Night in Jericho, and Sam Whiskey. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Laven directed dozens of episodes of television series, including episodes of Mannix, The A-Team, Hill Street Blues, The Six Million Dollar Man, Fantasy Island, The Rockford Files and CHiPs.
Joseph C. Shaughnessy, better known as Mickey Shaughnessy, was an American actor and comedian.
William J. McCormack was a successful New York City businessman of the first half of the twentieth century. McCormack was born in Jersey City, New Jersey to Great Famine immigrants from County Monaghan, Ireland. McCormack began life as a grocer's wagon-boy running errands along New York's West Side docks and went on to establish Penn Stevedoring, one of the most important produce handlers in the United States.
The Genovese crime family's New Jersey faction is a group of Italian-American mobsters within the Genovese crime family who control organized crime activities within the state of New Jersey. The New Jersey faction is divided into multiple crews each led by a different caporegime who oversees illegal criminal activities in labor racketeering, illegal gambling, loansharking and extortion. The Genovese crime family's New Jersey faction has maintained a strong presence in the Northern Jersey area since the early prohibition era. A number of powerful mobsters within the New Jersey faction such as Guarino "Willie" Moretti, Gerardo "Jerry" Catena and Louis "Bobby" Manna have each held positions within the Genovese family's administration. From the 1990s until his death in 2010, Tino "the Greek" Fiumara was one of the most powerful caporegimes in the New Jersey faction.
Boys High School is a Romanesque Revival-style public school building in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, United States. It is regarded as "one of Brooklyn's finest buildings".
Walter Sande was an American character actor, known for numerous supporting film and television roles.
Umberto "Albert" Anastasia was an Italian-American mobster, hitman and crime boss. One of the founders of the modern American Mafia, and a co-founder and later boss of the Murder, Inc. organization, he eventually rose to the position of boss in what became the modern Gambino crime family. He also controlled New York City's waterfront for most of his criminal career, mainly through the dockworker unions. Anastasia was murdered on October 25, 1957, on the orders of Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino; Gambino subsequently became boss of the family.
Slaughter on Tenth Avenue may refer to:
Madge Meredith was an American film actress who appeared in numerous films and television series between 1944 and 1964. However, she may have been best known for her wrongful conviction for kidnapping.