''City of Shadows'' is a 1955 American

crime film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

directed by

William Witney William Nuelsen Witney (May 15, 1915 – March 17, 2002) was an American film director, film and television director. He is best remembered for the action films he made for Republic Pictures, particularly serial film, serials: ''Dick Tracy Return ...

and written by

Houston Branch Houston Branch (March 5, 1899 – January 1968) was an American screenwriter. He wrote for 50 films from 1927 to 1958. He was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. Selected filmography * ''Once and Forever'' (1927) (also story) * '' The Showdown'' ...

. The film stars

Victor McLaglen Victor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen (10 December 1886 – 7 November 1959) was a British-American actor and boxer.Obituary '' Variety'', 11 November 1959, page 79. His film career spanned from the early 1920s through the 1950s, initially ...

, John Baer,

Kathleen Crowley Kathleen Crowley (born Betty Jane Crowley; December 26, 1929 – April 23, 2017) was an American actress. She appeared in over 100 movies and television series in the 1950s and 1960s, almost always as a leading lady. Biography Early life B ...

, Anthony Caruso,

June Vincent June Vincent (born Dorothy June Smith, July 17, 1920 – November 20, 2008) was an American actress. Life and career Vincent was born in Harrod, Ohio, the daughter of Sybil Irwin and the Rev. Willis E. Smith. Stage Vincent's acting career bega ...

and Richard Reeves. The film was released on June 2, 1955 by

Republic Pictures Republic Pictures is currently an acquisition-only label owned by Paramount Pictures. Its history dates back to Republic Pictures Corporation, an American film studio that originally operated from 1935 to 1967, based in Los Angeles, California ...

Plot

Big Tim Channing is a small-time

racketeer Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. The term "racket ...

who makes a living supplying old, out-of-date

slot machine A slot machine, fruit machine (British English), poker machine or pokie (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. A slot machine's standard layout features a screen disp ...

s to businesses. Gangsters Di Bruno and Finetti are his main competition. He finds that many gamblers are using

slugs Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a sma ...

rather than coins to play his machines. He catches 12-year-old Dan Mason, an orphaned newsboy, using slugs. Dan admits he and all the other newsboys use slugs, winning jackpots to make money. Channing realizes he can drive other racketeers out of business by having the newsboys fill the slot machines with slugs. Channing becomes a father-figure to the boy. Ten years later, Channing has taken over all the rackets in the city and Di Bruno and Finetti now work for him. Dan is going to law school. Dan is adept at finding legal loopholes to help Tim and his gang avoid conviction. Dan is romancing Fern Fellows, daughter of a retired judge, so that he can get at the rare law books in her father's collection. He uses these books to find the loopholes that help Channing. When Dan's background is exposed, Fern makes him promise to stop being a crook. After graduating from law school, Dan persuades Channing to "go legit" (get out of the rackets and into legal business). Dan, meanwhile, opens a firm that supplies

security guard A security guard (also known as a security inspector, security officer, factory guard, or protective agent) is a person employed by a government or private party to protect the employing party's assets (property, people, equipment, money, etc.) ...

s. Di Bruno and Finetti pressure Channing to resume crime, and he starts a

protection racket A protection racket is a type of racket and a scheme of organized crime perpetrated by a potentially hazardous organized crime group that generally guarantees protection outside the sanction of the law to another entity or individual from vio ...

. Channing avoids targeting any firm employing Dan's security service. One of the district attorney's men, Phil Jergins begins to investigate Dan's firm in the belief that Dan is running the protection racket. Jergins pretends to be a

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. Pu ...

man, and is hired by Dan. Jergins nonchalantly gives Dan's secretary some pencils that secretly contain a luminous material. At night, Jergins collects the security company's records from the trash using

ultraviolet light Ultraviolet radiation, also known as simply UV, is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 10–400 nanometers, shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation is present in sunlight and constitutes about 10% of th ...

. Channing learns of the law's interest in Dan's firm, and alerts Dan. Dan is furious once he realizes that Channing only knew about the luminous pencils through his underworld contacts. In despair, Dan (who did not know that Channing was sparing him from the protection racket) decides to close his company and cancel his engagement to marry Fern. Channing goes to the district attorney and confesses his crimes to prove Dan's innocence. Dan relents, and he and Fern marry. Di Bruno and Finetti, realizing that Channing has ratted them out as well, shoot Channing. Channing, however, manages to shoot and kill the two gangsters in turn. Channing dies in Dan's arms, telling him, "When you play with slugs, you get slugged on another day."

Cast

as Big Tim Channing * John Baer as Dan Mason *

as Fern Fellows * Anthony Caruso as Tony Finetti * Richard Reeves as Angelo Di Bruno *

Frank Ferguson Frank S. Ferguson (December 25, 1899 – September 12, 1978) was an American character actor with hundreds of appearances in both film and television. Background Ferguson was born in Ferndale, California, the younger of two children of W. Tho ...

as District Attorney Hunt * Richard Travis as Phil Jergins

References

External links

* {{William Witney 1955 films American crime films 1955 crime films Republic Pictures films Films directed by William Witney 1950s English-language films 1950s American films American black-and-white films English-language crime films