Seems to me the title of the picture should have been saved for a noir tale, what with the inference of a sleazy femme fatale. One could make the case if hard pressed enough, since Anita Ekberg got pushed around considerably, but with the quickly changing venues from New York to a handful of European cities, the pace was just a bit too hasty for a noir treatment. I really dug the opening New York City street scene filled with era marquees and storefronts, that was pretty cool.
Victor Mature puts in an earnest performance as the hard bitten Narcotics Bureau detective on the trail of an international drug kingpin. Fueled by the murder of his sister by the notorious Frank McNally (Trevor Howard), Charles Sturgis (Mature) makes it his personal mission to bring the gangster to justice, even if he has to hop half way around the world to do it.
You know, if you never get a chance to see the Roman catacombs, pretty much all you have to do is tune in to this flick. The tour guide gives you a pretty good rundown on everything you need to know before you ever get there.
The main thing that impressed me here was that wild rooftop chase right after McNally did in his partner Salko (Alec Mango). When McNally lit out on that slanted runway he slid more than half way down before getting back his footing. I had to wonder if it was planned that way or the stunt guy really slipped and played it out to a conclusion. The same with the cops who high tailed it right after him. That was some nifty stunt work.
Well after rolling out the barrels for McNally, Sturgis gets his man, but I couldn't help feeling that the finale was somewhat anticlimactic. I thought McNally was a lot smarter than getting ID'd by a narc detective, and he probably should have just dropped the getaway effort until it was a safer bet. When all was said and done, the pickup alley of the title never came into play, the bad guy got nailed right out in the open.
Victor Mature puts in an earnest performance as the hard bitten Narcotics Bureau detective on the trail of an international drug kingpin. Fueled by the murder of his sister by the notorious Frank McNally (Trevor Howard), Charles Sturgis (Mature) makes it his personal mission to bring the gangster to justice, even if he has to hop half way around the world to do it.
You know, if you never get a chance to see the Roman catacombs, pretty much all you have to do is tune in to this flick. The tour guide gives you a pretty good rundown on everything you need to know before you ever get there.
The main thing that impressed me here was that wild rooftop chase right after McNally did in his partner Salko (Alec Mango). When McNally lit out on that slanted runway he slid more than half way down before getting back his footing. I had to wonder if it was planned that way or the stunt guy really slipped and played it out to a conclusion. The same with the cops who high tailed it right after him. That was some nifty stunt work.
Well after rolling out the barrels for McNally, Sturgis gets his man, but I couldn't help feeling that the finale was somewhat anticlimactic. I thought McNally was a lot smarter than getting ID'd by a narc detective, and he probably should have just dropped the getaway effort until it was a safer bet. When all was said and done, the pickup alley of the title never came into play, the bad guy got nailed right out in the open.