SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Henchman_Number1 Based on a "True Story" the opening scene features a panoramic view of Portland as the narration extols the beauty, culture and incredible atmosphere of the city as a wonderful place to raise a family. Sounds like Paradise but...it seems the town has been overran by murderous rival crime syndicates vying for control of the lucrative pinball vending business. Filmed in a semi-documentary style, Portland Expose reveals the sordid, corrupt side of the City of Roses. The movie follows the plight of local barkeeper George Madison (Edward Binns) as he becomes entangled with the criminal underworld after he agrees to have a pinball machine placed in his tavern. Soon the syndicate forces him to place even more machines and his formerly quiet pub becomes a hangout for the 'wrong crowd'. Regretting his decision Madison decides to fight back after his daughter (Carolyn Craig) is attacked in the parking lot by a syndicate thug (Frank Gorshin). With the cooperation of local officials Madison decides to go undercover to gather evidence to expose the rackets. The movie draws inspiration from the detective exploitation magazines of the era that promised behind the scenes sordid details. The stories were usually presented in a lascivious manner to maximize sensationalism as they followed the crime investigation through the eyes of the investigators. Tame by today's standards, the film pushed the boundaries into the acceptable content of the time. Though it's a fairly typical 1950's matinee programmer, Portland Exposé weaves a pretty fair noirish tale. Gritty and not highly stylized, it features ensemble cast composed of prolific career character actors (Binns, Virginia Gregg, Russ Conway, Lawrence Dobkin, Frank Gorshin, Rusty Lane, Joe Flynn) who manage to make the movie better than might be expected. All in all a watchable B crime flick.

JohnHowardReid Former film editor Harold Schuster started his directorial career with that fine film, Wings of the Morning, in 1937. After scoring a huge success with My Friend Flicka in 1943, Schuster slowly but surely (with time out for Disney's So Dear to My Heart in 1948) worked his way to the bottom. And that's exactly where this mostly indifferently directed little exploitation movie would lie, if it were not for a couple of hard-hitting and somewhat disturbing action sequences involving Frank Gorshin and his acid-wielding confederate, which amazingly sneaked past the usually vigilant 1957 censors.This is a film in which the support players steal scenes from the nominal leads right, left and center. True, the dialogue given to Mr Binns and Miss Gregg is as dull as they come, and neither actor has sufficient charisma to overcome the lethargy induced by their predictably ho-hum lines. It's left to the heavies and the minor characters like Jeanne Carmen's heartlessly seductive Iris and Lea Penman's boastful high society madame to give the film class, although twenty-two year old Carolyn Craig interprets her under-age teenager also with memorable skill. True, she is given some effective dialogue, but even when handling the most ordinary lines, she is such a most unusual-looking girl, she immediately rivets the attention. Director Schuster had the good sense to give her plenty of potent close-ups, although they are somewhat undermined by the amount of unwanted attention he lavishes on the undeserving Binns and Craig as well.

DJJOEINC Portland Expose- solid exploitation B flick -ripped from the headlines and all.We follow a very straight arrow citizen- an owner of a tavern that goes from solid straight shooter to undercover mob tough guy- in 72 minutes we are shown this thru him doing some collections and talking tough to the mob dudes.Ed Binns is decent as the lead.Look for a young Frank Gorshin in the movie's most notorious scene where he tries to rape the underage daughter of the protagonist.What makes the DVD worth the purchase is the commentary by Lindsley Parsons,Jr.- it is a little dry- but very informative about the making of B pictures and the system they had to pump out these movies.Since the movie was exposing the teamsters- they decided to work outside the union for this picture and where actually threatened by the mobsters.The voice-over tends to muddle the picture and even provide some unintentional chuckles.Worth a rental for the commentary track. C+

christopher-underwood Bit late for a vintage noir, by definition, and whilst not deeply caste in dark shadows throughout, makes up for this a little on the sleaze front. Competently made and presented as 'based on a true story' this is quite interesting for its detail on organised crime and its involvement at very modest levels with the help of 'rotten apple' police and corrupt union official plus assistance 'all the way to the top'. There are in fact some surprisingly sleazy moments, including a well shot and fairly vigorous attempted rape. There is also a super body disposal scene involving a train at night with the flashing lights of the carriages lighting up the killer's obvious delight. The central character is, however, just a little too much of a 'goodie two shoes' for my liking and the film does slow to a crawl at times when we have to consider the family implications. Worth a watch.