Carrying a 1960 copyright date but with a decidedly 50's feel, the plot, mood and vivid use of locations of this ultra cheap gangster movie shot out and about in Los Angeles all remarkably anticipate 'Get Carter' ten years later.
Aided by excellent photography by Larry Raimond and second unit cameraman Meridith Nicholson and a rousing jazz score by Bill Holman, Bob Wehling's script is crammed with crackling film noir dialogue. Maybe too much; good as much of the talk is it's at the expense of visual exposition, it's rather slackly paced, and the tremendous dialogue is not always done justice by the frequently amateurish acting.
Described by cop Frank Harding as "Rough as a stucco bathtub", co-producer Douglas Wilson as ex-safe cracker Kelly Oleson looks rather middle-aged in the lead, and almost as old as the actress playing his mother. But we meet some hot chicks along the way, hottest of all being gangster's moll Marilyn O'Connor, who we're expected to believe Kelly slept with solely in the line of duty (like James Bond and Fiona Volpe in 'Thunderball').