Bully (film, 1951)

27-year-old Vincent Lübeck ( Lawrence Tierney ) has repeatedly had problems with the law. He was first detained by the police at the age of 16 for possession of weapons, then at 17 he was sentenced to 6 months for illegal entry, and at 19 he received nine months in prison for petty theft. Then, at age 20, he was sentenced to a year in prison for major theft, and finally, at age 22, he was sentenced to an armed robbery for a term of 5 to 10 years. After five years spent by Vincent in a state prison, his case was referred to the Clemency Board. Despite the fact that the head of the prison considered Vincent an incorrigible criminal, and insisted that he be left behind bars for another five years, Vincent's mother ( Lisa Golm ) literally pleaded with the members of the Council for a decision on conditional release of her son. Mrs. Lubeck lives with her second son, Johnny ( Edward Tierney ), who is not happy about his brother's return from prison. Three years ago, for insurance received after the death of his father, Johnny bought a car service with a gas station, and thanks to hard work turned it into a successful enterprise. With the money he earned, Johnny bought a new apartment for the family instead of a house near the city dump, where he and his brother spent childhood, and also supports himself and his mother. At home, Vincent immediately wonders how much you can sell a car service, making it clear that he is only interested in money. Soon Johnny appears with his girlfriend named Rosa ( Allyn Roberts ), who sympathizes with Vincent, believing that he was in trouble and needs support. Under the terms of the udo, Vincent should soon get a job, and Rosa asks Johnny to take him to a car service. Johnny succumbs to the requests of his mother and Rosa, and takes his brother to his work.

Vincent begins to work as a mechanic, but he is clearly interested in this matter. Soon, one of the clients expressed dissatisfaction with his work. Vincent draws her into a conversation, finding out that her name is Eileen ( Marjorie Riordan ), and she works as a secretary in a bank located across the street from a car service center. Vincent draws attention to the fact that collector cars regularly drive up to the bank, unloading bags of money. Lieutenant Burdick ( Stuart Randall ), who arrested him five years ago, calls in to check on Vincent’s work. Annoyed by this visit, Vincent pours gasoline on the glass and hood of the client’s car, who made a remark to him. At home, after work, an angry Johnny attacks his brother, claiming that with this approach to work, they will soon be left without customers. Vincent does not want to listen to this and leaves, and Rosa begs Johnny to be more lenient towards his brother and give him a chance. Then she asks Johnny to give her the opportunity to talk with Vincent and rises after him to the roof of the building. Vincent declares to Rosa that he no longer intends to listen to the lectures, and also tinkers in the mud and stink. He claims that he was released from prison by the same person that he was, only became smarter, after which he declares that he has ideas on how to get rich quickly. In a fit of rage, Vincent smashes a wooden dovecot, then grabs Rosa by force and kisses her on the lips, after which the girl runs away. A few days later, Vincent invites Eileen to a restaurant, discussing the beautiful life that they could lead if they had money. In between, he finds out from the girl the schedule and the procedure for the work of collectors. Soon, near the office of the parole inspector, Vincent meets Marty Connell ( John De Simone ), with whom he was in prison, offering him a case for half a million dollars. In the evening, after leaving Johnny for business, Vincent sets out to Marty his plan to rob a bank, and he undertakes to find the right people for this business. After Marty left, Rosa suddenly appeared, who knew that Vincent was left at work alone. He understands that Rosa came specially to see him, and takes her to the office.

Eight weeks later, Vincent collects a gang of eight members, setting goals for each member of the upcoming robbery. After that, Vincent along with Eileen goes to a nightclub, where they have fun, and then escorts her to the house, where he hugs and kisses her. When in the morning he returns home, he sees that Rose is waiting for him. She asks why he began to avoid her, after which she offers to tell Johnny about their relationship, and then together go to another city and get married there. Vincent declines her offer, stating that she is Johnny's girlfriend and must return to him. However, Rosa, who is tormented by conscience, cannot do this. Soon after this conversation, Rosa rushes from the roof of the house and crashes to death. The police concludes that it was a suicide. The investigator tells Mrs. Lubeck that according to the autopsy, Rosa was in her second month of pregnancy. Mrs. Lubeck, however, does not believe that it could be Johnny's child, since he had a chaste relationship with Rosa. Overwhelmed by grief, Johnny cannot understand what happened, while Vincent claims that "she was a fool, just jumped from the roof."

Soon, in a car service, Vincent met with the manager of the funeral home, Mr. Brockenridge (O.Z. Whitehead ), whose office is next door to the bank. Vincent finds out from him the order of the organization of the funeral, after which the newspaper tracks the reports of unidentified corpses. Finally, he finds a suitable corpse, after which two gang members come to Brockenridge's bureau to arrange funeral services, posing as an unidentified body for his close relative. Vincent’s entire plan is calculated strictly by the minute. Immediately after the funeral, the coffin is taken out to be immersed in a car hearse , which should proceed to the cemetery. Vincent watches the scene from the car repair shop. Suddenly appears Johnny, who noticed Marty near the bank, and, suspecting something was amiss, was about to call the police. Vincent comes to his brother and hits him on the head with a pistol grip, depriving him of consciousness. The funeral procession, consisting of a hearse and several limousines, drives off, and in the open square you can see three gang members, one of which looks like a surveyor, the other looks like a street fruit vendor with a mobile cart, and Marty looks like a businessman. At that moment, a collection vehicle drives up to the bank, and after the guards open the door and begin to take out the bags of money, three armed raiders open fire on them. The shootout begins, during which two bandits are killed and four collectors are wounded, after which the remaining robbers manage to grab money and hide in a car waiting for them. The car is hiding in an alley where the bandits throw it and transfer to a black limousine, which just manages to attach itself to the funeral procession. The police immediately cordoned off the area in search of robbers, but the police at the checkpoint decided not to detain a convoy of cars heading for the cemetery. Having learned about the funeral procession, Lieutenant Burdick quickly finds out through the funeral home that all family members got into one car, after which he puts the procession cars on the wanted list.

Meanwhile, the robbers gather in their lair to share the prey. Most of the gang members demand to share the money in equal shares, but Vincent decides to take the most, and give the only girl Christie ( Angela Stevens ) the smallest share. When Vincent hits the dissenting girl in the face, the other bandits take out their weapons, hit Vincent on the head and, taking all the money, hide. Soon in the newspapers there were reports that all the bandits were killed or captured, and the money was returned to the bank. At the police interrogation, Christie calls Vincent the organizer of the crime, after which his search begins. Meanwhile, Vincent, hiding from the police, comes to Eileen, who drives him out of the house, not allowing him to wait at least two days. When Vincent tries to blackmail her by pointing to her as a gunner, revealing the collector’s work system to him, Eileen takes out a gun and, under the threat of a gun, drives Vincent out onto the street, demanding that he forget her address. At night, the police arrive at the car repair shop, believing that Vincent may be hiding there. While they inspect the building, Vincent gets into their car and drives off. Birdick calls Vincent for a police connection in the car, saying that the whole gang is defeated and he has no chance. Nevertheless, Vincent comes home in search of salvation from his mother, who is seriously ill. However, Mrs. Lubeck, who had lost her last hope that Vincent would become a normal person, accuses her son of causing her father and Rosa to die, as well as four people who died in a bank robbery. Regretting the death of Rosa, she reproaches Vincent for having died with his unborn child, which, as it turns out, Vincent did not suspect. With the words that he can do nothing more for him, and accusing him of having rotten through and through, Mrs. Lübeck dies. Armed Johnny appears, who accuses Vincent of the death of his mother, father and Rosa, after which he forces him to drive and drives to a city dump to deal with him there. When they get out of the car, Johnny points a gun at his brother, but is unable to fire. Johnny is trying to climb a mountain of garbage and run away, but the ripening Lieutenant Burdick kills him.

Max Nossek began his career as a director in the 1930s in Germany , moving to Hollywood in 1940, where the most successful film was the biographical gangster drama " Dillinger " (1945), whose title role was played by Lawrence Tierney ^{[1] [2]} . Nossek also directed the noir films Brighton Strangler (1945) and Kill or You Will Be Killed (1950, also from Tierney), as well as several family melodramas ^{[3] [2]} . In 1956, Nossek returned to Germany, where over the next decade he staged several minor films, after which he ended his career as a director ^[2] .

Actor Lawrence Tierney , according to cinema historian Jeff Stafford, “was a leading actor and character actor in category B films , who had a short period of fame in the mid-1940s when he made an indelible impression in the title role in the movie“ Dillinger “(1945), and further strengthened its status as a menacingly dangerous tough guy and sociopath in two canonical noir films -“ The Devil Hitchhikes ”(1947) and“ Born to Kill ”(1947).” Moreover, “and beyond the screen, Tierney had a bad reputation as a drunkard, a brawler and a person constantly creating problems with a huge list of police drives,” and his behavior very much resembled the “type of characters played on the screen” ^{[1] [2 ] ]} . According to Stafford, "his Hollywood reputation as a bad boy ruined his promising career, and for many months, if not years, he actually remained unemployed, periodically appearing in low-budget films and on television." Already closer to the end of his career, Lawrence, however, “received a certain level of cult recognition” thanks to roles in films such as “ Tough Guys Don't Dance ” (1987), “ City of Hope ” (1991), and especially Mad Dogs (1992) Quentina Tarantino . However, as the film expert notes, until his death in 2002, Tierney “remained an implacable, hot-tempered” person ^[1] .

According to Stafford, the “Bully” was made at that moment in Tierney’s career, when he had already burned bridges at the RKO film studio (where he was a contract actor) and transferred to the category of freelancers . Unfortunately, much of what he was offered was low-budget crime dramas and westerns, and The Hooligan was an obvious step down in terms of quality compared to paintings such as The Bodyguard (1948), directed by Richard Fleischer . In general, according to Stafford, “Tierney was an actor of a limited range, but in his narrow segment he was able to convey (in his best roles) such hatred, threat and barely restrained murderous rage that easily dominated every scene in which he participated, and of course he was no less formidable and terrifying than Cagney , Bogart or Robinson in his most violent manifestations. " The writer and screenwriter Barry Gifford gave, probably, the most capacious description of Tierney's amazing attractiveness in his essay “The Devil Rides Hitchhiking”, which was written during the actor’s life: “He is now over sixty, he is fat and absolutely bald. His giant, sparkling skull is absolutely square. In the television series Blues Hill Street (1985-1987), he played the old police sergeant, and he had few remarks, but his sinister gaze still remained in his eyes, it was piercing to the bone, never giving up. There is no light in this face ” ^[1] .

Edward Tierney was the brother of Lawrence Tierney not only in this film, but also in real life. This film was the debut for Edward in the movie, but in the future he could not make a successful career, appearing only in minor films in minor roles ^{[4] [5] [6]} .

According to Hollywood Reporter on February 8, 1951, Scott Brady , the younger brother of Lawrence Tierney, was initially assigned the main role in the film, but at that moment he was embroiled in a lawsuit with the Eagle-Lion film company about his contract and was unable to take part in the filming ^[4] .

According to Stafford, the film "is interesting for the appearance of Edward Tierney, the younger brother of Lawrence, in his first significant role as the law-abiding brother of the main character" ^[1] .

Film critic Glenn Erickson drew attention to such moments in the film as extramarital pregnancy and suicide of the “positive heroine”, which do not meet the norms of the Production Code , but in this case both of these points were somehow saved in the picture ^[2] .

The site of the American Institute of Motion Picture Arts has drawn attention to the fact that the episode of the film in which Johnny Lubeck keeps his brother Vincent on the fly, driving a car to a city dump, is shown twice - at the very beginning and near the end of the film ^[4] .

Overall rating of the film

The film received predominantly low criticism, which focused on the starring role of Lawrence Tierney . So, Jeff Stafford wrote that "this film of the category In the studio of a poor series lasting a little over an hour, which was obviously built to demonstrate the talents of Lawrence Tierney." The actor "is present in almost every scene, and as such, the film is highly recommended to its fans." According to the film expert, “although this is not a forgotten masterpiece and not even a small diamond of the film noir genre,” he manages to show “Tierney as a deadly and poisonous force of nature in full” ^[1] . As Stafford goes on to say, this is “a moral story and at the same time a film noir with a doomed hero necessary for this genre, which moves down a ruthless path, first seducing and throwing his brother’s girlfriend, then planning a bank robbery and, finally, participating in a brutal showdown with thieves gang. In the end, even his suffering mother, who laments on her deathbed, renounces Vincent: “What can mom do? To go with you on an electric chair? ... All the time when you complained about the smell from the city dump, you were that smell! You are that stink! "" According to Stafford, Vincent’s “deep-rooted, immoral behavior” best explains “his own woeful memory of how he grew up next to a city dump that became a metaphor for his life.” The world owes this guy, and he is going to take this debt ” ^[1] .

As Arthur Lyons wrote, "some people think that Hooligan is not a noir, but an ordinary gangster movie ." However, "certain points clearly send him to the noir category - this is Tierney's sociopathy , his isolation stemming from his desire to betray everyone, including his own brother, and emphasized sexual perversion." According to Lyons, "the fundamental difference between the Cagney-Bogart-Robinson gangster films of the 1930s and the noir gangster film was formulated at the beginning of this picture, when one of the members of the Clemency Council, categorically protesting the release of Vincent Lübeck, claims that he is already not at all the same as old-style gangsters. ” In contrast, people like Lübeck “commit crimes against people” ^[7] . Lyons also notes that “the film suffers from poor production quality” because of its extremely modest budget ^[7] . Dennis Schwartz also rated the picture as “a gangster film that runs like a noir film because of the criminal nature of the main character,” demonstrating “lack of fidelity and aggressive antisocial behavior.” It is noticeable that the film was made on a modest budget and "tells the old story without adding anything fresh, but it is presented strongly." Schwartz summarizes his opinion with the words that this “small film achieves its limited purpose of being shown” ^[8] .

Cinema historian Michael Keeney considered the picture “rather unsuccessful and backward”, while noting “the ingeniously planned robbery that saves the film” ^[5] , and Glenn Erickson wrote that this is “one of the weakest crime melodramas that United took on for distribution Artists in the first year after their reorganization. " Erickson praised the screenplay of Sam Neumann and Net Tenchak as “unpretentious,” Nossek's directorial work as “clumsy” and “done at the comic book level,” the production of light by cameraman Clark Ramsey as “good,” and the production qualities of the picture as “cheap” ^{[ 2]} . In addition, the picture “roughly inserted vintage chronicle shots of the 1930s with police cars and gangsters' actions”, as well as staging an episode with a robbery when “it seems that a dozen people are being killed” ^[2] , do not benefit.

Actor rating

According to Lyons, this role “was probably the only one that Lawrence Tierney could have received at that time, since a serious decline had already begun in his career. His game, however, is appropriately scary, and he was probably still influential enough to introduce his brother into the film, whose career by and large began and ended with this film ” ^[7] . According to Denis Schwartz, “apart from Lawrence Tierney’s well-constructed menacing game, acting is below the expected level. It is Tierney’s game that gives the film vitality in the tradition of old-fashioned gangster films that Cagney and Robinson once played in. ” ^[8] Hal Erickson notes that “the film is ideally matched to the rude, hooligan skill of actor Lawrence Tierney,” while “ Lisa Golm gives the best game as the suffering mother of a bandit” ^[6] . On the other hand, Glenn Erickson believes that Tierney is “replaying in the tear ending” of the picture, and “specialist in the roles of“ helpless old ladies “Lisa Golm is terribly replaying in the role of a suffering mother. The remaining actors are at their discretion. " As for Edward Tierney, he “has almost nothing to do” ^[2] .

• Spencer Selby. Dark City: The Film Noir . - Jeffeson, NC: McFarland & Co Inc, 1997. - ISBN 978-0-7864-0478-0 ref = Selby.
• Michael F. Keaney. Film Noir Guide: 745 Films of the Classic Era, 1940–1959 . - Jefferson, North Carolina, and London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2003. - ISBN 978-0-7864-1547-2 .
• Arthur Lyons. Death on the Cheap: The Lost B Movies of Film Noir . - Boston, MA: Da Capo Press, 2000 .-- ISBN 978-0-3068-0996-5 .

• Bully on IMDb  
• Bully on AllMovie website  
• Bully on the website of the American Film Institute
• Bully on Turner Classic Movies