Party Girl (1958)
Directed by Nicholas Ray

Film Review

With Party Girl, director Nicholas Ray makes a decent stab at rekindling the cordite-fragranced magic of classic 1930s gangster films such as Little Caesar (1931), The Public Enemy (1931) and Scarface (1932).  By the late 1950s, the censorship rules in Hollywood had relaxed a little and Ray was able to offer up a more graphic depiction of gangland violence than most American films of the '40s and '50s, although the film still feels pretty tame compared with the pre-Code era crime films of the early 1930s.  The plot is unlikely to win many awards for originality but Ray makes the most of it, aided and abetted by his charismatic star actors, Robert Taylor and Cyd Charisse.  Beautifully shot in CinemaScope and colour, Party Girl has a very different feel to Ray's earlier black and white films noirs - They Live By Night (1948), On Dangerous Ground (1952) - but it still manages to be highly evocative of the era in which it is set.  Some period tunes and stylish set and costume design add an authentic 1930s gloss to the film.

The only Hollywood star to combine the effortless charm of Cary Grant with the Teflon toughness of James Cagney, Robert Taylor is perfect casting for the role of the hard-nosed lawyer who is crippled both physically and morally until the ravishingly sensuous Cyd Charisse enters his life and makes an honest man of him.  Charisse almost steals the film as the lithe and lissome showgirl, putting her formidable dancing skills to good use in two very memorable dance routines.  Lee J. Cobb turns in the best performance of all, relishing every line as a thuggish gangster boss who appears to have been modelled on Al Capone.   The film's dramatic climax comes as quite a shock after the slow build up, and Ray extracts as much tension as he can from the final showdown between Cobb and Taylor.

Film Synopsis

Chicago, in the early 1930s.  Thomas Farrell is a lawyer who makes a healthy living defending the town's mobsters, most notably the feared gangster boss Rico Angelo.  Having fallen in love with nightclub dancer Vicki Gaye, Farrell begins to reconsider his life.  After an operation to correct a hip injury he incurred as an adolescent, Farrell makes up his mind to go straight and start a new life with Vicki.  Angelo is not yet ready to give up his guardian angel and puts pressure on Farrell to continue defending him and his kind in court.  Fearing that Angelo may harm Vicki, Farrell reluctantly agrees to take on one more case for him.  When the trial falls apart, Farrell finds himself caught up in a war between rival gangsters and the police.  He is soon taken into custody and threatened with a long stretch in prison unless he can bring evidence against Angelo.  Farrell knows that if he betrays his former client Vicki's life will not be worth living...