The Hoodlum

This is a cheap and short crime flick that absolutely wallows in Tierney's sleazy tough guy appeal. He's thoroughly despicable, but also the protagonist until the whole movie turns against in in the last 10 minutes. It's a bit of a ramshackle affair, but I loved it's edgy weirdness.

Gritty crime film with a lot of limitations. Feels incredibly cheap most of the time, but then the dark nature of it would shine though in strong bursts. Stars real-life brothers Lawrence Tierney and Edward Tierney in a cop and criminal chase. And I must say Lisa Golm as the mother sure gave a glaring scolding to the black sheep of the family for the ending moments there. It's a movie that's a little hard to love, but there are things that make an impression.

The Hoodlum is a ho hum noir with an entertaining performance by Tierney around a totally unremarkable plot. Not a bad way to spend an hour, but I'll forget it by next week. Totally derivative of many better movies without any new ideas to speak of. I'd imagine this was initially shown as the B end of a double bill at some point and it never tries to do anything more than be exactly that.

Well-written and fast-paced, with lots of crackling dialogue.

Most of the fun is watching Tierney be irredeemably psychotic, but otherwise the film is utterly without nuance and serves mainly as quick & dirty entertainment. Some of the dialogue is pretty good, but a lot of it is really clunky. There's some minor plot holes and implausibilities as well. But it's fairly fun and has a real gritty edge to it. I liked the bit about using a funeral procession to make a getaway. Tierney's little brother Edward has a role, but leaves no impression.