“I want trouble. I need it.”

One could honestly say that this Warner Bros. mid fifties gangster film feels like the studio recycled an old George Raft script from the late thirties and I wouldn’t disagree. Still, that doesn’t stop it from being a rugged gangland tale that offers up Alan Ladd in one if his best tough guy performances from the latter part of his career. To top it off the studio or perhaps Ladd’s own production company, Jaguar, who had a hand in the film have cast Johnny Rocco himself, Edward G. Robinson, as the tough talking hood that Ladd is set to face off against for an enjoyable 98 minutes.

Ladd’s an ex-cop with an enormous chip on his shoulder as the film opens up seeing him released from San Quentin after a five year stretch for a killing we all know he’s been framed for. “Vengeance is mine sayeth Ladd” should be the film’s message. Meeting him at the prison gates are his ex-partner on the force and all around great character actor, William Demarest, and Ladd’s estranged wife, Joanne Dru.

In little screen time at all Ladd is poking around the docks of San Francisco looking for a man who sent him a message in prison stating he knows who set Ladd up and did the actual killing of the thug our hero supposedly murdered in a back alley. No luck and don’t be surprised if this stoolie gets fished out of the bay only to be found on a slab at the morgue.

As for Ladd and his leading lady? He makes it clear he has no time for love or rekindling a fire until he quenches his thirst for blood and clearing his name with the force and police chief Willis Bouchey. Miss Dru will have to carry on as a torch singer at a local nightclub for the time being.

Time for the legendary Eddie G. to make his appearance at the 15 minute mark. He’s in good form this time out recalling his many earlier performances as the fast talking tough guy who bullies those around him. This time it’s Paul Stewart who is both his second in command/body guard and his whipping boy whom he never stops degrading or poking fun at due to Stewart’s time in prison and a face which hosts a nasty scar giving him a very Boris Karloff look.

Eddie is fully aware of Ladd’s release and sends Stewart and Stanley Adams to muscle him in Dru’s apartment. Bad mistake as this gives Ladd’s fans an opportunity to see him beat the hell out of Adams while Stewart calmly watches while Dru is horrified at the level of violence Ladd is prepared to go.

Not surprisingly, Anthony Caruso, appears in the film as he did in a number of Ladd films and productions going back to the star’s earliest days at Paramount. Caruso is cast against type playing a quiet fisherman who wants no trouble and refuses to help Ladd for fear that the mob will harm his little son whom he is raising on his own. Normally playing a heavy, Caruso, is solid here proving he could play a wider range of roles than just a gun toting hood. For more on both Caruso and his association with Ladd follow the link.

Eddie is starting to get a bit ruffled. He doesn’t take kindly to one time mob boss Nestor Paiva looking to calm things down and isn’t happy with his excitable nephew, Perry Lopez, who might be considered expendable due to his softness when it comes to police questioning. All of which leads to a relative newcomer, Rod Taylor at just 25 years of age, being picked up for questioning concerning Eddie’s operations. Taylor just might be the trigger man that Ladd is after. Like Ladd, Taylor would go on to a long and notable career himself as both a leading man and tough guy on camera himself.

While it may not carry the impact of DeNiro and Pacino in Heat, Ladd and Eddie verbally spar at the 50 minute mark. When Eddie can’t buy Ladd off he quickly turns his proposition to threats of violence but Ladd plays it cool and will bide his time.

You’ll have to bide your time as well until you find a copy of Hell On Frisco Bay because that’s all you’re getting from me. I’m not going to play spoiler and tell you exactly what you have already assumed plays out over the final 40 minutes of this solid action flick from director Frank Tuttle. It had been 13 years since Tuttle directed Ladd in his breakout film, This Gun For Hire followed up with another title that same year, Lucky Jordan.

A tip of the hat to Miss Fay Wray who scores here as a one-time film actress now retired and in love with the soft spoken Stewart knowing all along that he is a doomed soul due to his association with the sadistic Eddie who has a hold on him and refuses to let him go.

In case you’re thinking it but not quite sure, that is indeed an unbilled Jayne Mansfield dancing in a nightclub with Perry Lopez. Jayne would of course become Marilyn’s competition in the years ahead and appear in those hilarious pics at a swank dinner alongside Sophia Loren with her cleavage on the dinner plates under Sophia’s less than impressed side glance.

Perry Lopez appeared in a number of Ladd’s fifties films including The Deep Six, The McConnell Story and Drum Beat. He’s probably best known for his role in 1974’s Chinatown.

I picked up the blu ray release from Warner Archive and the film looks gorgeous. Glad I shelled out the cash to see a film I hadn’t seen in probably forty years on late night TV when I was devouring the Alan Ladd catalogue while a youngster. Also giving it that Warner Bros. flavor of earlier years is the music once again credited to the studio’s Max Steiner who scored the music for dozens of the studios greatest titles like Jezebel, Angels With Dirty Faces, Casablanca, Mildred Pierce and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

A superior outing with a rock solid cast surrounding our leading man Ladd and his nemesis Robinson. No original poster on hand I’m sad to say but I do have a great lobby card from the film tucked away here in the vault at Mike’s Take.