THE PHENIX CITY STORY

US, 1955, 92 minutes, Black and white.
John Mc Intire, Richard Kiley, Kathryn Grant, Edward Andrews, Biff Mc Guire, James Edwards.
Directed by Phil Karlson.

The Phenix City Story begins with ten minutes of actual interviews of people from Phenix City, Alabama. It is done in newsreel fashion with the interviewer talking to the widow of the assassinated nominee for State's Attorney- General as well as people involved in trying to expose corruption in the city. There is an interview with a journalist who spent six months investigating the scene. The film then makes a transition to a hard-hitting black and white semi-documentary style thriller. The director is Phil Karlson, a director of many a brief and tough action feature. John Mc Intire portrays the nominee for attorney-general, Richard Kiley is his son. Edward Andrews is the Mr Big of Phenix City and Kathryn Grant a young woman who works in the casino and witnesses the assassination.

The film was relevant in the mid-50s. There had been a senate investigation, led by Senator Estes Kefauver into crime in American cities. This hard-hitting expose is in the wake of that investigation, showing the political machines and political corruption, even in a relatively small town in Alabama like Phenix City.

While the clubs and the events might seem small and tame in subsequent decades, it was this kind of corruption all over America, with the Mafia and other political and corruption machines dominating elections as well as the lives of citizens. The emergence of cities like Las Vegas came at this particular time. However, corruption is endemic to society and merely, as the decades go on, changed form.

1. The impact of the film in its day? The senate investigation into crime? This film as a back-up and publicising of the findings and alerting the public?

2. The opening ten minutes, the interviews, the journalist and his work, the widow of the nominee, the people involved in campaigns against crime, the janitor and the deputy sheriff and his lack of fear, the man whose house was bombed? The taking up of these elements in the subsequent drama? The initial impact for a feature film having this kind of opening?

3. The film itself and its small budget, black and white photography, the atmosphere of Phenix City, 14th Street and the clubs, the slums? The information given about Phenix City, across the river from Fort Benning, Georgia, the military personnel coming for the gambling and prostitution? The drug-dealing? A picture of the 40s and 50s - in the light of subsequent information and the rest of the 20th century?

4. The picture of 14th Street, The Poppy Club? Rhett Tanner and his domination, his seemingly genial manner, with his employees, with Cassie, wanting the club to run smoothly? In the street, friendly? His visit to Albert Patterson and wanting him on-side? Reports of the anti groups? Their vigilante attitudes? His own syndicate, meeting them in the sauna? Having things under control?

5. The Poppy Club, the slot machines, the gambling, the prostitution? Fred Gage and his being there with Ellie, trying to persuade her to leave? Her security at the club? Cassie and her jealousy? Tanner and his support? His henchmen? The importance of the factories, the making of the machines? The marking of the cards, the loading of the dice? The elections and the police turning a blind eye?

6. The people campaigning against vice, their meetings, their vigilante attitudes, their getting nowhere? Their being victimised? Zeke and his work, his child being taken and being thrown dead on the front lawn as a warning against campaigners? The final attack, Ellie and her hiding, Zeke and the bashing, his wife? Ultimately being vindicated?

7. Albert Patterson, age, work as a lawyer, not committing himself, feeling weary? His disapproval of the vice? John and his wife and children returning, meeting them, driving past The Poppy Club, the immediate involvement, the bashings, John and his fight? His wife wanting to leave especially after the dead child on the lawn?

8. John and his campaign, confronting people in the club, fighting Wilson? His being targeted? Tanner and his hostility? Ellie and her acting as an informant? John and his being bashed, Fred Gage's death? His appeal against vigilantism? His talking about his father and the nomination for State's Attorney-General? The picturing of the campaign, the syndicate and the threats to people? The election, the brutality? The irony of Albert Patterson being nominated by votes from the rest of the state?

9. Tanner, his having to make decisions, his henchmen? The court case about Fred Gage and its being considered an accident even though the evidence was there? Albert Patterson leading the prosecution? His being elected, his being assassinated? John and his anger, confronting Wilson in Zeke's house, the fight, almost drowning him in the river, Zeke's appeal to him not to kill?

10. The final speech by John, his being elected attorney-general in his father's stead, his throwing down the gauntlet in the campaign against vice? The changes in Alabama?

11. The moral message of this kind of film, images of corruption, the importance of good people not doing nothing and letting corruption spread?