| Black Tuesday | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Hugo Fregonese |
| Produced by | Robert Goldstein |
| Written by | Sydney Boehm |
| Starring | Edward G. Robinson, Peter Graves, Jean Parker Milburn Stone |
| Cinematography | Stanley Cortez |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | December 31, 1954 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 80 min. |
| Language | English |
Black Tuesday is a 1954 film noir starring Edward G. Robinson. The film is a return of Robinson playing evil gangster types like he did in early Warner Bros. films. The crime melodrama also stars Peter Graves in one of his early film roles. The film also starred Jean Parker. Shot in black-and-white.
The film is due to be released on DVD by VCI Entertainment after an announcement made in 2005. A quality copy of the film has long been sought by collectors.
A violent con, Vincent Canelli (Robinson), escapes prison on the night of his execution. With the help of a phony newspaper reporter and Canelli's girlfriend, the con takes along five hostages including a priest. Another inmate, Peter Manning, is taken along because Canelli wants the money Manning hid before going to jail. Manning is injured badly in the escape and leaves a bloody trail. The gang ends up at a hideout where they're surrounded by police. Canelli threatens to kill hostages if he's not given safe passage and murders the priest to make his point. Manning is horrified and ends up killing Canelli and giving himself and the others up to police.
In the book Film Noir:An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style edited by Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward, Robinson's performance is summed up like this:
"When society at large is threatened, the psychopaths presented tend to be of the most violent ilk, as if to justify social repression by exaggerating the threat. Edward G. Robinson as gangster Vincent Canelli in Black Tuesday... exhibits a sadistic bent rivaled only by James Cagney in White Heat."