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Southside 1-1000
Southside 1-1000
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Boris Ingster
Screenplay by	Boris Ingster; Leo Townsend
Story by	Bert C. Brown; Milton M. Raison;
Produced by	Frank King; Maurice King;
Starring	Don DeFore; Andrea King; George Tobias;
Narrated by	Gerald Mohr
Cinematography	Russell Harlan
Edited by	Christian Nyby
Music by	Paul Sawtell
Production; company	King Brothers Productions
Distributed by	Allied Artists Pictures
Release date	November 12, 1950 (United States);
Running time	73 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Southside 1-1000 is a 1950 semidocumentary-style film noir directed by Boris Ingster featuring Don DeFore, Andrea King, George Tobias and Gerald Mohr as the off-screen narrator.^[1] Based on a true story, it is about a Secret Service agent (DeFore) who goes undercover and moves into a hotel run by a beautiful female manager (King), so that he can investigate a counterfeiting ring. The agent is up against hardened felons such as the gang member played by Tobias, an unusual example of casting against type for the typically comic actor. It is one of Ingster's two films noir, the other being Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), an early picture in the genre.

Plot

The US Secret Service searches for a gang of counterfeiters, whose brilliant engraver Eugene Deane (Morris Ankrum) has secretly made his plates while doing life in San Quentin. A priest was tricked into serving as a mule smuggling them out. A narrator explains the crucial role of paper currency in underpinning trade in the economy, and how the US Treasury Department ensures it is safeguarded by tracking down counterfeiters.

When phony $10 bills start showing up at casinos and racetracks across the country the Treasury realizes that the bills are Deane's work. Surveillance is set up, which leads to a travelling salesman who has been distributing them across the country. However, before he can be captured and interrogated a ruthless gang member (George Tobias) throws him out a window to his death.

The Secret Service then puts undercover agent John Riggs (Don DeFore) on the case. He poses as a thief interested in buying and selling counterfeit bills. Clues leads him to a Los Angeles hotel where the salesman lived. Riggs moves in, and is recruited by gang members. He also meets the beautiful hotel manager, Nora Craig (Andrea King).

While Riggs is romantically attracted to Craig, he also realizes that she may be connected to the gang. He learns she is not only the gang boss but Deane's daughter. Riggs' cover is blown and he is threatened with death. Federal agents and police descend on the gang's hideout, which catches fire. A pitched gun battle erupts amidst cable car rail trestles and bridges, with Craig plunging to her death.

Cast

Don DeFore as John Riggs/Nick Starnes
Andrea King as Nora Craig
George Tobias as Reggie
Barry Kelley as Bill Evans
Morris Ankrum as Eugene Deane
Robert Osterloh as Albert
Charles Cane as Harris
Kippee Valez as Singer
Joe Turkel as Frankie
John Harmon as Nimble Willie
G. Pat Collins as Hugh B. Pringle – Treasury Agent
Douglas Spencer as Prison Chaplain
Joan Miller as Mrs. Clara Evans
William Forrest as Prison Warden

Production

A scene towards the end was filmed aboard Los Angeles' famed "Angels Flight", a narrow gauge funicular railway in the Bunker Hill district of Downtown.^[2]

It was the last in a series of movies King Brothers Productions made for Allied Artists.^[3]

Reception

A November 1950 review in The New York Times commented: "In the cinema's library of routine gangster fiction, Southside 1-1000 merits a comfortable middle-class rating being neither especially exciting nor particularly dull".^[4]

Film critic Craig Butler of Allmovie wrote, "Southside 1-1000 is a good pseudo-noir film told in pseudodocumentary fashion, but it also must register as a bit of a disappointment. It's functional and all the parts fit together smoothly, making it run like a fairly well-oiled machine -- but it lacks real spark. Given director Boris Ingster's impressive work on the seminal Stranger on the Third Floor, one expects something a bit more unusual or off the beaten path – or at least distinctive. Instead, Southside looks like it could have been the work of any competent director".^[5] In 2012 Michael Barrett of PopMatters rated it 4/10 stars and called it "an unnecessary and forgettable entry in the genre".^[2]

References

^ Southside 1-1000 at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
^ ^a ^b Barrett, Michael (October 12, 2012). "'Southside 1-1000' (1950)". PopMatters. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
^ Scheuer, Philip K. (Sep 5, 1950). "Tim Holt Leatherneck; Directors Pick Huston; King Bros. Celebrating". Los Angeles Times. p. A11.
^ "T-Men on Screen at the Palace". The New York Times. November 3, 1950. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
^ Butler, Craig. AllMovie, film/DVD review, no date. Accessed: August 19, 2013.