Reminiscent of films like *On the Waterfront* and *Mr. Smith Goes to Washington*, but the B-level element of the film like the acting and the overall quality served to highlight Kazan and Capra's skill as filmmakers. (The film also reminded me of *Defiance* (1980), with Jan Michael Vincent and Danny Aiello.)

Don't let the caption fool you. This is about as much a semidocumentary as Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. It may be based on a true story and filmed on location, but it is still a poorly scripted and poorly acted melodrama. It gets gritty and you'll really want the bad guys to pay, but after all this is so much an anti-vigilante film that even a non-vigilante conclusion is denied us. It ends self-righteously and unsatisfyingly, squandering even what cheap thrills it may have offered.

Based on actual historical events, The Phenix City Story at first comes across as a low budget crime drama. But as the story progresses, the brutal violence unnerves and fascinates at the same time. I can see why this film had a tough time getting by the production code, it's gritty realism was quite new for movie audiences in 1955.

Unfortunately actual dramatic facts aren't enough, you also need dramatic characters for a good story. The opening spoilers don't help.

For a film that starts off with documentary style interviews and a rather detached and analytical style it sure gets brutal. A noir told from a different perspective, it works well to overcome its limitations and raise itself above the fray.

Tough, angry and cynical. It's not unusual for noirs to take on a semi-documentary style, but this one actually begins with 12 minutes of interviews. Whether this prologue was necessary is debatable, but I found it interesting and it helps the verisimilitude of the film. Despite being a low-budget production with no-name actors, it has a gritty realism, enhanced by the liberal use of location shooting. It's a gripping, brutal piece of work, with some of the most shocking violence of its time.

One of the great semi-documentary noirs. Superb location photography and fine performances from John McIntire and Edward Andrews.

Released just one year after the political assassination it depicts, the film is sensational enough that the filmmakers felt obligated to prove its accuracy by opening with a preface nearly 15 minutes in length that sends newsman Clete Roberts into the field to interview the actual locals. Once it transfers to fiction, the film is tough and grim, but also suffers from a stiff single-mindedness that's all too characteristic of docudramas. The characters don't develop much beyond ciphers.