The Lineup (1958)

This is a documentary of Eli's early evolution of the character "Tuco" from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." It also chronicles SF in the mid-50's when the Embarcadero Freeway fiasco was still under construction, the Cow Palace neighborhood was still new and the Sutro Baths had been converted into an ice rink.

The Lineup is a movie made in 1958 that was based on a TV series called "SAN FRANCISCO BEAT" and would change titles to "THE LINEUP" later on in it's TV run.Eli Wallach (THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY) plays a psychopathic hitman who use unwitting tourists to transport heroin from the Orient. When one of the deliveries go wrong a young woman and her child are put in danger as the child's chinese doll contains the heroin. So It's up to the police the catch them before the mother and child are murdered.This is a great movie with a spectacular car chase across San Francisco.Directed by Don Siegal (Dirty Harry) it involves Robert Keith as another hood and Warner Anderson as one of cops. Warner Anderson would go on to play Matthew Swain on the TV series "Peyton Place" as well as its narrator.Bonus material includes the movie trailer as well as movie commentary by Eddie Muller who wrote a wonderful book called Dark City: Lost World of Film Noir. But be warned there is a lot of swearing in the commentary as Eddie Muller and a famous crime writer (whose name I have forgotten) discuss the movie.But it is a great commentary talking not only about the movie but also about the buildings and locations you see of San Francisco which are no longer standing. One of the buildings which is no longer around is the Hall of Justice building which was also used in stock footage for the "Ironside" TV series.I loved this movie. I wish I had been around at the time when the TV series was being shown on TV.

The always entertaining Eli Wallach is the main bad guy in this convoluted but action filled police story about drug smugglers. Nearly all the scenes are shot on location in and around San Francisco and that's what makes this film such a treat. Even if you are not as old as me, you're bound to feel some nostalgia for the way things were back then. The film is a beautifully preserved trip back in time.

"The Lineup", a movie spun from a popular mid-century tv show of the same name, takes off from the first scene, when a stolen briefcase is handed off to a waiting taxi, who then takes off and in his hurry, rams a tractor truck pulling out of a nearby pier---pulling out of that crash, the cabbie then hits a policeman, who manages to get off one successful shot, and the dead cabbie crashes into a bit of waterfront construction----the police then discover the man was carrying drugs, and as the investigation widens, that innocent tourists and businessmen returning from the far east are being used as unsuspecting mules.The filming was not great---I had to stop the film to identify exactly where they were----that Pier 41 is long gone; and recognizable buildings in the background are only hazily captured. Still, once they get away from the Wharf, the cinematography improves. The cops are played by a couple of middle aged rumpled looking actors, and no one in the film has the glossy flossy beauty everyone has to have today. The story is interesting and plausible, with the added feature that, for people who've been to San Francisco, one gets some great views of a long vanished landscape, from the interior of Sutro Baths to the double decked Embarcadero Freeway, and the YMCA. And there's a seemingly obligatory chase scene----this one being more ridiculous than others, hopping back and forth from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Bay Bridge, for no good reason, but hey!It's not quite like the cop films we've come to expect, that began with "Bullitt" and moved on to "Starsky and Hutch" and "Dirty Harry". But that's a bit refreshing, especially in an age where the genre has everything from Brothers Grimm characters haunting Seattle and Ichabod Crane back from the dead to fight evil in modern day Sleepy Hollow. If you like noir, you may have already seen this, if you haven't, you should.

Oldie but one hum dinger of a goodie!!!

I just saw this movie on tv and had to get it for a gift for my brother. I loved the cars and the car chases in it. It's all filmed in San Francisco, and I am familiar with that place, and first went there in the fifties as a little girl, to the places that are featured in the movie, so it was a kick to see them filmed from that same time. It's a old movie and in black and white, which I not only do not mind but find only adds to the nostalgia of an old movie of this type. The film quality in it is excellent, and only those who appreciate black and white and what can be accomplished with it will know what I am talking about. So if you are a fan of old movies of this era, you will enjoy this one. Some of the cars are the same ones my dad owned, so again, nostalgia for me. Great cars, I would not mind owning again. UPDATE : I just watched this movie again at my brothers on a 60" screen. It just gets better. The clarity of this film is just remarkable, and the genius of the producer, is amazing. The angles of the shots of the actors, is so different than what you see today. This producer was so incredibly talented. Again, if you don't understand what black and white can do, you will not want to watch this no matter what anyone says, so do buy it and then complain. But if you're a fan of black and white then you must buy this movie. You will understand why I am so enthused about this film when you see it. There is a second dvd in the pack with commentary on the movie. However, that dvd was not all that interesting or informative. I could have done without some of the language in it and would have appreciated more actual informative commentary, without the other crap he was saying. This is a collectors dvd for sure.

The film did an excellent job of the black/white layout.

Criminal Investigation at it's finest.

The police follow two drug smugglers across San Francisco in this great film starring Eli Wallach and Robert Keith.

I hate to say it, but I am a hopeless "Eli Wallach" fan. So I like just about anything that he is in. But I have to say that in The Line-Up" , you get to see that slightly psychotic side of Wallach that you don't see again till maybe "Baby Doll" or of course "The Good, The Bad, zand The Ugly".It's a movie that I'll watch over and over again.