The Phenix City Story

{{Infobox film

| name = The Phenix City Story

| image = The Phenix City Story (1955 insert poster).jpg

| alt =

| caption = Theatrical release poster

| director = Phil Karlson

| producer = Samuel Bischoff
David Diamond

| screenplay = Daniel Mainwaring
Crane Wilbur

| narrator =

| starring = John McIntire
Richard Kiley
Kathryn Grant
Edward Andrews
Meg Myles
James Edwards

| music = Harry Sukman

| cinematography = Harry Neumann

| editing = George White

| studio = Allied Artists Pictures

| distributor = Allied Artists Pictures

| released = {{Film date|1955|8|14|United States}}

| runtime = 100 minutes (87 minutes without preface)

| country = United States

| language = English

| budget = $350,000{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|title=Raw Headlines Box Office Bait, Per 'Phenix'|date=November 23, 1955|page=1 |volume=200 |issue=12|url=http://www.archive.org/stream/variety200-1955-11#page/n224/mode/1up|accessdate=April 24, 2019}}

| gross = $2.2 million (US){{cite magazine |title=1955's Top Film Grossers |magazine=Variety |date=January 25, 1956 |volume=201 |issue=8 |page=15 |url=https://archive.org/details/variety201-1956-01/page/14/mode/2up?view=theater}}

}}

The Phenix City Story is a 1955 American film noir crime film directed by Phil Karlson for Allied Artists, written by Daniel Mainwaring and Crane Wilbur and starring John McIntire, Richard Kiley, and Kathryn Grant.{{cite web |title=The Phenix City Story |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/414187/the-phenix-city-story#credits |website=TCM}} It had a triple premiere held on July 19, 1955 in Phenix City, Alabama, Columbus, Georgia, and Chicago, Illinois.{{cite magazine |last1=Berns |first1=Samuel D. |title=Hollywood on the march |magazine=Motion Picture Daily |publisher=Quigley Publishing Company |date=July 11, 1955 |volume=78 |issue=6 |page=4 |url=https://archive.org/details/motionpicturedai78unse/page/n55/mode/2up}}

Plot

In a corrupt Alabama town near the Army's Fort Benning, the law can do little to stop the criminal activities of Rhett Tanner, particularly in the wide-open "red-light district" area known for prostitution, taverns, and crooked gambling. Most of the police do not even try, since they are on Tanner's payroll.

Local attorney Albert "Pat" Patterson, initially neutral and complacent, is urged to run for State Attorney General and clean up Phenix City, but he wants no part of a thankless, impossible job. He is content to welcome home his son John from military service. However, soon violence breaks out trying to silence the reform-minded citizens committee. John gets caught in the middle when Clem Wilson, a thug who works for Tanner, and others assault innocent citizens.

Patterson finally agrees to get involved in reforming the town, but as soon as he wins the Democratic nomination for state attorney general, he is killed. It is up to John to avenge his father, but his own family ends up at risk.

Cast

{{cast listing|

John McIntire as Albert Patterson
Richard Kiley as John Patterson
Kathryn Grant as Ellie Rhodes
Edward Andrews as Rhett Tanner
James Edwards as Zeke Ward
Lenka Peterson as Mary Jo Patterson
Biff McGuire as Fred Gage
Truman Smith as Ed Gage
Jean Carson as Cassie
Kathy Marlowe as Mamie
John Larch as Clem Wilson
Allen Nourse as Jeb Bassett
Helen Martin as Helen Ward
Otto Hulett as Hugh A. Bentley
George Mitchell as Hugh Britton
Ma Beachie as herself
Meg Myles as the Poppy Club singer

}}

Production

File:The_Phenix_City_Story_(1955_poster).jpg

The film depicts the real-life 1954 assassination of Albert Patterson, who had just been nominated as the Democratic candidate for Alabama Attorney General on a platform of cleaning up Phenix City, a city controlled by organized crime. Patterson was murdered in Phenix City, and the subsequent outcry resulted in the imposition of martial law by the state government. Some prints of the film include a 13-minute newsreel-style preface including newsman Clete Roberts interviewing many of the actual participants.

Reception

When the film was released in 1955, Bosley Crowther, film critic for The New York Times, gave it a positive review, writing, "In a style of dramatic documentation that is as sharp and sure as was that of On the Waterfront--or, for a more appropriate comparison, that of the memorable All the King's Men--scriptwriters Crane Wilbur and Dan Mainwaring and director Phil Karlson expose the raw tissue of corruption and terrorism in an American city that is steeped in vice. They catch in slashing, searching glimpses the shrewd chicanery of evil men, the callousness and baseness of their puppets and the dread and silence of local citizens. And, through a series of excellent performances, topped by that of John McIntyre as the eventually martyred crusader, they show the sinew and the bone of those who strive for decent things."{{cite news |last1=Crowther |first1=Bosley |author1-link=Bosley Crowther |title=Sin in the South; 'The Phenix City Story' Has Debut at State |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1955/09/03/archives/sin-in-the-south-the-phenix-city-story-has-debut-at-state.html |work=The New York Times |date=September 3, 1955}}

Film critic Bruce Eder wrote, "One of the most violent and realistic crime films of the 1950s, The Phenix City Story pulses with the bracing energy of actual life captured on the screen in its establishing shots and key scenes, and punctuates that background with explosively filmed action scenes. Director Phil Karlson showed just how good he was at merging well-told screen drama with vivid verisimilitude and leaving no seams to show where they joined. Filmed on location in Alabama with a documentary-like look, the movie captured the ambiance and tenor of its Deep South setting better than almost any other fact-based movie of its era."{{cite web |last1=Eder |first1=Bruce |title=The Phenix City Story (1955) |url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-phenix-city-story-vm1064656/review |website=AllMovie}}

Legacy

In 2019, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".{{cite magazine |last=Chow |first=Andrew R. |date=December 11, 2019 |title=See the 25 New Additions to the National Film Registry, From Purple Rain to Clerks |url= https://time.com/5747503/national-film-registry-2019-additions/ |magazine=Time |location=New York, NY |access-date=December 11, 2019}}{{cite news |title=Purple Rain, Clerks, Old Yeller among National Film Registry's class of 2019 |url=https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/12/11/21010964/national-film-registry-2019-purple-rain-clerks-old-yeller-library-of-congress |work=Chicago Sun-Times |agency=Associated Press |date=December 11, 2019}}

= In other media =

It was also featured in the 1995 documentary film A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies.

{{cite news |last1=Patterson |first1=John |title=Worshippers at the church of cinema |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/sep/26/godard.scorsese |work=The Guardian |date=25 September 2008}}

Home media

Warner Bros. released the film on DVD on July 13, 2010, in its Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 5.

{{cite magazine |last1=Abrams |first1=Simon |title=DVD Review: Film Noir Classic Collection: Volume 5 on Warner Home Video |magazine=Slant Magazine |date=20 July 2010 |url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/film-noir-classic-collection-volume-5/}}

References

External links

{{IMDb title|id=0048488|title=The Phenix City Story}}
{{TCMDb title|id=414187|title=The Phenix City Story}}
{{AFI film|51617}}
{{YouTube|k5oFJTTGD3s|The Phenix City Story film clip}} (John Patterson's speech)
[https://www.thedailybeast.com/scorsese-curates-the-phenix-city-story?ref=scroll Scorsese Curates: The Phenix City Story] on The Daily Beast

Category:1955 films

Category:1950s crime thriller films

Category:Allied Artists films

Category:American black-and-white films

Category:American crime thriller films

Category:Crime films based on actual events

Category:1950s English-language films

Category:Film noir

Category:Films about elections

Category:Films about racism in the United States

Category:Films directed by Phil Karlson

Category:Films produced by Samuel Bischoff