The Phenix City Story (1955)
- Directed by
- Phil Karlson
- Genre
- drama film, film noir, crime film
- Country
- United States
- Runtime
- 1h 40m
- Rating
- 6.5 of 10 from 65 voters
- Elsewhere
- IMDb
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
How it feels
A crusading lawyer in a corrupt Alabama town is murdered. His son takes up the fight against organized crime and political rot.
tensegrittyseriousurgentdarkinvestigativedeterminedbleak
What happens
The Phenix City Story is a 1955 American crime film noir directed by Phil Karlson for Allied Artists, written by Daniel Mainwaring and Crane Wilbur and starring John McIntire, Richard Kiley, and Kathryn Grant. It dramatizes the 1954 assassination of attorney and politician Albert Patterson in Phenix City, Alabama, and the subsequent declaration of martial law. Although the film presents Albert Patterson's son, John Patterson, as a reform figure opposing corruption, his later political career complicates this image; as governor of Alabama (1959–1963), Patterson was a staunch supporter of segregation and ran on a campaign heavily supported by the Ku Klux Klan. During his tenure as governor, John Patterson fought against desegregation, particularly in schools, and clashed with the John F. Kennedy administration over the handling of Freedom Riders. The film had a triple premiere held on July 19, 1955 in Phenix City, Alabama, Columbus, Georgia, and Chicago, Illinois. It was a critical and commercial success, and has come to be regarded as one of the classics of the film noir genre. 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". (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
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Finger Man (1955)- More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.