Synopsis
A Sensational Film That Puts the Finger On Today's Biggest Business... Crime!
A bitter young man sets out to get back at the gangsters who murdered his father.
Underworld U.S.A.
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Alternative Titles
A Lei dos Marginais, Bajos fondos (Underworld U.S.A.), Les bas-fonds new-yorkais, La vendetta del gangster, Bajos fondos, Podsvětí USA, Alles auf eine Karte, Другой мир США, 刑警大队, 미국의 암흑가
Genres
Themes
Releases by Date
Theatrical limited
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USANR
Theatrical
13 Mar 1961
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USA
22 Jun 1961
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Germany18
02 Aug 1961
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FranceU
Releases by Country
France
02 Aug 1961
- TheatricalU
Germany
22 Jun 1961
- Theatrical18
USA
22 Feb 1961
- Theatrical limitedNR
13 Mar 1961
- Theatrical
Popular reviews
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Very bleak, rough-edged noir about a young boy traumatized by witnessing his father swallowed and destroyed by American criminal and institutional corruption/violence and his subsequent obsessive, hypocritical descent into it. Sam Fuller as always is excellent at this kind of tough-talking, pulpy but still deeply tragic street view of the criminal underworld and I enjoy seeing this darker, more impulsive side of Cliff Robertson that I haven't seen much from him outside of this and De Palma's Obsession.
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CLEAN SPORTS MAKE FOR A CLEAN AMERICA
Peak Fuller nightmare-noir, with a plot that's jagged and fast like a lightning bolt. The straight world is a million miles away from everything that happens in this movie.
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Action! - Three Auteurs: The Narrative Tabloids Of Samuel Fuller
In this revenge thriller with hints of the 1930s film noir and gangster genre, a young man seeks revenge on those who killed his father, infiltrating a dangerous network that threatens his and the lives of those he loves.
As with his previous film, what immediately stands out with Fuller's new film is his loose style of camera work, which allows him a freedom that few films of the time could match. The tracking shot at the end is so simple, but at the same time I find it so powerful. The zoom at the end says so much without having to say a word. While the story itself can…
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Out for revenge, career criminal Tolly Devlin (Cliff Robertson) embarks on a mission to wipe out a criminal syndicate, going undercover in an elaborate plan to break them apart once and for all.
There’s a real edge to Underworld USA that sets it above the rest: director Samuel Fuller tells it a with a pulpy yet no-nonsense feel, driving the hardboiled story along as Robertson’s anti-hero seeks out those men responsible for his father’s death one by one.
The film has a more cunning take on the genre, Tolly manipulating crooks against themselves to destroy each from the inside. It plays like a combo of 30s gangster pic, hard-edged 50s crime noir and 70s thriller, launching us in and telling…
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Cinematic Time Capsule
1961 Marathon - Film #3”I’ll get those punks my own way.”
I love watching a director who loves directing... And Fuller’s having an absolute blast with this gritty mob thriller.
”Yeah, I learned a lesson… I learned plenty.”
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A tough and gritty noir-esque revenge film from Samuel Fuller. Underworld USA gets off to a great start. A beautifully realised shadowy murder sequence leaves the juvenile son of the victim vowing vengeace on the men who killed his father. What seems like a typical revenge picture soon kicks into gear, with our protagonist tracking down his first target to a prison hospital bed where he gets the names of the accomplices. We are then switched to a story of big crime via a slightly fourth wall breaking explanation of the inner workings of the underworld, and our lead takes his role as a Yojimbo type character playing the crooks off against each other with the help of the cops.…
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I’ve had no more satisfying cinematic journey than the one I’ve had with Sam Fuller. When I watched my first couple Fuller films, I found them cartoonish and scattershot. I’ve seen twelve now, and though some appeal to me more than others, together they form a body of work that is as diverse and distinctive as almost any American filmmaker I’ve experienced.
While I enjoy Sam Fuller’s western, war, and social commentary films, the noirs Pickup on South Street and Underworld, U. S. A., are my two favorites. While they’re unflinchingly dark, filled with gangsters and hoodlums referring to women as broads and dames, the broads and the dames are the characters with real insight into the futility of violence and…
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There are two women in Underworld U.S.A.; both of them are slavishly devoted to Tolly Devlin (Cliff Robertson), a selfish, damaged prick of a con who doesn't respect either of them and, more often than not, treats them both terribly — one of them for a period of time extending over decades. It doesn't matter, though, because they both continue to do what he says, and unquestioningly risk their lives for him despite never receiving even a hint of gratitude.
The older woman (Beatrice Kay as Sandy) is defined almost entirely by her inability to have children. Her house is packed to the gills with dolls of all sizes and shapes, and every room is decorated by a prominently placed,…
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No one makes an insert shot feel like a sucker punch to the mouth like Fuller. An absolutely brutal noir in which a kid commits to a lifelong, almost mythological quest for vengeance by committing himself to a no-future life to sink into the underworld that claimed his dad. Along the way, he falls for a moll without an ounce of innocence or desired salvation, only a hope for escape from the very realm Tolly wishes to sink into. Tolly plays the cops to do his dirty work while the cops play him and anyone else they can to be the ones who’ll ultimately eat lead over it. All of filmed in medium-contrast greys that glint like gunmetal.
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This has all the cliche marking of Fuller with it being sensationalistic but grounded in an emotional sentiment and there in lies his noirish surreal qualities that I am sure felt sharper and questioning of societal injustices but have a some what farcical stance now but yet I do feel it has some intrigue and I think Cliff Robertson does an amazing job of a person who bides his time of hatred for revenge. It's worth checking out for the strong black and white visuals and the turn about ending but is very Fuller like so if you like his style then this is your gem but I would recommend starting off with another of his films first however I feel I recommend diving into any Fuller classic and in fact I can't believe it took me so long to watch this.
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Sam Fuller’s Monte Christo-level revenge noir about a kid whose father is killed by hoodlums and years later takes a page out of Hammett’s Continental Op playbook and starts dogfight among his father’s murderers (now racket bosses) and one-by-one gets them to bring each other down.
I re-watched it with the sound off — one of the best tests of a film’s aesthetic quality — and it works as a silent movie. These moments jumped off the screen:
1) Use of close ups as good as anything outside of Leone.
2) The exposition / plot advancement via typewriter and newspaper headlines rather than voiceover.
3) The opening drunk guy with balloons getting rolled and then his mugger getting mugged.
4)…
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Not what I was expecting! This is a revenge tale of a boy who saw his father beat to death, and he tracks down the men who did over 20 years, only to find that they are kingpins in the underworld by now. He falls for a girl called "Cuddles." Director Sam Fuller really gets some great shots, this film is beautiful to look at. For example, when the father is being beaten to death, all we see are shadows on the brick wall. Tight story. Really liked this one a lot.
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