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Frankie (John Cassavetes) is the leader of the Hornets, a teen gang who
tries to be the toughest in their poor neighbourhood, but really are just
your typical group of young troublemakers who try to make up in toughness
for the fact that their outlook into the future is rather grim. Thing is,
while his gangmates are basically show-offs who show strength as a group
to hide their own insecurities, everything goes deeper with Frankie, who
has an actual violent streak to him, so much so that he eventually plans
the murder of someone who got one of his friends arrested (for legitimate
reasons). But when he tells his gangmates about it, they all turn away,
all but Angelo (Ivan Cury), who sees Frankie as a father figure, and
simpleton Lou (Mark Rydell). With these two, he plans the murder rather
meticulously (or at least thinks he does), but without knowing that his
own little brother (Van Dyke Parks) is listening in - who just doesn't
want anything bad to happen to Frankie, so he gets social worker Ben
(Robert Preston) on Frankie's case. But it's a race against the clock for
Ben to talk sense into Frankie, especially when Frankie's not really
listening ... Considering this is from the early days of TV,
this episode of The Elgin Hour has of course some
shortcomings that come with it, like limited and not wholly convincing
sets, a slightly stagey approach, sometimes preachy dialogue and way too
blatant product placement (for Elgin watches) - but thanks to a very slick
directorial effort and a top notch cast, Crime in the Streets
doesn't really suffer from it. It's not that there isn't room for
improvement, but still the whole thing holds up pretty well compared to
other contemporary shows, and it really makes for an excellent stroll down
memory lane.
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