Themes: Rise and Fall Stories, Cons and Scams, Star-Crossed Lovers
Main Cast: Edmond O'Brien, Joanne Dru, Don Porter, Sammy White, Otto Kruger, Dorothy Patrick
Release Year: 1950
Country: US
Run Time: 102 minutes
Plot
Edmond O'Brien plays a telephone repairman whose electronic savvy earns him a job with a bookmaking concern. O'Brien's bookie boss Barry Kelly wants to get instant results from the nation's racetracks, and to this end O'Brien illicitly plugs into several communication centers. The wealthier O'Brien becomes, the more scruples he sheds. Eventually he runs afoul of the Big Boss of an Eastern bookie syndicate (Otto Kruger) and vainly attempts to escape with his life in a slam-bang final at Boulder Dam. 711 Ocean Drive was made to cash in on a then-current national newspaper expose of bookmaking operations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
A real firecracker of a film noir, 711 Ocean Drive is a treat for fans of the genre. Combining noir with a semi-documentary approach, 711 is ostensibly an expose of gambling rackets, but at heart it's an exploration of an ambitious individual whose quick rise through the ranks of organized crime is followed by a precipitous fall. That fall is preordained, because this man doesn't understand that in a corporate structure -- even a mob ruled one -- an outsider has to make a place for himself within the structure rather than try to co-opt it altogether. In other words, a classic noir set-up in which fatalism and nihilism are implicit, even as the protagonist struggles against it. But what makes 711 so much fun isn't this theme but the plot, the characters, the dialogue and the way all are handled by director Joseph Newman and his creative team. The technological aspect of the plot was a fresh idea in 1950 and still retains interest today. The characters are well drawn by screenwriters Richard English and Francis Swann, who also provide plenty of snappy repartee along the way. Newman and cinematographer Franz Planer have a field day visually, with sweeping panoramas of street scenes and shots that linger just a second too long on curious buildings or "hip" furnishings. The two pull out all the stops for the 10-minute climax at Boulder Dam, which is just about perfect. The director is aided by Edmond O'Brien's excellent portrayal of a brusque, frustrated working man who doesn't know when to stop once he takes things into his own hand, as well as by Otto Kruger's superb gangster. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Athena - Costume Designer, Odette Myrtil - Costume Designer, Joseph Newman - Director, Bert Jordan - Editor, Sol Kaplan - Composer (Music Score), Emil Newman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Jack Byron - Makeup, Perry Ferguson - Production Designer, Franz Planer - Cinematographer, Frank N. Seltzer - Producer, Howard Bristol - Set Designer, Richard English - Screenwriter, Francis Swann - Screenwriter
