Themes: Inner City Blues, Hired Killers, Rise and Fall Stories
Main Cast: Steve Cochran, Lita Milan, Robert Strauss, Celia Lovsky
Release Year: 1958
Country: US
Run Time: 80 minutes
Plot
By 1958, director Roger Corman had switched from making low-budgeters like Apache Woman to movies like the gangster flic I, Mobster that might be found outside of the drive-in setting. The ungrammatical title refers to Joe Sante (Steve Cochran) and his career of climbing the ladder in the hierarchy of organized crime. Now at the top rung, Sante is taking the Fifth Amendment before a Senate subcommittee on racketeering and as he does so, his life is recalled in flashbacks. His first job was working for a bookie, next he becomes involved in a drug ring, and then he expands into intimidating striking workers. Since the last rung of the ladder is open game for any ambitious gangster, Sante would do well to also recall how homicide got him where he now stands. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
