Classic Film Guide

Detective Story (1951)

This outstanding crime drama was produced and directed by William Wyler. It was based on a play by Sidney Kingsley and features an Academy Award nominated screenplay by Robert Wyler (the producer's brother) and Philip Yordan (Dillinger (1945)). Director Wyler was also nominated as were Eleanor Parker's lead actress and Lee Grant's (screen debut and her first of four Oscar nominations in the category) supporting actress performances.

Kirk Douglas plays a tightly wound (by the book, "holier than thou") workaholic detective who neglects his wife (Parker) and affects everyone else in this "day in the life" of a police precinct story. Grant plays a shoplifter whose character observes the day's goings-on. George Macready plays an abortion doctor that Douglas's character has been trying to bust; later he learns that his wife has a secret past involving this doctor. Character actress Gladys George is involved in this subplot as well. William Bendix plays another detective who's not as hard-edged as Douglas's; Cathy O'Donnell plays Susan Carmichael, a woman whose boyfriend, for whom Bendix's character has sympathy, is caught embezzling. Horace McMahon plays Douglas's Lieutenant (e.g. boss); Frank Faylen plays another detective.

Purchase this DVD now at Movies Unlimited - Buy it NOW!

Find your movie or DVD now @:Find your movie at MoviesUnlimited.com.

Most Recent Additions:

Casanova Brown (1944) - full review!

I Want You (1951) - full review!

A Bill of Divorcement (1932) - full review!

Patterns (1956) - full review!

Last Train from Gun Hill (1959) - full review!

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) - full review!

Hour of the Gun (1967) - full review!

The Slender Thread (1965)

To Sir, with Love (1967) - full review!

You'll Never Get Rich (1941) - full review!

The Actress (1953) - full review!

Mannequin (1937) - full review!

All My Sons (1948) - full review!

Mourning Becomes Electra (1947) - full review!

State Fair (1945) - full review!

Billy Budd (1962) - full review!

Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951) - full review!

The Bachelor Party (1957) - full review!

The Glenn Miller Story (1954) - full review!

The Southerner (1945) - full review!

The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1966)

Never on Sunday (1960) - full review!

Blume in Love (1973)

The Arrangement (1969) - full review!

A Summer Place (1959) - full review!

Miracle in the Rain (1956) - full review!

Love Letters (1945) - full review!

Dr. Cyclops (1940)

Tulsa (1949)

The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944) - full review!

The Absent Minded Professor (1961)

20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)

Come and Get It (1936) - full review!

The Prize (1963) - full review!

This Is the Army (1943) - full review!

Macao (1952)

The Yakuza (1974)

Home from the Hill (1960) - full review!

Hangmen Also Die (1943) - full review!

The Shop on Main Street (1965) - full review!

The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969) - full review!

Interiors (1978)

The Garden of Allah (1936)

A Gathering of Eagles (1963) - full review!

This Happy Breed (1944) - full review!

Detective Story (1951)

Red-Headed Woman (1932) - full review!

Waterloo Bridge (1931) - full review!

Baby Face (1933) - full review!

Three Smart Girls (1936)

Titanic (1943) - full review!

Cover Girl (1944) - full review!

Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)

The Barefoot Contessa (1954)

Saratoga Trunk (1945) - full review!

The Kid From Brooklyn (1946)

The Comedians (1967)

The Sandpiper (1965)

The Drowning Pool (1975)

Kid Glove Killer (1942)

Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

Kameradschaft (1931)

The Young Philadelphians (1959) - full review!

Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967)

Pocket Money (1972) - full review!

 

[Home] [Hitchcock] [Oscar's Best] [Essays] [Essential Films] [TCM Picks] [Obscure Films] [Links] [Other Reviews] [Academy Awards] [Silent Films] [Movie Index]