Inside 'The Paris of Southeastern Michigan' - 1950s Style

Posted by Bob Hall on May 18th 2021

'Inside Detroit' is perhaps an attempt to update a Warner Brothers mob-themed film of the 1930s, complete with Pat O'Brien. Neat idea, but helmed under the aegis of Sam Katzman's Clover Productions for Columbia, it may have been a misguided effort.

But it's not awful as many – dare I say most? – of Katzman's cinematic 'gems' of the era. The Detroit locations give it a different ambience and while Dennis O'Keefe is, well, Dennis O'Keefe. Putting O'Brien in the heavy role earns kudos for the casting people. Playing the baddie, since there’s a delightfully subdued nuance to his nastiness that most actors of the day (especially in stuff from Katzman) could not pull-off in the role of a mobster who’s willing to do anything to return to the top seat in the union he used to run.

With apparent aspirations to be a late entry into the raft of crime-related pseudo-documentaries of the late 1940s~early 1950s, John Cameron Swayze is along to bring slightly less than nothing to the film, though the balance of the cast is on the ‘good’ side of adequate.

Technically the film looks a lot better than most of the Clover efforts and other than coming off at times a bit like a UAW-version of a late-night infomercial it’s a nice way to spend nearly an hour-and-a-half.

And how many movies have have you seen complete with a pinball machine that’s packed with nitroglycerine?