Aaron Igay This is a fairly decent picture but it was largely of interest to me for the backdrops. It was great to get a good look at the cutting edge telephone technology of the day, which was probably not without it's inaccuracies. Plus we get to see what was still relatively new at the time, the Hoover Dam in all it's glory. The film also featured a short scene at Gilmore Field, a PCL baseball park which was located at Beverly and Fairfax in LA. It was demolished when the Dodgers came to town and is where CBS Television Studios currently stands. While you won't see a ballgame, you can go to the site now to be in the audience of 'The Price is Right.'

LeonLouisRicci Skirting the periphery of Film-Noir this one probably lands more than not in the Police Film or the Authorities Are Your Friend Category. These Types were Everywhere after the War. This one Preaches about Your "two dollar bet" Financing Organized Crime and Murder. These Movies were not only for Entertainment but for a sort of Public Service.Technology was also a "new" element in Law Enforcement and the Fight against Communism and Films were want to display as much High Tech Stuff as possible. We get quite a bit of that here with Electronic Whiz Kid, Edmond O'Brien strutting His Stuff and landing a Slot with the Local Mob. This is a less Personal Film then most Noir's and tends to paint with a wide brush with its Coast to Coast Crime Syndicate with tangled wires and many Locations.A good tightly wound Thriller, this has an Energy for sure and hardly ever settles down and the Interpersonal is disposed of quite Brutally at times. Interesting and more layered than most, this one has a Bigger Budget and Broader Scope than a typical B-Movie and is a well crafted, if at times Stiff, Expose.

wes-connors Edmond O'Brien (as Mal Granger) is an ordinary telephone repairman who must supplement his measly salary by betting on a few horse races; he decides to use his electronics skills to help racetrack "bookies" illegally wire results to Bad Barry Kelley (as Vince Waters). Later, Badder Otto Kruger (as Carl Stephans) takes over as head villain. Joanne Dru (as Gail) and Dorothy Patrick (as Trudy) add femininity to the film. "711 Ocean Drive" addresses, interestingly, an unsolved socio-economic problem: You can make more money in criminal activities than in most average paying jobs. Mr. O'Brien does not feel he financially able to start a home / family with his income, so he opts for the higher pay offered by his "bookie". The first "job" he takes is difficulty to accept as illegal (obviously, they had no cell phones back then); but, later on, O'Brien gets in deeper. Boulder Dam and some Los Angeles-area locations are highlights. This is a "flashback" film, describing the rise and fall of O'Brien's character Granger, accompanied by a dreadfully gooey sermon. O'Brien and the performers are enjoyable in a disappointing premise. **** 711 Ocean Drive (1950) Joseph M. Newman ~ Edmond O'Brien, Joanne Dru, Otto Kruger

dougdoepke After seeing this movie, you may not look at a telephone repairman the same way again. Actually the result seems closer to the Cagney films of the thirties than to the noirs of the forties. For phone lineman Eddie O'Brien, it's a success story, as opportunity, know-how, and drive propel him to the top of the bookie racket. Fortunately the always energetic O'Brien makes the transition from working stiff to bookie king-pin both dynamic and believable. Then too, we meet some interesting people along the way, including smoothie Otto Kruger doing his best imitation of a smiling cobra, even as young marrieds Joanne Dru and Don Porter practice their 1950's version of open marriage. And in a usual thankless part, moon-faced Barry Kelley who bull-dozes everyone within reach through eyes so pinched, they're barely more than razor slits. Still, it's unheralded bit actors like him that really make movies like this work. Director Joe Newman keeps things moving nicely, even the colorless scenes featuring the forces of law and order don't bog down the pacing. There're also some good location shots in and around LA, with an exhausting climax up and down the the stairwells of Boulder Dam as the giant turbines hum in the background. (I wonder how they get ordinary people who probably just happened to be at the dam that day, to be so natural with a movie camera and crew staring them in the face. Somehow they do.) My favorite part is setting up the "past-posting" scheme, showing how every technical innovation presents a criminal mastermind with a twisted opportunity. All in all, 7-11 may not be a jack-pot dice roll, but it is a decent thriller, entertaining if not exactly memorable.