kidboots ....that's the way this movie hits you!! For all people who think that Edward G. Robinson's 1950s movies were only rehashes of his earlier hits - then they just haven't seen this film!! Robinson has an explosive performance in him as the brutal Vince Cannelli (the way Little Caesar may have ended up if he had lived)!!! And something you don't see every day - Jean Parker (she of the sentimental "Little Women" and "Sequoia") playing Cannelli's hardened gun moll and the one who masterminds the last minute escape!!Like caged animals, the prisoners pace their cells to the singing lament of "Black Tuesday". Vicious thug Cannelli is due to be executed that morning, along with another prisoner (Peter Graves) who has $200,000 hidden away in a fool proof hiding place!! But Cannelli is not looking nervous - his girl has hatched an escape plan which includes kidnapping the daughter of one of the guards over seeing the execution so he has no choice but to fall in with the plan. Which also includes taking Manning along as Cannelli hopes to get his hands on that hidden loot. One by one people are appalled by Vince's psychotic behaviour - leaving most of the people who helped him escape by the side of the road with only a lonely gun to help them in a shootout to the death when they are captured by police!! By the time they arrive at the hideout, the kidnapped daughter finds her father has already been killed and when Cannelli springs the old "if you don't give us our demands, a person is going to be killed every half hour"!! - from what the movie has revealed, you know he is not joking!! Problems start when Manning is shot and when forced to leave his sick bed to retrieve the money from a safety deposit box, leaves his calling card - a bloody finger print on the desk!! The finale features a blazing shoot out between the police and the gangsters, with innocent people fleeing flying bullets (not always successfully) - almost out bigging "The Big House"!! Highly Recommended!!

bkoganbing This little known and little seen Edward G. Robinson film takes Eddie back to the days when he was playing some quite serious gangster roles. Caesar Enrico Bandello and Johnny Rocco don't have a patch on his Vince Canelli in Black Tuesday.Imagine if Little Caesar or Johnny Rocco being captured and on death row with bank robber Peter Graves both sentenced to die that day. Only Robinson has a very well conceived plan to escape at the last minute. He takes Graves along and the rest of those on that Green Mile, the others to throw confusion and buy time and Graves because Graves has hidden $200,000.00 from his last bank job and Robinson wants to flee the country in style with lots of spending loot. Graves is no fool either. When he says the money is well hidden and only he can get to it, he's not kidding. Black Tuesday was shot on a shoestring budget and I'm sure what money they had was spent for a really good supporting cast of familiar faces. Standing out are Warren Stevens as one of the hired guns that helps Robinson crash the joint, Jack Kelly as a cub reporter who is one of many taken hostage and Milburn Stone as the prison padre taken hostage as well.Both the prison escape scene and the final gun battle are well staged and brutal for the time. The film looks like it's in need of restoration and I hope it gets it.

happytrigger-64-390517 Finding a print of Black Tuesday is still quite impossible. And it's a long time mystery : written by Sidney Boehm (The Big Heat and a dozen films noirs), directed by Hugo Fregonese (The Raid, Apache Drums and the unknown Six Convicts), photographed by Stanley Cortez (Night Of The Hunter and so many more) and with EG Robinson as Vincent Canelli, a fast violent happy trigger killer, getting real mad all around his escape. This dream team of film noir have shot a truly desirable one. And yet, I feel slightly disappointed. Certainly not by Stanley Cortez photography, the master still being inventive with lights and shots. Certainly not by EG Robinson, his character is one of his best in his career and he is strongly supported by Peter Graves (his friend then his victim) and Jean Parker as his girlfriend. I think Sidney Boehm's script is not enough worked, lacking nervous speed and more complexity, especially in the first two parts : the escape from jail and the hold-up bank. The third and last part is more atmospheric with police forces attacking the gangsters in their refugee with a storm of bullets and gas. I find Black Tuesday yet very interesting and we need to see a remastered print to get the ultimate opinion on one of the rarest film noir (after Incident by William Beaudine). Time will tell.

brliqq Edward G. Robinson shows he still could do the gangster role and keep the performances fresh. Unlike the mob bosses Robinson played in"Little Ceaser", "The Last Gangster", and "Key Largo", the role of Vincent Canelli is more modern and vicious than the typical cigar chewing prohabtion gangster. Canelli and gunman Manning{Peter Graves} await their death sentence with a bunch of other prisoners on death row. Canelli's mob kidnap the daughter of one of the prison guards andblackmail the guard in helping the death row inmates bust outta the joint!! Canelli needs Manning's money that he stashed away for his final getaway and Manning is just looking for freedom. The story leadsto a moral climatic stand-off with escaped killers vs. the police. The soul-less Canelli shows how low killers will go to survive. Great performance by Robinson and Graves, especially Robinson who plays agangster ahead of those times. It's sad that not enough people know about this movie. If your any type of gangster, suspense, or just a Eddie G. fan, GET YOUR HANDS ON A COPY OF THIS FILM... NYA'SEE!!!!!