711 Ocean Drive

Overview

Edmond O'Brien plays a telephone repairman whose electronic savvy earns him a job with a bookmaking concern. O'Brien's bookie boss Barry Kelly wants to get instant results from the nation's racetracks, and to this end O'Brien illicitly plugs into several communication centers. The wealthier O'Brien becomes, the more scruples he sheds. Eventually he runs afoul of the Big Boss of an Eastern bookie syndicate (Otto Kruger) and vainly attempts to escape with his life in a slam-bang final at Boulder Dam. 711 Ocean Drive was made to cash in on a then-current national newspaper expose of bookmaking operations.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/16/2010
UPC:	0043396355149
Original Release:	1950
Rating:	NR
Source:	ALLIED VAUGHN
Language:	English
Sales rank:	51,799

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Edmond O'Brien	Mal Granger
Joanne Dru	Gail Mason
Don Porter	Larry Mason
Sammy White	Chippie Evans
Dorothy Patrick	Trudy Maxwell
Barry Kelley	Vince Walters
Otto Kruger	Carl Stephans
Howard St. John	Lt. Pete Wright
Robert Osterloh	Gizzi
Bert Freed	Marshak
Carl Milletaire	Joe Gish
Charles La Torre	Rocco
Fred Aldrich	Peterson
Charles Jordan	Tim
Sidney Dubin	Mendel Weiss

Technical Credits

Francis Swann

Richard English

Joseph Newman	Director
Francis Swann	Screenwriter
Richard English	Screenwriter
Frank N. Seltzer	Producer

Editorial Reviews

A real firecracker of a film noir, 711 Ocean Drive is a treat for fans of the genre. Combining noir with a semi-documentary approach, 711 is ostensibly an expose of gambling rackets, but at heart it's an exploration of an ambitious individual whose quick rise through the ranks of organized crime is followed by a precipitous fall. That fall is preordained, because this man doesn't understand that in a corporate structure -- even a mob ruled one -- an outsider has to make a place for himself within the structure rather than try to co-opt it altogether. In other words, a classic noir set-up in which fatalism and nihilism are implicit, even as the protagonist struggles against it. But what makes 711 so much fun isn't this theme but the plot, the characters, the dialogue and the way all are handled by director Joseph Newman and his creative team. The technological aspect of the plot was a fresh idea in 1950 and still retains interest today. The characters are well drawn by screenwriters Richard English and Francis Swann, who also provide plenty of snappy repartee along the way. Newman and cinematographer Franz Planer have a field day visually, with sweeping panoramas of street scenes and shots that linger just a second too long on curious buildings or "hip" furnishings. The two pull out all the stops for the 10-minute climax at Boulder Dam, which is just about perfect. The director is aided by Edmond O'Brien's excellent portrayal of a brusque, frustrated working man who doesn't know when to stop once he takes things into his own hand, as well as by Otto Kruger's superb gangster.

All Movie Guide - Craig Butler