fiction films shot on location in Chicago
Posted by:
adgorn
(---.dsl.emhril.sbcglobal.net)
Date: January 08, 2010 11:51PM
Add this one to your list - a crime thriller about Chicago called "Chicago Syndicate" (1955). It's a film-noir B-movie, but the plot was entertaining and the 50's Chicago scenes were terrific. The movie kicks off with a murder of a mob accountant who gave inside info to a newspaper man, and of course the "Syndicate" didn't like that. The newsman then gets some leading Chicago people plus lawmen together to try to "break the Syndicate wide open." They persuade Barry Amsterdam (played by Dennis O'Keefe), an aspiring accountant dreaming of starting his own business, to infiltrate the mob (headed by actor Paul Stewart) to get the lowdown on the crooks. Barry ends up doing an amazing job, for an accountant! Other interesting cast members include the real Xavier Cugat playing the band leader and his actual wife (Abbe Lane) as their singer. But the use of actual Chicago street scenes is what made this a very interesting movie for a Chicago history buff like me. You can see many long-gone or changed downtown locations (theaters, buildings, restaurants, bridges, street signs) and era shots (men in hats, big cars, 50s "el" trains & buses), as well as hear dialog about real places (streets like Halsted, Ohio, Maxwell and locations like The Palmer House). Lot's of fun! I gave it an 8.
Alan