sol1218 (Some Spoilers) Trying to muscle in on Portland Oregon's taverns and restaurant trade the Seattle Mob at first infiltrates and then takes over the local teamster unions using them to blackmail anyone, depending on the truckers delivering their booze and food products, who doesn't play ball with them.It's when the mobsters started putting pressure on tavern owner George Madison, Edward Binn, that things started to backfire on them. Madison a hard working man and WWII vet at first gave into the mobs demands in buying their exclusive booze, trucked in by the corrupted teamsters, for his customers as well as installing a number of pinball machines. It's when the mob started to press their luck on him that George started to push back.It's when Seattle mobster the hot in the pants, for underage females, Joe, Frank Gorshin, attacked and tried to rape George's teenage daughter Ruthie, Carolyn Craig, that George took matters into his own hands. At first cold cocking the surprised, in George coming to his daughters rescue, Joe and knocking him out cold it was then decided by Joe's bosses to ice him, since he wasn't worth all the trouble that he caused, by laying him on the railroad track, drenched with booze, and run over making it look like he was a drunk who lost his way to the ginmill. Back at the tavern George saw that booze and pinball machines where soon to be replaced with drugs and prostitution in his family oriented establishment and decided, with the cooperation of the local and still uncorrupted police, to go undercover and get the goods on the mob thus putting their sleazy operation out of commission.Using a hidden tape recorder, circa 1957, that was about the size of a lunch-box George started getting enough evidence on the mobsters, by playing along with them, to put them away for life. It's when mob moll Iris, Jeanne Carmen, started to get a little close to George, on the dance floor at his tavern, that she noticed a bulge, not where she expected it to be, under George's clothes that alerted her that he was up to no good and relayed that very important information to her boss.***SPOILERS*** With George now exposed, thanks to Iris, as a police plant the mobsters started to give him the business by working George over in having him tell them when the tape recordings he took of them where hidden. It was when George's daughter Ruthie who had fled Portland, together with her mom and kid brother, for her own safety showed up unexpectedly to attend the senior high-school dance that she together with her pop, George, was held captive by the mobsters. It's when the mobsters threatened to disfigure Ruthie's pretty face with a vile of acid is when George just lost it. With what seemed like superhuman strength George broke loose and took on the entire Portland Mob almost singlehanded until the police arrived not to rescue him but the mobsters whom he was on the verge of annihilating!Filimed entirely in and around the "City of Roses" Portland Oregon the movie "Portland Expose" shows how one man pushed to he brink can become a one man demolition squad to the shock and surprise to those who did the pushing. It was the Portland Mobs misfortune to find that very important lesson out the hard and bare knuckles way!

MartinHafer This film begins with a rather unnecessary and stuffy prologue. Fortunately, despite this weak introduction, the film turns out to be a very, very tough film indeed--with thugs who are child molesters or threaten to throw acid in people's faces. This is NOT your typical 1950s Film Noir movie, but a hard as nails look at organized crime in a rather unexpected locale--Portland, Oregon.You'll probably notice Virginia Gregg in the female lead. She was seen in 1001 "Dragnet" episodes. Edward Binns, a fine character actor whose name you probably won't recognize plays Gregg's husband--a man who is being forced by the local mob to play ball. Frank Gorshin, in a small but memorable role, plays the rapist who is so vile even the gang is disgusted by him.As for the plot, it's a very familiar one--having been seen in such earlier films as LOAN SHARK and APPOINTMENT WITH DANGER. An honest guy is sick of the mob, so he agrees to join them in order to get evidence to prosecute them. In this case, Binns pretends to be a rather worldly and not too honest man who is interested in moving up in the organization. However, despite being familiar, the film is handled well and is more than just another time-passer.

David (Handlinghandel) This is a tough look at the difference between unions and criminally controlled protection. Portland is a peculiar setting for a film noir. It works well, though: The opening narrative begins like a travelogue and gradually shifts into comments on the city's corruption.The cast is excellent. It's not always the most beautiful looking group. The ingénue, who is pretty, wears her hair slicked back with what looks like Brylcreme. Virginia Gregg, the notable radio actress playing her mother, looks a little old for the role and tired.It's a twisted movie, though. Catch this: Frank Gorshin, of all people, plays a hit man who is also a pedophile! That's a new one on me -- though child molestation does figure in that great classic of weirdness, film noir, and beauty "The Naked Kiss" a few years later.The bit players add a lot. There's a scene, just a throwaway, in which a blonde playing a slot machine yells "Jackpot!" and goes into paroxysms of glee as the camera moves away and dumps her.And the portly older gal imported to Portland to oversee the b-girl business is fabulous. We meet her as she gets off a plane and totters along in her high heels, fur stole wrapped defiantly around her. Her description of her "girls" is priceless: It prefigures the introduction Melanie Griffith provides herself in "Body Double" decades later.Make no mistake: This is a serious movie. It was obviously done on the cheap. But it's done with great style.

funkyfry Who knew the dangers of the pinball machine racket? Often in these kinds of movies the hero makes one tiny slip-up that leads him down a path of ruin -- all the poor guy in this movie did was agree to put a pinball machine in his little country bed and breakfast near Portland Oregon. But soon a mob of acid-wielding goons show up, accompanied by pedophilic maniac Frank Gorshin, and force him to turn his place into a full on juke joint. Grown men and women in mixed company leer at the bouncing pinballs and drinks are mixed fast and furious. It all looks like the soda fountain in "Reefer Madness." Eventually we're treated to a party scene where the woman who's supposed to be the best "madame" in the USA serves fruit punch for the guests. It's just that type of movie.Virginia Gregg's rough features serve her well when she shows maternal concern -- she represents all that is good and sacred in the American Way. Carolyn Craig has strong features as well, and I liked the way she kissed off the yokel he tried to tell her they were "going out in the country" because she had "been around." The ensuing confrontation with Gorshin's hood is definitely a pretty raw depiction of sexual hunger. It's a very effective sequence of events, even if highly predictable. I believe what George (Ed Binns) says when he says "this is one thing that I'm gonna see through, all the way." I guess the interesting thing about the sequence of events is that the girl is exposed to dangerous and aggressive sexuality in both instances, but as it turns out (the boy is contrite and writes a heartfelt letter) one of them was only harmless enthusiasm while of course the other was psychopathic mania. So hard for a good 50s girl to tell the difference! Another sinister aspect of the movie is the union/labor involvement with the pinball racket. I don't know if the movie was made by ultra-conservatives who were trying to smear labor by associating it with the criminal element but that's what it sure looks like to me. Of course just like "corrupt cop" movies they make sure to include at least one good honest labor guy, Al Gray (Francis De Sales). The scene with the labor meeting has some really odd dialog.... "Al Gray will conduct the séance....." On the whole it's not a very memorable movie but I liked the performances and it's a good take on the theme of a little guy who tackles the big criminals. Not a true "noir" movie as some apparently have claimed, at least not in my opinion."Memorize this name: Alfred Gray. Do not make a note of it."