A Los Angeles police captain ties the case of a slain policeman to a bank robbery, all in a day.
Acting
Robinson elevates every scene he's in by sheer force.
Production
Authentic LA locations shot on the cheap.
Writing
Tight day-in-the-life structure, no fat.
Director
Arnold Laven
Edward G. Robinson
Capt. 'Barnie' Barnaby
Paulette Goddard
Mona Ross
K.T. Stevens
Ginny
Porter Hall
Jack Hartrampf
Adam Williams
Marty Kusalich
Edward Binns
Al Barkis
Barry Kelley
Dwight Foreman
Jay Adler
Frankie Pierce
Mary Ellen Kay
Carol Lawson
Joan Vohs
Vickie Webb
Lee Van Cleef
Pete Monty
Dan Riss
Lt. Bob Imlay
Lewis Martin
Police Lt. Ed Chisolm
Murray Alper
Cop (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Robinson was blacklisted-adjacent in this period and took whatever work he could get, including this Allied Artists quickie shot in eleven days.
Vice Squad is essentially a 1950s police propaganda film that accidentally captures the exhaustion and moral rot of actual vice work—something Dragnet would sanitize two years later.
US
