'The Phenix City Story'

This is part documentary and part film noir. It's about Phenix City in the 1950s, an Alabama town run by the mob. Imagine Bedford Falls when George Bailey is never born: Bars, clubs, whoring, drinking, fighting and gambling.

A small cadre of citizens attempt to fight back; however, any headway is met by the strong arm of the mob's enforcers.

All based on fact, the film's pinnacle is the assassination of the attorney general nominee, who promised to clean up Phenix City.

It's one of the truly darkest films I've seen especially of the noir genre and even relatively early American cinema. It's extremely violent and bloody already.

However, one detail that really caught my attention was the murder of a little girl. It was early in the film: As the men begin taking action against the corrupt government and law enforcement, the mob goes out and kidnaps the young daughter of a African American conspirator.

The next scene shows a car driving out of control and throwing the girl's body into the front yard of the soon-to-be attorney general candidate. The girl was dead.

This is alarming on several fronts. For one, there's no clear record that any girl was murdered by the mob as part of this actual narrative. Furthermore, you don't find a lot of films that kill off children. Even the darkest, most realistic films don't include that.

Then consider that Albert Patterson, the reluctant candidate for reform, is moved only slightly. You see, at this point in the film he had no intention in running for attorney general in attempt to reform the town. It was only later when a family friend was murdered and the grand jury failed to indict the clear murderer does Patterson agree to run for office. Not the murder of a young African American girl.

The murder of the girl is not mentioned until the very end of the film when her father notes that he was prepared to take revenge for her death, but fell back on the commandment of not killing. Black or white, I would think the murder of a young girl would turn a small, provincial city in the south on its head. Seemingly, it didn't. Maybe a sign of the times or a piece of the story that no one simply cared about.