Cidade Ameaçada (1960) Online

BEWARE SPOILERS HERE !!!!

I expected a little more from this crime film from Brazil. I hesitate to define it as a crime or a drama feature. A drama scheme used as a pretext for a crime, or a crime scheme used a pretext for a drama. But one thing is quite sure, this is a film made for large audiences with a propaganda line in it. The good girl in love with a handsome hoodlum, to make girls cry, and then at the end SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS, the good girl succeeds in her life by quitting the hoodlum in jail. No, definitely a romantic sweet crime drama, but not a gangster movie, even if we see gangsters. See what I mean?

But it is a rare gem anyway, and only for this, try it if you can. Nothing to do with RIFIFI, as another user said.

"Cidade Ameaçada" ("Threatened City") tells about a famous outlaw named Passarinho ("Little Bird") who terrorized São Paulo with his notorious robberies, extensively covered by the media. The movie is a fictional version of a real story, and despite some researches I couldn't find who the real man was - some say he was called Promessinha, but all I could find is articles related with this movie and people got it all wrong, he is called Passarinho through the whole thing.

The character is played by Reginaldo Faria, and he's quite an interesting leading man, a real star who easily convinces you that he can be dangerous yet he can also be charming, he has a presence that makes you believe he's appealing to any girl out there. And this is greatly used when he meets the woman of his life, a poor hard working girl (Eva Wilma, brilliant) who helped him escape from the police during a chase. The movie focus on their troubled relationship, always trying to stay away from trouble but hardly ever succeeding; and the journalists, the police following their steps.

What's missing in it that makes it confusing or troubled? Passarinho's group is a terrible and dangerous group but the writer forgot to include scenes where they show such intent; there's only two robberies in the movie and they're all feel like "Rififi" without the excitement and the complexity but both present great robberies where criminals don't face any obstacle involving other people. We don't get to see any shooting or violent acts. A nod that media was always inventing something in order to create terror and sell news or the censorship at the time didn't want to shock the then audiences? Question marks again.

It's a decent film, though staggering and heavily clichéd, and it's a better fictional version of a real case than "O Bandido Da Luz Vermelha" was. Some characters are involving, some sequences are interesting to follow (the first escape with Passarinho's group rolling down the hill with the cops shooting behind them) but it's really difficult to get deeply involved. The central pair acting is very good and makes the whole thing enjoyable. Wilma is a pleasure to see with her innocence and good will trying to help Passarinho, her former classmate. And Milton Gonçalves, always excellent, steals the show as a member of Passarinho's gang. Movie was good enough for me, just needed an extra work. 6/10