The Pusher
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Gene Milford
Kathy Carlyle
Douglas F. Rodgers
Felice Orlandi
Robert Lansing
Sara Aman
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In the Puerto Rican tenements of New York's Spanish Harlem, a loud radio attracts a policeman to the basement rooms of the Green Tigers gang. There he finds the body of a teenaged boy named Anibal Hernandez, and near it, a hypodermic needle. Lt. Peter Byrne and his partner, Steve Carella, attribute the death to suicide, believing that the youth hanged himself. Anibal's mother, however, describes her son as a happy boy who would never kill himself. Admitting that Anibal was a drug addict, Mrs. Hernandez adds that he learned his habit from his sister Maria, who had not taken drugs until she immigrated to the United States. Mrs. Hernandez then begs Lt. Byrne to find her son's murderer, even "though we are Puerto Rican." Meanwhile, Byrne's daughter Laura, who is engaged to Steve, visits her pusher and informs him of Anibal's death. Remarking that "spic punks" are unpredictable, the pusher denies involvement with the murder and offers Laura a fix. While swearing that she is not addicted, Laura accepts the heroin, but slips from the pusher's grasp when he tries to kiss her. Angry, the pusher reminds her that her fingerprints were on the hypodermic case that was found near Anibal's body. Byrne and Steve, meanwhile, interrogate the Green Tigers and incarcerate the four who have needle marks on their arms. At Byrne's home, Laura's mother Harriet notices that she is unusually jumpy but attributes this to her daughter's impending marriage. Later, Laura tells the pusher that the police now regard Anibal as a murder victim and that she is becoming frightened. Unconcerned, the pusher conducts business as usual on the street. At the Baby Doll Club, a Puerto Rican night spot where the pusher meets many of his contacts, Steve asks Anibal's sister Maria, a dancer, if a pusher might have murdered her brother. Maria warns Steve that the club is dangerous and offers to meet him at her apartment the following day. Unknown to Steve and Maria, the pusher overhears the conversation from a nearby table, and that night, after claiming that he loves Maria, he stabs her to death. Before she dies, Steve enters and hears her murmur, "Gonzo." The next day, Laura admits to Steve that she is "sick" but then rushes away. Steve follows her and sees the pusher, whose name he hears as "Gonzo," give Laura a packet of heroin. After she leaves, Steve confronts Gonzo, who explains that he gets young women hooked by giving them "powders" to calm their nerves. He then takes Steve into the bushes and shoots him. Because Steve had managed to inform Byrne of his whereabouts, the lieutenant finds his wounded partner and takes him to the hospital. At police headquarters, the gang members are beginning to experience withdrawal symptoms, and the leader mentions the name Gonzo. Later, Byrne receives a note from "G" informing him that the prints on the hypodermic case belong to his daughter. Horrified, Byrne returns home to find Laura preparing to shoot heroin into her arm. The two argue, and Byrne locks her into her room, thereby forcing her to endure a "cold turkey" withdrawal. Tormented by her screams, moans and ominous silences, Laura's parents sit by her door for many hours. At one point, Laura accuses Byrne of trying merely to protect his "cushy" job, but the next morning, she emerges from her room and apologizes. She then gives Byrne an address and tells him that the pusher's name is Doug, although the neighborhood's Puerto Ricans call him Gonzo. At the pusher's apartment, a disgruntled drug runner directs Byrne to Gonzo's hideout. Byrne finds Gonzo there, but he escapes. The lieutenant later surprises the pusher at his apartment and, after nearly killing him in a rage, turns him over to another officer. Later, at the hospital, Steve awakens from a coma and in response to Laura's tearful plea for forgiveness, assures her that "what we have to do, we'll do together."
Director
Gene Milford
Cast
Kathy Carlyle
Douglas F. Rodgers
Felice Orlandi
Robert Lansing
Sara Aman
Sloan Simpson
Beatrice Pons
Jim Boles
Ernesto Gonzales
John Fostini
David Ford
William Doerner
Antonio Obregon
Jeno Mate
Lee Jones
Donna Maran
Joanna Merlin
Crew
Jack Berk
Van Cleave
Lawrence Elow
Lawrence Elow
Edward Fenton
Ian Forrest
Donn Huffsmith
Sidney Katz
Sidney Katz
Tony Lamarca
Clay Lambert
Sascha Laurance
Sam Leve
Selma Lynch
Gene Milford
Arthur J. Ornitz
Harold Robbins
Ralph Rosenblum
William L. Rowe
Raymond Scott
Raymond Scott
Jack Shaindlin
Bernard Storper
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Although the onscreen copyright notice lists 1958 as the year of copyright, the official registration date was 1959. News items and other pre-release sources list the production company as Miro Productions and note that The Pusher was to be the first in a series of films shot in New York, under the aegis of producers Harold Robbins and Raymond Scott. Miro Productions, however, is not included in the onscreen credits, nor in any other post-production reference source.
Gene Milford, a former Oscar-winning editor, made his directorial debut with The Pusher. Technical advisor William L. Rowe was the former Deputy Police Commissioner of New York. Contemporary sources note that the picture was filmed entirely in Manhattan. Although onscreen credits read: "Introducing Kathy Carlyle," she previously had appeared in the 1958 film When Hell Broke Loose (see below). The Pusher was her last known film. Some modern sources list The Pusher as actor John Astin's feature film debut, although he is not credited onscreen and not identifiable in the print viewed.
Robert Lansing revived his role as "Det. Steve Carella" for a 1961-62 NBC television series entitled 87th Precinct. For additional information on that series and other film and television adaptations of Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels, see the entry above for the 1958 release Cop Hater.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1960
Released in United States 1960
