Brian Burke Movies

The detectives discover that a young junkie found dead in the yard of a day-care center was the daughter of a wealthy family. Further investigation reveals that the woman was taken to her final "resting place" as she was dying. The question: Is it possible that someone very close to the victim would have allowed her to perish in so ignominious a fashion? ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Filmed independently in Boston, Mission Hill has been undeservedly ignored by most sourcebooks. Alice Barrett plays a young woman with dreams of becoming a popular singer. Unfortuantely, Alice is saddled with an unpredictable teenaged brother, played by Brian Burke. Every time the family makes some progress, Burke scotches things with his propensity for making trouble. Director Robert C. Jones wisely avoids judging his characters: everyone's human, even those who don't alway behave that way. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

An ex-cop finds himself on the outs with both sides of the law in this drama. Tom Coletti (Frank Vincent) is a former police officer whose addiction to alcohol cost him his career and his marriage. Hoping to regain his self-respect and the love of his daughter Diane (Gloria Darpino), Tom gets a new job overseeing the destruction of corporate bonds issued on a New Jersey bank. Tom can use some money, and Diane is desperate to get away from her abusive husband, so Tom comes up with the idea of pocketing a small number of the bonds before they're burned and having a friend from the neighborhood sell them to an interested buyer. However, when members of the local syndicate get wind of this, they're angry that they haven't been given a share of the action, and Tom's middleman winds up dead. Tom is now targeted both by the customer who wanted the bonds and the angry mobsters and must turn to his former partner Jimmy (Gian DiDonna) for protection. Also known as Paperblood, West New York marked the feature debut for director Phil Gallo; he also wrote the screenplay, edited the film, and composed the original score. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Childhood chums Rocky Sullivan (James Cagney) and Jerry Connelly (Pat O'Brien) grow up on opposite sides of the fence: Rocky matures into a prominent gangster, while Jerry becomes a priest, tending to the needs of his old tenement neighborhood. Rocky becomes a hero to a gang of teenaged boys (played by Dead End Kids Billy Halop, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Bobby Jordan and Bernard Punsley). Father Jerry despairs at this, asking Rocky to lay off so he can keep the kids on the straight and narrow. Then Rocky's crooked business associates George Bancroft and Humphrey Bogart attempt to end Father Jerry's radio campaign against the rackets by killing the priest. Rocky (whose cynical outlook on life has been softened by his romance with true-blue Anne Sheridan) shoots them down and takes it on the lam. Arrested and convicted of murder, Rocky sits smugly on death row, fully intending to go to the chair with a smile on his face. A few moments before the execution, Father Jerry pleads with Rocky to "turn yellow" so that the tenement kids will despise his memory. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi