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''The Phenix City Story'' is a 1955 RippedFromTheHeadlines FilmNoir about the 1954 assassination of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Patterson Albert Patterson]] in [[CaptainObvious Phenix City]], Alabama. The film was directed by Creator/PhilKarlson and stars [[Creator/JohnMcIntire John McIntire]] as Al Patterson and Creator/RichardKiley as his son John.
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''The Phenix City Story'' is a 1955 RippedFromTheHeadlines American FilmNoir about the 1954 assassination of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Patterson Albert Patterson]] in [[CaptainObvious Phenix City]], Alabama. The film was directed by Creator/PhilKarlson and stars [[Creator/JohnMcIntire John McIntire]] as Al Patterson and Creator/RichardKiley as his son John.
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/phenix_city_story.jpg]]
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-->"[[AC:This will happen to your kids too.]]"
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* DestroyTheEvidence: The narrator outlines how the mob handles evidence against it.
-->"The rule of the mob regarding evidence is simple: If it's human, kill it. If it's on paper, burn it up."
-->"The rule of the mob regarding evidence is simple: If it's human, kill it. If it's on paper, burn it up."
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* DestroyTheEvidence: The narrator outlines how the mob handles evidence against it.
it. We get to see them put it into practice multiple times throughout the film.
-->"The rule of the mob regarding evidence is simple: If it's human, [[HeKnowsTooMuch killit. it]]. If it's on paper, [[FieryCoverup burn it up.up]]."
-->"The rule of the mob regarding evidence is simple: If it's human, [[HeKnowsTooMuch kill
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''The Phenix City Story'' is a 1955 RippedFromTheHeadlines FilmNoir about the 1954 assassination of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Patterson Albert Patterson]] in [[CaptainObvious Phenix City]], Alabama. The film was directed by Creator/PhilKarlson and stars Creator/JohnMcIntire as Al Patterson and Creator/RichardKiley as his son John.
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''The Phenix City Story'' is a 1955 RippedFromTheHeadlines FilmNoir about the 1954 assassination of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Patterson Albert Patterson]] in [[CaptainObvious Phenix City]], Alabama. The film was directed by Creator/PhilKarlson and stars Creator/JohnMcIntire [[Creator/JohnMcIntire John McIntire]] as Al Patterson and Creator/RichardKiley as his son John.
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Added DiffLines:
''The Phenix City Story'' is a 1955 RippedFromTheHeadlines FilmNoir about the 1954 assassination of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Patterson Albert Patterson]] in [[CaptainObvious Phenix City]], Alabama. The film was directed by Creator/PhilKarlson and stars Creator/JohnMcIntire as Al Patterson and Creator/RichardKiley as his son John.
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!!Provides examples of:
* AndYourLittleDogToo: The mobsters dump the dead body of [[spoiler:Zeke Ward]]'s daughter on the Pattersons' lawn with a note attached.
-->"[[AC:This will happen to your kids too.]]"
* AsTheGoodBookSays: Zeke talks John out of killing Tanner by pointing out that ''Literature/TheBible'' says "thou shalt not kill."
* BigBad: Mob boss Rhett Tanner, who runs the Poppy Club and all the organised crime in Phenix City, is the main antagonist and directly or indirectly responsible for all the bad things that happen in the movie.
* ChairmanOfTheBrawl: When John Patterson gets in a fight with Clem Wilson at the Poppy Club, one of the other patrons comes at John with a chair.
* CharacterNarrator: John Patterson, Albert Patterson's son, narrates parts of the film.
* TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch: Al points out that the claim that [[spoiler:Fred Gage]] died by falling out of a moving vehicle and fracturing his skull in the process is patently absurd considering the ditch he was found in was filled with sawdust and thus "as soft as any bed in town".
* DeadGuyOnDisplay: The mobsters dump the dead body of the daughter of a Patterson family friend on the Pattersons' lawn as a threat.
* DestroyTheEvidence: The narrator outlines how the mob handles evidence against it.
-->"The rule of the mob regarding evidence is simple: If it's human, kill it. If it's on paper, burn it up."
* DiesWideOpen: The dead girl whose body is dumped on the Pattersons' lawn as a threat has her eyes open.
* DramaticIrony: Al Patterson states repeatedly that he may be killed for trying to fight the organized crime in Phenix City. The viewer knows either from history or from the prologue that he will be.
* FieryCoverup: The mobsters set fire to the evidence that has been collected against them by Al Patterson and his associates. The narrator (Al's son John) thus snarks:
-->"That night in Phenix City, they tried to destroy the evidence by 'a fire of unknown origin', to quote the police report."
* FirstPersonSmartass: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. The narrator only makes two snarky comments, both about the police being corrupt. See FieryCoverup and UnreliableVoiceover.
* ForegoneConclusion: The film starts with a RealLife newsreel outlining the events of the film. At the time of the film's release, everybody knew of the case of Albert Patterson since it had happened only the previous year, but viewers nowadays may very well go into the film unawares and be spoiled.
* HeKnowsTooMuch: The gangsters set out to kill Ellie, the sole witness to the assassination of Patterson. [[spoiler:They succeed.]]
* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: John Patterson is portrayed as supportive of Zeke and his family, the [[TokenMinority only non-white people in the entire film]]. In RealLife, he ran for Governor of Alabama in 1958 on a segregationist platform that earned him the endorsement of the Ku Klux Klan. Patterson was so racist that even George Wallace (of "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" infamy) complained that Patterson had "out-niggered" him after being defeated by Patterson in the nomination for Governor of Alabama.
* JuryAndWitnessTampering: {{Implied|Trope}}. After the jury acquits mobster [[spoiler:Clem Wilson]] of the murder of [[spoiler:Fred Gage]] by ruling the death accidental, John snarls that they're scared to death, to which Al replies that one can hardly blame them.
* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: After killing [[spoiler:Fred Gage]] with a blow to the head, the killer does the bare minimum to make it look like an accident by moving the body to a ditch to make it look like a traffic accident.
* MetaphoricallyTrue: It is argued InUniverse that a grand jury finding that there is no gambling in Phenix City could be construed this way--after all, it's only gambling if the player has a chance of winning, and the games in Phenix City are so heavily rigged that there isn't.
* TheMole: [[spoiler:Jeb Bassett]], one of the Pattersons' associates, secretly reports to mob boss Rhett Tanner.
* {{Newsreel}}: The film opens with a 13-minute prologue of real-life reporter Clete Roberts interviewing some of the real-life people portrayed in the film.
* PoliceAreUseless: A major obstacle in Patterson's pursuit of justice is that the Phenix City police, if not actively complicit in the mob's activities, at least consistently look the other way.
* ProlongedPrologue: The completely superfluous newsreel, which outlines the events of the film (or spoils them, if the viewer was not already familiar with the case of Albert Patterson), takes up 13 minutes of a 100-minute runtime.
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The assassination of Patterson happened on June 18, 1954. The film premiered on July 19, 1955.
* TapOnTheHead: {{Averted|Trope}}. [[spoiler:Fred Gage]] gets knocked out by being pistol-whipped, and dies of a fractured skull as a result.
* TokenMinority: The Wards are the only non-white characters in the film, which is highly conspicuous considering that the proportion of Phenix City's population categorized as "Negro" in the 1950 and 1960 censuses was 34.7% and 36.8%, respectively.
* UnreliableVoiceover: A snarky variation. The narrator describes the mob carrying out extensive voter intimidation, and follows it up with:
-->"And where were the police? ''([[AnswerCut Cut to police officers playing cards]])'' On duty. Keeping a sharp eye on things."
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: While the assassination of Albert Patterson really did happen, the events surrounding it are heavily fictionalized. Mob boss Rhett Tanner is fictional, for instance, and the scene where a dead child is dumped on the Pattersons' lawn as a threat never happened. The details of the assassination and its aftermath are also changed: in the film Patterson is shot at arm's length whereas in real life he was shot through the mouth, in the film there is a single witness whom the mob successfully silences whereas in real life there were several witnesses who later testified in the trial, in the film the mob is responsible whereas in real life the Chief Deputy Sheriff was convicted of the murder, and so on.
* ViceCity: Phenix City is run by the mob, who is able to commit all kinds of crimes up to and including murder with impunity. The police look the other way, meaning the mobsters don't get charged, and if one of them does stand trial, the jury daren't convict them.
* WouldHurtAChild: The mobsters kill the young daughter of one of John's friends and dump the body on his lawn in order to intimidate him.
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!!Provides examples of:
* AndYourLittleDogToo: The mobsters dump the dead body of [[spoiler:Zeke Ward]]'s daughter on the Pattersons' lawn with a note attached.
-->"[[AC:This will happen to your kids too.]]"
* AsTheGoodBookSays: Zeke talks John out of killing Tanner by pointing out that ''Literature/TheBible'' says "thou shalt not kill."
* BigBad: Mob boss Rhett Tanner, who runs the Poppy Club and all the organised crime in Phenix City, is the main antagonist and directly or indirectly responsible for all the bad things that happen in the movie.
* ChairmanOfTheBrawl: When John Patterson gets in a fight with Clem Wilson at the Poppy Club, one of the other patrons comes at John with a chair.
* CharacterNarrator: John Patterson, Albert Patterson's son, narrates parts of the film.
* TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch: Al points out that the claim that [[spoiler:Fred Gage]] died by falling out of a moving vehicle and fracturing his skull in the process is patently absurd considering the ditch he was found in was filled with sawdust and thus "as soft as any bed in town".
* DeadGuyOnDisplay: The mobsters dump the dead body of the daughter of a Patterson family friend on the Pattersons' lawn as a threat.
* DestroyTheEvidence: The narrator outlines how the mob handles evidence against it.
-->"The rule of the mob regarding evidence is simple: If it's human, kill it. If it's on paper, burn it up."
* DiesWideOpen: The dead girl whose body is dumped on the Pattersons' lawn as a threat has her eyes open.
* DramaticIrony: Al Patterson states repeatedly that he may be killed for trying to fight the organized crime in Phenix City. The viewer knows either from history or from the prologue that he will be.
* FieryCoverup: The mobsters set fire to the evidence that has been collected against them by Al Patterson and his associates. The narrator (Al's son John) thus snarks:
-->"That night in Phenix City, they tried to destroy the evidence by 'a fire of unknown origin', to quote the police report."
* FirstPersonSmartass: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. The narrator only makes two snarky comments, both about the police being corrupt. See FieryCoverup and UnreliableVoiceover.
* ForegoneConclusion: The film starts with a RealLife newsreel outlining the events of the film. At the time of the film's release, everybody knew of the case of Albert Patterson since it had happened only the previous year, but viewers nowadays may very well go into the film unawares and be spoiled.
* HeKnowsTooMuch: The gangsters set out to kill Ellie, the sole witness to the assassination of Patterson. [[spoiler:They succeed.]]
* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: John Patterson is portrayed as supportive of Zeke and his family, the [[TokenMinority only non-white people in the entire film]]. In RealLife, he ran for Governor of Alabama in 1958 on a segregationist platform that earned him the endorsement of the Ku Klux Klan. Patterson was so racist that even George Wallace (of "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" infamy) complained that Patterson had "out-niggered" him after being defeated by Patterson in the nomination for Governor of Alabama.
* JuryAndWitnessTampering: {{Implied|Trope}}. After the jury acquits mobster [[spoiler:Clem Wilson]] of the murder of [[spoiler:Fred Gage]] by ruling the death accidental, John snarls that they're scared to death, to which Al replies that one can hardly blame them.
* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: After killing [[spoiler:Fred Gage]] with a blow to the head, the killer does the bare minimum to make it look like an accident by moving the body to a ditch to make it look like a traffic accident.
* MetaphoricallyTrue: It is argued InUniverse that a grand jury finding that there is no gambling in Phenix City could be construed this way--after all, it's only gambling if the player has a chance of winning, and the games in Phenix City are so heavily rigged that there isn't.
* TheMole: [[spoiler:Jeb Bassett]], one of the Pattersons' associates, secretly reports to mob boss Rhett Tanner.
* {{Newsreel}}: The film opens with a 13-minute prologue of real-life reporter Clete Roberts interviewing some of the real-life people portrayed in the film.
* PoliceAreUseless: A major obstacle in Patterson's pursuit of justice is that the Phenix City police, if not actively complicit in the mob's activities, at least consistently look the other way.
* ProlongedPrologue: The completely superfluous newsreel, which outlines the events of the film (or spoils them, if the viewer was not already familiar with the case of Albert Patterson), takes up 13 minutes of a 100-minute runtime.
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The assassination of Patterson happened on June 18, 1954. The film premiered on July 19, 1955.
* TapOnTheHead: {{Averted|Trope}}. [[spoiler:Fred Gage]] gets knocked out by being pistol-whipped, and dies of a fractured skull as a result.
* TokenMinority: The Wards are the only non-white characters in the film, which is highly conspicuous considering that the proportion of Phenix City's population categorized as "Negro" in the 1950 and 1960 censuses was 34.7% and 36.8%, respectively.
* UnreliableVoiceover: A snarky variation. The narrator describes the mob carrying out extensive voter intimidation, and follows it up with:
-->"And where were the police? ''([[AnswerCut Cut to police officers playing cards]])'' On duty. Keeping a sharp eye on things."
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: While the assassination of Albert Patterson really did happen, the events surrounding it are heavily fictionalized. Mob boss Rhett Tanner is fictional, for instance, and the scene where a dead child is dumped on the Pattersons' lawn as a threat never happened. The details of the assassination and its aftermath are also changed: in the film Patterson is shot at arm's length whereas in real life he was shot through the mouth, in the film there is a single witness whom the mob successfully silences whereas in real life there were several witnesses who later testified in the trial, in the film the mob is responsible whereas in real life the Chief Deputy Sheriff was convicted of the murder, and so on.
* ViceCity: Phenix City is run by the mob, who is able to commit all kinds of crimes up to and including murder with impunity. The police look the other way, meaning the mobsters don't get charged, and if one of them does stand trial, the jury daren't convict them.
* WouldHurtAChild: The mobsters kill the young daughter of one of John's friends and dump the body on his lawn in order to intimidate him.
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