Crime and Punishment USA *** (1959, George Hamilton, Frank Silvera, Mary Murphy) – Classic Movie Review 13,753

‘These are the Young and the Wanton, the Beat and the Bad!’ George Hamilton makes his film début in the 1959 film Crime & Punishment, USA, an updated and relocated version of the 1866 Fyodor Dostoevsky classic novel Crime and Punishment.

‘Look Deep Into the Eyes of America’s Violent Generation! These are the Young… and the Wanton… the Beat… and the Bad!’

Director Denis Sanders’s 1959 film Crime and Punishment USA stars George Hamilton, Frank Silvera, and Mary Murphy.

George Hamilton plays a Californian law student who murders a pawnbroker, then trades wits with the detective on the case, police Lieutenant Porter (Frank Silvera).

George Hamilton makes his film début in an updated and relocated version of the Fyodor Dostoevsky classic novel Crime and Punishment, with the action transferred from 19th-century Russia to contemporary Santa Monica and the characters to the late-Fifties beat generation.

The ambitious, intriguing project by the Sanders brothers, director Denis Sanders and producer Terry Sanders, can be given the benefit of the doubt and the same could be said of Hamilton’s promising performance (as the law student Raskolnikov, here called Robert Cole). Frank Silvera enjoys himself as the Inspector Porfiry character, here called police Lieutenant Porter. Mary Murphy co-stars as Sally, with Marian Seldes as Debbie Cole.

Herschel Burke Gilbert’s score is outstanding. Walter Newman adapts the novel.

Cast: George Hamilton, Frank Silvera, Mary Murphy, John Harding, Marian Seldes, Wayne Heffley, Toni Merrill, Lew Brown, Sid Clute, Ken Drake, Jim Hyland, Len Lesser, Eve McVeagh.

Hamilton was Bafta nominated as Best Foreign Actor, though he was cast on his looks, because of his similarity to Anthony Perkins.

It is also styled Crime & Punishment, USA.

The film was made in 1958 and released on November 1, 1959.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,753

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