When I think of Cry Tough (’59), which is screening tonight at the American Cinematheque Egyptian, I think of this erotic moment between John Saxon and the Argentine-born Linda Cristal. What I really mean is that I think of Cristal’s see-through negligee. Admitting this makes me a sexist dog who should be hunted down, clubbed to death and hung upside down like Mussolini.

I’ve never made an effort to see this 1959 Spanish Harlem-set gang flick start to finish, largely because I’ve always felt that Saxon lacked intrigue and range — he’s a good actor but lacking X-factor magnetism. It isn’t streaming as we speak. Not on Amazon, anyway

From TCM summary: “Unlike many of its contemporaries, Cry Tough had existed previously in the form of a novel. Author Irving Shulman‘s 1947 book ‘The Amboy Dukes’ had charted the rise and fall of a gang of Jewish juvenile delinquents in postwar Brooklyn. Word of mouth on the novel’s status as a ‘dirty book; (replete with frank discussion of sex and drug use) helped drive sales into the millions.”