The Hoodlum Priest

The Hoodlum Priest is a 1961 film by Irvin Kershner, based on the life of Father Charles Clark of St. Louis, who ministered to street gangs. It was entered into the 1961 Cannes Film Festival. The movie stars Don Murray who also coproduced and cowrote the screenplay under the pseudonym Don Deer.

A.H. Weiler of the New York Times said An unrelievedly grim, serious and actionfilled case against an uncompromising attitude toward former convicts and capital punishment, it evolves, through an unpretentious, documentary treatment, as tough and persuasive, if disquieting, drama. ... There is no doubt, however, as to the films sharp, authentic pictorial look, since it was photographed largely in St. Louis, whose lower depths rise strikingly before an audience. Its cheap saloons, alleys and slums, photographed in newsreel detail by Haskell Wexler, lend polish and support to the fast pace maintained by the director, Irvin Kershner, whose experience stems largely from television.

Source: Wikipedia