Across 110th Street is about three desperate black criminals, whose ambitions are checked by poverty, racism, and their own criminal pasts, who rob the Mafia intending to strike it rich. Instead they end up killing a number of gangsters and two police-officers, and bring a nightmare down on their lives as mobsters ruthlessly hunt them down one by one and torture them for leads to another collaborator. Yaphet Kotto and Anthony Quinn play police officers who are trying to track down the robbers before the Mafia can get to them. Kotto has to deal with the racism, brutality, and corruption of his elder partner.
I really like this film. This is one of Kotto's best performances I have ever seen, as a noble detective who is overwhelmed by the situation. The film does not glamorize violence at all--all that violence accomplishes is bring pain, and even its perpetrators become engulfed by it.
The biggest problem with the film is that the film is a little too efficient with its narrative, and many of the characters (even the two leads) seem to function merely to advance the plot.