![]() Her vividly titular performance as the cheeky, sly broad of Kelly's is dominantly manipulative. Equally as impressive was his icy co-star Susan Cabot. For his first lead role he plays it accordingly, with an on edge and moody shade of an infant bully. One of the major curiosities however, would be that of Charles Bronson's sterling performance as George "Machine-Gun" Kelly. Actually there's plenty of time and focus on the material, and that of the complex character of Kelly. Corman's style isn't overly jumpy, but more so tight, tough and namely suggestive in its actions and basic story telling. While Gerald Fried's jazzy music score keeps it all in an exciting and saucy mood. The picture looked good, and photographer Floyd Crosby's sharp and shadowy handling brought out the film's brooding ambiance. "Machine-Gun Kelly" is another fine example of perfect film-making on a minimal budget and time restraint, where he's still able to deliver a sturdy, brisk and fleshed-out b-gangster film with a professional touch. She influences him into kidnapping a wealthy businessman's daughter, but this would lead onto their downfall with Kelly's lurking weakness coming through. After ridding that problem, due to Flo's pressure to do something. After one successful bank robbery after another, one turns into a botch job with Kelly's phobia of death leaving on his men dead and the other wanting his blood. George Kelly is a small-time crook looking to make some big newspaper headlines to impress his imposing moll Flo. For him and Bronson's performance I'll give this a "7". Given acceptance of Corman's production value limits and the script's, Amsterdam's Fandango is a really vicious character, and a welcome surprise to people who just recall the marvelous comic performer. Here he plays a petty criminal who is injured on the way up by Kelly, and helps bring him down. Amsterdam, a great one liner comic in the Henny Youngman tradition, is best recalled for his regular role as "Buddy Sorrell" in THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW in the 1960s, especially when confronting his bete noir Richard Deacon as producer "Mel Cooley". But the role to watch in this film is that of Morey Amsterdam as Fandango. In reality Flo was able to manipulate George, and was whatever brains the organization actually had. We see that he is fixated on being a mean, violent man, who is trying to impress his girlfriend Flo (Susan Cabot). Here we are watching the rise and fall of a criminal legend, played well by Charles Bronson, and directed with some restraint by Roger Corman. Hoover and his men had a fairly simple time catching the inept Kelly. ![]() man summarizes Kelly correctly (he calls him "Pop Gun" for his lack of real courage) this film is totally wrong about the story - it basically jettisons it. But aside for one moment at the tail end of this movie where an F.B.I. Edgar Hoover went after the kidnappers, and actually captured Kelly and his gang (and Urchell was not hurt). The Urchell case made headlines across the nation that year because of the size of the ransom demand (over $100,000 - quite a sum in Depression America), and because in 1933 every kidnapping resurrected the hurt felt (at that time) that nobody had been arrested and made to pay for the kidnap murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr. If you watch this movie to understand the story about the kidnapping of Oklahoma oil magnate Charlie Urchell in 1933 by George "Machine Gun" Kelly and his gang, you are going to be disappointed. ![]()
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