Machine-Gun Kelly (1958)

That was an excellent one.

Great Film overall

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

I've always been a tremendous fan of Charles Bronson! Let's be honest, if you like testosterone-packed action cinema with a minimum of intellect and a maximum of violence, you simply have to be a Bronson fan. But this love and admiration has always been based on straightforward action flicks (like "Death Wish", "10 to Midnight" and "Mr. Majestic) or – perhaps to a lesser extent – to his modest share in great classics (like "The Great Escape" or "The Magnificent Seven"). These are all terrific movies, and then I haven't even yet mentioned all the guilty pleasures (like "Murphy's Law", "Telefon", "The Stone Killer"…), but now I can safely guarantee that you simply haven't seen the true nature and versatile talents of Charlie Bronson before you've seen "Machine Gun Kelly"! This is truly a spectacular one-man tour-de-force performance that provides more than enough evidence that Bronson can carry an entire film, memorize a scenario full of dialogues and bring depth and personality to a seemingly bland character! Once again my deepest sympathy and respect for Roger Corman. Not only did this man discover numerous of greatly talented people and offered them their first chances in the film industry, he often also provided them the opportunity to demonstrate their versatility and potential, like here with Charles Bronson. For those too lazy to read Wikipedia (and I don't blame you), George "Machine Gun" Kelly was a real gangster during the 1920s and 1930s, active around the same time as other infamous and often heard names like John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson. The film states at the beginning, however, that the titular character is real but that the rest of the events and supportive characters in the story are pure fictional. That may be true, but still I 'm sure that both Corman and Bronson carefully studied the personality and factual crime cases that George Kelly committed in great detail, because it's too intense and plausible to be invented by a scriptwriter. The story and structure of the film are extremely well-developed. We open with a meticulously planned and executed bank robbery during which Kelly and his accomplices switch vehicles, split up in groups and hand over the loot to a fourth accomplice and successfully mislead the numerous amount of police officers. Throughout this entire robbery scheme, not a single word is spoken, yet we already find out everything we need to know about the hierarchy within the gang and a lot about the gangsters' personas. It's praiseworthy how Corman brings all of this into scene. In fact, if you watch both "Machine Gun Kelly" and also "The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre" (1967), you find it almost regrettable that he didn't make any more factual mafia/gangster sagas. Under the subtle influence of his woman and her brothel-owning mother, Kelly wants to climb up the gangster ladder and become more than a feared bank robber. He develops a plan to kidnap the only daughter of a rich industrialist widower and becomes public enemy number one in a very brief period of time. But Machine Gun Kelly is such a megalomaniac and aggressive individual that he turns all his henchmen against him. On top of that, he has a phobia for death and dying that interfere with his plan at the most inconvenient moments. Bronson's performance is one of the most impressive ones I've ever seen in a low-budgeted B-movie. He finds the exact right balance between psychopathic and pathetic, between robust and vulnerable and between petrifying and pitiable. Kelly insults and shouts at everybody, takes pleasure into hurting people and carelessly cheats on his wife, but when he spots a coffin or even just a funeral home, he cringes! With a few exceptions left, I've seen all of Bronson's movies, but this is the one and only where he puts a dozen (and more) emotions into his character. Corman also ensures a fast pacing, suspense and many action-packed sequences. The only real default of the film is the rather irritating and excessively overused music.

Machine Gun Kelly is directed by Roger Corman and written by Robert Wright Campbell. It stars Charles Bronson, Susan Cabot, Morey Amsterdam, Jack Lambert, Frank DeKova and Connie Gilchrist. Music is by Gerald Fried and cinematography by Floyd Crosby. George Francis Barnes Junior, AKA: Machine Gun Kelly, was a prohibition era American hoodlum, this movie is an interpretation of his time in the public enemy limelight. Never climbing up to high energy rat-a-tat-tat action levels, Corman's "mini" biopic none the less breezes along and remains fascinating throughout. The makers paint Kelly as something of a weak willed type of guy who is impotent without his Thompson Submachine Gun. This is a man firmly dangling on the end of the puppet strings being twirled and pulled by his Moll, Flo Becker. Oh he's not beyond slapping his woman around, or bullying one of his weaker willed accomplices, but Corman and Campbell assure us that Kelly is not to be gloried, even giving him a pathological fear of dying that shows him in this movie form as something of a coward. Of course this is just a movie, and for historical facts and figures et al, folks are warned this is not a biography to use as a starting point to explore Kelly's reputation… Bronson as Kelly is wonderfully broody and he handles the fluctuations in Kelly's psyche with convincing skill. Cabot as Flo is a sex-bomb, and deviously appealing with it she is as well, while Amsterdam gets to play a character so colourful and kinked, it wouldn't be out of place in classic era film noir. Crosby was an ace cinematographer, capable of making the cheapest crime movie production looking a whole lot more expensive, such is the case here. While Fried provides a progressive jazz musical score that ranges from Ant Hill Mob like breeziness to funky piano based frenzies. All in all, a good gangster movie that benefits from some well written and performed characterisations. 7/10

The movie is so so but the acting of Charles Bronson shines even in this early career low budget film.The movie is made by American International Pictures that produced many low budget movies of the '50s with varying qualities. One thing American International Pictures did right was choosing their actors, and many future greats had their start with their movies. Charles Bronson was on the verge of breaking big with this movie. He would soon become a recognizable face with TV series "Man with the Camera". His rise to stardom was definitely not a fluke as you can see in this movie. He plays a mean character, but he has charisma that's not of a rough gangster without principles.The production of the movie is woefully basic, but actors are good, and the way the scene changes is very different from the movies made today, which gives the feeling of nostalgia. Maybe nostalgia is not misplaced as you see many faces that played supporting roles in many of the '60s and '70s movies. Not a great movie, but the presence of Charles Bronson makes this movie worth watching.

A unique crime story -- a small-time thief (Bronson) is turned into a legend by his tough-as-nails moll (Cabot). "Machine Gun" robs a chain of banks and finally turns his ambitions to kidnapping -- hounded all the way by a compulsive fear of death. The photography by Crosby is elegant, the acting of the lead pair and the supporting cast are all pretty much dead-on. A tight, efficient telling of a memorable tale, peopled with all sorts of interesting characters (the gas station owner/accomplice who keeps a deadly menagerie behind the garage, Cabot's mom who keeps telling Kelly what a disappointment he is because he hasn't broken into the "big time", etc.). Interestingly, this film takes the gangster genre beyond film noir (finally, after 3 decades) by making his characters not only self-loathing but WORTHY of self-loathing!One of Corman's very best films as a director.