The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Excellent, smart action film.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

This 1967 Roger Corman gangster flick is a rare up market sortie for the usually bargain basement producer, though the film looks to of been shot entirely on the old Fox studio lot, that and the colour film gives the movie a unrealistic unauthentic atmosphere.The movie is fairly accurate representation of known events though highly condensed but i found the narration particularly irritating and unnecessarily.But my biggest grip was the miscasting of Jason Robards as Al Capone he looks nothing like the real Capone and showed none of the charm that Capone was said to possess. This is really just a dressed up B movie, no shame there and as such is quiet watchable though far from memorable.A generous 5.75 out of 10.

The infamous St. Valintine Day Massacre in 1929 was the beginning of the end of Chicago mobster Alfonse "Big Al" Capone, Jason Robards, in that it drew the attention of the US Justice Department as well as IRS on him that eventually ended up putting him behind bars, for of all things tax evasion, and out of commission for good. It was the Irish George "Bugs" Moran and "Bug's, Ralph Meeker, himself that Capone targeted who in fact escaped being killed just moments before the shooting began. Moran and his boys were out having a cup of coffee that snowy morning that kept them away from the garage on 2122 N. Clark St where the massacre happened.Big Al had it in for Moran since 1924 in him trying to cut in on his action in North Chicago that drove him psycho.It was his overreaction to all this that in the end put then heat-or law- on Big Al like no other mobster ever could. The St. Valintine Day Massacre was the last of the Capone gangland wipe-outs that resulted, on both sides, in some 600 gang land killings in Chicago during the Capone years and by far the bloodiest. Not only did seven members of the "Bugs" Moran gang get killed but those who murdered them over the next few years ended up also getting iced themselves. As for "Bugs" Moran he in fact died in his sleep in 1957 after serving a 10 year sentence on a robbery conviction.Using hoods dressed as Chicago police Capone, who at the time was vacationing in far off and sunny Florida, had Moran's boys feel they were just getting pinched by the police on a minor charge and be booked and let go before the day ended. As things turned out it was to be the last day of their lives. Director Roger Corman's first major movie that had him being taken seriously by the Hollywood big wigs who never thought that much of him and his talent as a serious filmmaker.P.S It was Capone's use of fake police to do his dirty work that was soon to be copied by fellow big time mobster "Lucky" Luciano two years later in the notorious September 10, 1931 massacre-Depicted in movies like "Stone Killer" & "The Valichi Papers"- of some 40 old line Mafia hoods in NYC and its surroundings that in the end made the mob or Mafia far more effective dangerous and successful, by letting non Sicilians to join it, then it even was during the Al Capone era.

My summary quote spoken by Al Capone (Jason Robards) is quite insightful into the mind of a gangster, who lives by a different moral code than the rest of society. While speaking that line, Capone is in the midst of planning to take out his North Side rival Bugs Moran (Ralph Meeker), almost as if it's his civic duty to unite all illegal activities in the city under one crime family.Well I'm not a student of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, but reading a handful of reviews on this board it seems this film was a fairly accurate representation of the events leading up to that fatally famous day. Criticism of Robards' choice to portray Capone doesn't bother me much, though I have to say he did take it over the top at times. His "We're gonna get him before he gets me" line in the face of his gang's seeming reluctance to go for all out war was about as definitive a statement a mobster can make outside of "Make him an offer he can't refuse".There's a cool cast of supporting players here, and probably the best scene for me was George Segal displaying his aversion to fur coats when his gal Myrtle (Jean Hale) revealed the price tag. That tussle just seemed to go on and on and I never did get the impression the coat was going back. I had to do a double take a couple of times when it looked like Jack Nicholson showed up as one of the tommy gunners; his uncredited appearance here was kind of cool.One item I'll have to go back and check was that flashback scene of Al Capone recounting the first attempted hit on his life, occurring across the street from a movie theater. The marquee displayed the title 'The Mad Rider' but there's nothing like that in the IMDb database. There are a handful of films going by "The Masked Rider" prior to 1922 and another one in 1941 which wouldn't have worked, so I'm curious as to why the film makers used that title. A half century later now so I don't think we'll ever know.

This movie is a film which every Chicagoan should love. The historical account of the St Valentine's Day Massacre was on which mesmerized millions of people, and how it restructured the syndicate's power back in the 1930's.! The 1929 catastrophe underlined the ruthless struggle with which the Irish and the Italians were engaged in. Presently, Boston is the only city in the United States where the Irish rule organized crime. The Italians run the most prominent criminal mobs in virtually every other city! Bugs Moran and Al Capone were two criminal leaders who operated very differently. Their personal agreements with one another established ground-rules about demographics. Capone had the south and west sections of the city, and Moran had the north. The whole predicament manifested itself when these organizations perceived that one was invading on another one's turf!! This heinous violence had the entire city of Chicago by the throat. The movie "The St Valentine's Day Massacre" depicted the precarious scenario very astutely! Jason Robards played Al Capone brilliantly, this is remarkable, especially considering that he is not even Italian! The directing and the authentication of Chicago in 1929 was excellent! I have an affinity for gangster movies, and this one is one of my favorites!! See this film if you possibly can!!