PRINCE OF THE CITY (1981)

Posted on October 10, 2022 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Sidney Lumet

SCREENWRITER: Jay Presson Allen, Sidney Lumet

FILM STARS: Treat Williams, Jerry Orbach, Richard Foronjy, Don Billett, Kenny Marino, Carmine Caridi, Bob Balaban, James Tolkan, Lindsay Crouse, Cynthia Nixon, Lance Henriksen, Alan King.

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Robert Daley

TYPE: Non Fiction Novel

PUBLISHER: Granada

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1980

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1978

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: Prince of the City: The True Story of a Cop Who Knew Too Much

NOTES

GENRE: Crime

WORDS: I saw the film when it first came out, and loved it. Director Sidney Lumet could do no wrong it seemed. The more I saw of his films I realised he could. But, even his failures are watchable. This film, is much like his 1973 film with Al Pacino, “Serpico”, also set in NYC (has many Lumet films), deals with cops, corruption and a police officer breaking the police code of silence in NYC.  Both are based on true stories  and both follow similar story arcs, though at the time of this film Lumet said he felt guilty about the two-dimensional way he had treated cops in “Serpico” and said that “Prince of the City” was his way to rectify this depiction.

The earlier film was a critical and commercial success, but “Prince of the City” wasn’t. Some complained of Treat Williams’ lack of star power compared to Pacino but Williams does well. I think the films length (167minutes) on what is a crime drama may have been a problem though that never stopped Scorsese or even “Serpico” which ran 130 mins. Perhaps, after all the 1970s NYC cop films, and the real life investigations, people were weary of the same. It’s a pity as it is a fine film. It plays like a documentary with live actors s0 perhaps it’s a good example of a late 1940s police procedural docu-drama updated.

Author Daley was a former New York Deputy Police Commissioner for Public Affairs turned writer who here wrote about the police life of Robert Leuci, an NYPD detective whose testimony and secret tape recordings helped indict 52 members of the Special Investigation Unit and convict them of income tax evasion. Though this is reportage Daley is also a novelist so the book does read like a novel.

LINKS

TRAILER

Posted in Crime, Non Fiction, Novel | Tagged | Leave a comment

CATLOW (1971)

Posted on October 7, 2022 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Sam Wanamaker

SCREENWRITER: Scot Finch, James Griffith

FILM STARS: Yul Brynner, Richard Crenna, Leonard Nimoy, Daliah Lavi, Jo Ann Pflug, Jeff Corey, Michael Delano, Julián Mateos, David Ladd, Bob Logan, Bessie Love

COUNTRY: Great Britain / USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Louis L’Amour

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Corgi

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1972

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1963

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Western

WORDS: I have read a lot of Louis L’Amour. Louis L’Amour has written a lot of books. Many Louis L’Amour novels have been filmed. I have watched many films based on Louis L’Amour novels.

Very few have been filmed successfully. This isn’t one of them. It’s a British western (produced in England but funded through MGM with American leads and director) and for whatever reason, very few British westerns work (the same applies to British film musicals). I’m not sure why …

The film, filmed in Spain, is watchable, but only due to the cast … Brynner, Crenna and Nimoy in the same film … nice. And, having Jeff Cory and the gorgeous Daliah Lavi and Jo Ann Pflug doesn’t hurt. But, the film is all over the place, oddly directed, with much tongue-in-cheek, cynical, and sardonic humour. I can’t recall it being good. I recall it being odd. Brynner’s Catlow seems too contemporary (in attitude and attire) and is not what a L’Amour hero would look like. Clearly, the film was looking towards the humorous  side of the spaghetti westerns for inspiration. Englishmen, producer Euan Lloyd, and primary screenwriter Scot Finch, wrote two other European films based on L’Amour novels The Man called Noon (1973) (in which Richard Crenna co-starred) and Shalako (1968) with Sean Connery which is the best of the three.

The book is a straight action western and different in tone to the film. It’s not one of L’Amour’s best but it is easily readable and full of the usual L’Amour types in this setting – bad guys with a heart of gold, lawmen who aren’t entirely sure that the law is the best way to achieve justice, cowboys, Indians, gunfights, danger, action and places that actually exist. Here L’Amour adopts an old film trope from gangster films of the 30s – boyhood friends who grew up to be on different sides of the law. Catlow is on the wrong side of the law, though you’d never meet a nicer guy. His best friend, Ben Cowan, is a US marshal and is kind of regretful that his duty is to catch Catlow and arrest him. Though centered on Catlow it is a little unusual for L’Amour (outside the family clan westerns) to have another central character but it works. The novel, also, has more humour than normal for a L’Amour western though not as many as the film, which is played for laughs.

LINKS

TRAILER

Posted in Novel, Western | Tagged | Leave a comment

CHUKA (1967)

Posted on October 2, 2022 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Gordon Douglas

SCREENWRITER: Richard Jessup, Rod Taylor (uncredited)

FILM STARS: Rod Taylor, Ernest Borgnine, John Mills, Luciana Paluzzi, James Whitmore, Victoria Vetri, Louis Hayward, Michael Cole, Hugh Reilly, Barry O’Hara, Joseph Sirola, Marco Lopez, Gerald York, Herlinda Del Carmen, Lucky Carson.

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Richard Jessup

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Coronet Books

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1967

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1961

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Western

WORDS: I love Rod Taylor, so, this pet project for him – he starred, co-produced and co wrote (uncredited) is a must.

The film is a brutal (for its time) western, with starving Indians on the warpath, a fort commanded by an aging ex-British Colonel, tough professional cavalry men, gunfighters, and buxom women. The cast is worth the price of admission (Taylor, Borgnine, Mills, Whitmore and Hayward) though the film is not wholly successful.

This is a B film made by a A studio trying to imitate the spaghetti westerns coming out of Italy. It doesn’t achieve that as it does not let go of its big studio apron strings. But, what we have is a interesting tangle of ideas and plot threads amid absurdities, occasional obvious sets, and plot holes. Regardless, the film is strangely entertaining, and one at the time, if I recall correctly, reminded me a little of Beau Geste (emotion under attack, a massacre and a flashback). The fort is under siege and it is manned by soldiers with back stories and some babes, Luciana Paluzzi and Angela Dorian (aka Victoria Vetri, who was Playboy Playmate of the Year in 1968 under the name of Angela Dorian). Everyone talks and everyone is flawed until the action kicks in. It’s all a little silly but director Gordon Douglas, always solid, could handle these cowboy macho heroics (Fort Dobbs (1958), Yellowstone Kelly (1959), Rio Conchos (1964), Stagecoach (1966), Barquero 1970 etc) and wasn’t afraid of emphasising (snippets of) philosophical dialogue.

Author Jessup had a colourful youth (brought up in an orphanage, became a merchant seaman, drank with Albert Camus) and put some of that onto paper. He wrote quite a few westerns (some under the pseudonym of Ricard Telfair) but is most famous for his book on poker playing, “The Cincinnati Kid”, made into a film with Steve McQueen and Edward G Robinson in 1965. Here, the script was apparently significantly reworked by producer/star Rod Taylor. The book is a good fast read but I haven’t seen the film in a while so I can’t comment on what’s been changed (or how well it’s been changed).

BTW: The title character Chuka is so named because, as a child, he hung around chuckwagons.

Posted in Novel, Western | Tagged | Leave a comment

POWER WITHOUT GLORY (1976)

Posted on September 29, 2022 by velebit2

THE FILM (Mini Series)

DIRECTOR: Douglas Sharp, Keith Wilkes, David Zweck, Oscar Whitbread, John Gauci, Michael Ludbrook

SCREENWRITER: Howard Griffiths, Cliff Green, Sonia Borg, Roger Simpson, Tom Hegarty, John Marti

STARS: Martin Vaughan, Rosalind Speirs, John Wood, Heather Canning, Terence Donovan, Wendy Hughes, George Mallaby, Michael Pate, Rowena Wallace, Tony Bonner, Gerard Kennedy, Graeme Blundell, Gus Mercurio, John Hargreaves

COUNTRY: Australia

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Frank Hardy

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Angus & Robertson

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1982

COUNTRY: Australia

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1950

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Political drama

WORDS: I recall the Made for TV mini series in Australia as a kid. It was quite the event, though I remember little about it. It was extremely popular. That I recall.

Australian television mini-series of the 1970s (this one made of twenty-six 50 minute episodes!) tended to be lavish (at least by Australian standards). They all look pretty clunky today but not without their charm … most (including this one) were filmed on location rather than on sets (no money for extravagant sets).

Hardy’s famous (famous in Australia) novel, I’m sad to say, I haven’t read, though I’ve owned it since 1986! It would have been right up my alley at one time … a cross between John T. Farrell and John O’Hara though written by someone on the left.  Its central character, a working class Catholic boy from Melbourne, becomes a gambler, bookmaker, businessman  and then a powerbroker in the Australian Labor Party.

It’s a Roman à clef (a novel in which many of the characters correlate with real-life figures of the time). Here, very closely.  The Australian Communist Party (ACP) had apparently funded Hardy (a member of the party) to write the book, because they wanted to expose corruption in politics without having to name real names and be liable in front of the courts. This fit with Hardy’s writing philosophy … he was a member of the Realist Writers Group, an Australian-wide organization of writers who believed that the function of literature was to change society. Despite the changing of names Hardy was sued by the wife of Australian political figure John Wren, who the book was ostensibly based on. Her character in the book has an affair and an illegitimate child. The case was dismissed when Hardy argued successfully that the title character was based on more than one person, and so, the wife’s character is a composite also.

 

 

Posted in Drama, Novel | Tagged | Leave a comment

THE ARRANGEMENT (1969)

Posted on September 25, 2022 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Elia Kazan

SCREENWRITER: Elia Kazan

FILM STARS: Kirk Douglas, Faye Dunaway, Deborah Kerr, Richard Boone, Hume Cronyn, Harold Gould, Michael Murphy, John Randolph Jones, Charles Drake, Barry Sullivan

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Elia Kazan

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Sphere

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1969

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1967

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Drama

WORDS: I saw this a couple of times a long time ago and recall loving it. Why, I don’t know. By that I do not mean it’s not good but apart from the general disillusionment of the central character I’m not sure why I would relate as I was in my early 20s. Maybe it was because Kirk Douglas was playing a variation on a Kirk Douglas role … the flawed hero. Something I liked and something we could do with now in the age of characters who triumph over all. Or maybe it was Faye Dunaway circa 1969. What’s not to like? Kerr and Boone offer good major supports. The rest of the cast, likewise, is strong. I watched everything by director Kazan (more than once) and here he directs from a screenplay written by him base on a book he wrote. Yep, love him or not, he was an auteur.

It seems to me now, and the film is still vivid in my rose coloured glasses mind, that I could not have appreciated the film for the right reasons being that the film is about middle age disillusionment. Disillusionment with oneself, one’s job, one’s life, one’s marriage …. the arrangement you have made to survive successfully. My life now? I have to watch the film again to see what I make of it now.

This Kazan book I have not read, but I should as I’m about the same age as the protagonist … or maybe I shouldn’t for fear it may jolt me out of my arrangement as the back cover suggests. The book was a best seller. And a recommendation from Henry Miller no less.

The film did well. Interestingly, given our (recent) times, production was shut down twice, with Douglas catching Hong Kong Flu three times.

LINKS

TRAILER

Posted in Drama, Novel | Tagged | Leave a comment

MASH (1970)

Posted on September 21, 2022 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Robert Altman

SCREENWRITER: Richard Hooker (H. Richard Hornberger and W. C. Heinz)

FILM STARS: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, Roger Bowen, René Auberjonois, Jo Ann Pflug , John Schuck, Carl Gottlieb, Tamara Horrocks, Gary Burghoff, Fred Williamson, Michael Murphy, Bud Cort, Bobby Troup, Marvin Miller, Sylvester Stallone (uncredited bit)

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Richard Hooker

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Sphere

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1980 (the 1970 edition was reprinted many, many times)

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1968

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: War, Comedy/Satire

WORDS: The basis for the hit film and for the subsequent mega hit TV series. People (film snobs usually) like to say the film is better than the TV series, and maybe it is, but they usually express their preference on the basis that the TV show deviated away from the film. Here, the film deviates away from the book.

The character and situations are there but there are some deletions (of characters), combining of others, and additions of bits and pieces of action. The book is late 60s satire, the film is 70s satire and the TV show is, TV comedy (with some satire). I like all three (the films cast is especially gold) though admittedly I grew up on the TV show (the first two seasons are magnificent … the rest so so). Author, Richard Hooker, is the pen name for former military surgeon H. Richard Hornberger and he wrote the book with W. C. Heinz. Hooker wrote two sequels. There were more sequels written credited to Richard Hooker and William E Butterworth but actually written by Butterworth alone. They were more broadly humorous, lighter, less dark, less satirical.

The film is funny though , perhaps, not as funny as the television show. Robert Altman I can take or leave as a director and his characters seem to me to be more well written than real. But, with a cast like this, it doesn’t matter.

And yes I know the title is actually M*A*S*H not MASH … but that creates all sorts of computer dramas

LINKS

TRAILER

MUSIC

Main Title Theme Song

(from an old scratchy LP which adds to the song I think)

Posted in Comedy / Satire, Novel, War, WITH MUSIC | Tagged | Leave a comment

FLAP (1970)

Posted on September 18, 2022 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Carol Reed

SCREENWRITER: Clair Huffaker

FILM STARS: Anthony Quinn, Claude Akins, Tony Bill, Shelley Winters, Victor Jory, Don Collier, Victor French, Rodolfo Acosta, Susana Miranda, Anthony Caruso, William Mims, Rudy Diaz, Pedro Regas, John War Eagle, J. Edward McKinley, Robert Cleaves

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Clair Huffaker

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Sphere

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1970

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1967

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: Nobody Loves a Drunken Indian

NOTES

GENRE: Contemporary Western, Western

WORDS: “The Last Warrior” is the British title for the film but the film is  more commonly known as “Flap” after the title character, Flapping Eagle. Tough often dismissed, I like this film. Why? Because I like Anthony Quinn, contemporary westerns (especially when set amongst Native Americans), and the mood of the times when the film was made (1969-70).

Despite it standing up for Native American rights, and taking on the government and big business, it got some flak at the time (and some praise) for its depiction of Native Americans. I think it would do less well today, especially with white middle class non-Native Americans (much like Dan Cushman’s (much maligned and misunderstood) “Stay Away Joe”). I mean any comedy about native Americans living on reservations is going to cause pitchforks to be carried to the moral high ground

I’m not sure why Englishman Carol Reed (Odd Man Out (19847), The Third Man (1949), Trapeze (1956), The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965), Oliver! (1968)) was directing this apart from the suggestion that, he not being a director of westerns, would be able to approach the subject with some freshness. The film is both broad humour and deep drama, and, the themes (land rights) are still relevant in the American west and elsewhere. The film doesn’t always work but anything with Anthony Quinn, even if it is “Zorba goes west ” works for me (the supporting cast help also).

The book is even more broadly humorous and deeply darker. Western literature (and film) of the 60s became more cynical and contemporary (even when not dealing with the contemporary west) and it is a fascinating period. All the old western authors who may have started in the 40s or 50s found they could write to a different audience. Perhaps they were changing their novels to suit the times or perhaps they found a freedom to address issues they always wanted to but either way the western started dealing with what happened to the west after it was “tamed”. This proved to be quite fertile until western literature moved into nostalgia sometime in the 80s. Huffaker, always a little more observant than your standard western writer, and often quite humorous, does both here well.

LINKS

CLIP from film

https://www.tcm.com/video/1084599/flap-1970-movie-clip-holy-last-resting-place/

 

Posted in Novel, Western | Tagged | Leave a comment

THE VIRGIN AND THE GYPSY (1970)

Posted on September 14, 2022 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Christopher Miles

SCREENWRITER: Alan Plater

FILM STARS: Joanna Shimkus, Franco Nero, Honor Blackman, Mark Burns, Fay Compton, Maurice Denham, Kay Walsh

COUNTRY: Great Britain

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: D.H. Lawrence

TYPE: Novella

PUBLISHER: Penguin

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1972

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1930

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The Virgin and the Gipsy

NOTES

GENRE: Period Drama

WORDS: I haven’t read the book or seen the film despite watching just about anything with Franco Nero in it. This was from his first cross over (as leading man) period when he made a few English language films (he was Vanessa Redgrave’s partner at the time and father to their child). They parted (only to marry in 2006) and he dated Catherine Deneuve, Goldie Hawn, Ursula Andress, Carroll Baker, Nathalie Delon and others and had a few kids in and out of wedlock. He plays the gypsy not the virgin in this film.

Posted in Drama, Novella | Tagged | Leave a comment

MR. MAJESTYK (1974)

Posted on September 11, 2022 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Richard Fleischer

SCREENWRITER: Elmore Leonard

FILM STARS: Charles Bronson, Linda Cristal, Al Lettieri, Lee Purcell, Paul Koslo, Alejandro Rey, Bert Santos

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Elmore Leonard

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Dell

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1974

COUNTRY: USA

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1974

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Action

WORDS: The film follows the book closely or, rather, the book follows the film closely. Despite being called a novel it seems to be a novelization. Leonard wrote the film’s original screenplay first it seems, and the book followed and must have included most of the rewrites (if any). But, it reads like a novel as Leonard flushes out his characters with lots of back story and internal monologue that aren’t in the film.

Leonard took the name Majestyk from a character in an earlier novel of his, The Big Bounce (1969) but, otherwise, there seems to be no further relation between both characters. Leonard’s book is vivid in its violence as its hero deals with corruption and organised crime. What is especially attractive is the semi rural (Colorado) setting rather than the city as you would otherwise expect in man up against the mob type film.

The title character Vince Majestyk, a stubborn loner, is a role that is perfect for Bronson. It is perhaps one of Bronson’s best leading roles. No one can play an angry watermelon farmer like Bronson!

Cops talking to Majestyk who want to arrest a bad guy but need Majestyk’s help.

“Still worried about your melons. You’re not going to get them picked if you’re dead.”

“And if I’m dead it won’t matter, will it?”

“You want to bet your life against a melon crop— All right, you’re on your own”.

“I have been from the beginning.”

This could have been Bronson writing a script for his own persona.

Leonard has a knack for short punchy paragraphs giving all the characters lives and backstories, even marginal or fringe ones. Bad guy, Frank Renda, wondering what he is doing with his boring girlfriend and life …

“She was starting to annoy him. Not too much yet, but starting. He had dumped a wife who had bored the shit out of him, talking all the time, buying clothes and showing them to him, and now he had a girl who was a college graduate drama major, very bright, who read dirty books. Books she thought were dirty. He said to himself. Where are you? What the fuck are you doing?”

Of course, what the bad guys don’t know is the farmer happens to be a Vietnam vet, with skills. The quiet loner pushed too far and who, unbeknownst to the bad guys, happens to be a Vietnam veteran, is a recurrent theme in 70s actions films … Billy Jack (1971), Welcome Home Soldier Boys (1971), (the great) Rolling Thunder (1977), Good Guys Wear Black (1978), and culminating in First Blood (1982) which launched another cycle of Vietnam vet action films. But here under director Richard Fleischer (a much underrated director) it is given A movie status rather than 70s B Action Movie status … even if is A status with B trappings. Fleischer’s films are always good to look at, expressive and vivid without being excessive.

Perhaps there is a wider message (about labour – Hispanic farm workers were in the news at the time) but the film unfolds from one incident and is in short compass. It is a great 70s action film (any film with Al Lettieri and Paul Koslo in the supporting cast has to be watched) and the book, a great read.

LINKS

TRAILER

Posted in Crime, Novel | Tagged | 4 Comments

THE GRISSOM GANG (1971)

Posted on September 7, 2022 by velebit2

 THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Robert Aldrich

SCREENWRITER: Leon Griffiths

FILM STARS: Kim Darby, Scott Wilson, Tony Musante, Robert Lansing, Irene Dailey, Connie Stevens, Wesley Addy, Joey Faye, Ralph Waite

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: James Hadley Chase

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Panther

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1972

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR:

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1939

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: No Orchids for Miss Blandish

NOTES

GENRE: Crime

WORDS: I saw the film many moons ago (1989). I have only seen it once. I like Aldrich so I would have liked it. but then, why have I seen it only once? I don’t recall exactly. I do recall I wanted more “star power” in it, even though the cast are good.

I haven’t read the book (his first) by prolific English crime writer James Hadley Chase.  His novel was was heavily “indebted” to William Faulkner’s “Sanctuary” (1931) for its plot line. Now, that I have read (all Faulkner is good). Chase’s book was criticized at the time for it’s violence and luridness (as were both film versions later) as was Faulkner’s book in 1931.

The Chase novel was previously filmed under the original book title in England in 1948, and set at that time though the book and the film are set in New York circa 1939.  Aldrich’s “Grissom Gang” is set in Mississippi in 1931 (Mississippi native Faulkner’s 1931 book is set in Missouri, in 1929).  Confused?

Why the change in time and place? Perhaps the film recognises the Faulkner influence on Chase or perhaps it was just a coincidence. The 1931 setting of the film buys into the wave of late 1930s gangster crime films in the wake of  “Bonnie and Clyde (1967) … and there were many.

LINKS

TRAILER

Posted in Crime, Novel | Tagged | 2 Comments