Machine-Gun Kelly (1958)

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.

The prohibition era in the United States created an environment in which organised crime flourished and produced a number of well-known gangsters with colourful nicknames. Machine-Gun Kelly, Baby Face Nelson, Legs Diamond and Pretty Boy Floyd are some examples. They all achieved notoriety in their careers but also became a source of fascination for the public who wanted to know more about their lives and personalities. Gangster movies were particularly popular in the 1950s and during the period 1957-1960, movies about each of the aforementioned anti-heroes were released.Roger Corman's "Machine-Gun Kelly" provides a fast-paced and exciting account of Kelly's career after he'd graduated from bootlegging to bank robbery and although not everything depicted is factual the characterisation of him as being dominated by his girlfriend and having an inordinate fear of death and everything associated with it (e.g. coffins, wreaths, a tattoo of a skull and crossbones etc.) is undoubtedly more accurate.George "Machine-Gun" Kelly (Charles Bronson) and two other gang members carry out a bank robbery during which Kelly kills a security guard. The three men make a well-planned escape by dumping evidence as they travel and switching cars before Kelly meets his girlfriend Flo (Susan Cabot) and they successfully get through a police checkpoint before returning to their hideout close to "Harry's Gas Stop". Harry (Frank DeKova) is also a member of the gang and is desperate to be paid his share of the loot. When Kelly insists that he'll have to wait, Harry threatens to turn his caged mountain lion on him. Kelly gives in to this threat but after giving Harry the money, throws him against the cage where he immediately gets clawed by the lion.When another gang member, Fandango (Morey Amsterdam) arrives at the hideout with the proceeds of the robbery (which had been passed to him during the car switch), Flo soon realises that he's already taken his share and this causes Kelly to lose his temper and attack Fandango. Flo then plans a second robbery and gang members Howard (Jack Lambert) and Maize (Wally Campo) who had participated in the first robbery, follow their instructions correctly but everything goes wrong when Kelly sees a coffin being delivered to a mortuary and can't function to carry out his part of the plan. Maize gets killed as he and Howard are making their getaway and shortly after, Howard leaves the gang.Flo is the driving force behind Kelly's exploits and with her encouragement, he decides to kidnap the daughter of a wealthy businessman. This decision proves to be disastrous and eventually leads to the end of his criminal career.Kelly's unreliability caused by his insecurities about death and his ill-judged treatment of the other gang members, led to the disintegration of his gang and provoked Fandango into betraying him. His weakness in allowing himself to be dominated by the manipulative Flo, who had openly ridiculed and taunted him, also left his destiny in the hands of someone who was utterly self-centred and driven by greed and ambition.Charles Bronson in his first starring role capably shows the various sides of Kelly's character and Morey Amsterdam provides the best of the supporting performances. Roger Corman's legendary skill at directing on low budgets is evident throughout this movie and the way in which the first robbery is filmed stands out as being economical, effective and quite original.

Machine Gun Kelly (1958) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Low budget gangster film has Charles Bronson playing the title character, a harden criminal who always has his Thompson machine gun in hand but he also has a fear of being killed. This Roger Corman quickie is pretty good throughout, although the film really doesn't offer anything new the to the genre. The movie moves at a pretty fast pace and contains plenty of action to keep fans entertained. The most interesting thing about watching this movie today is seeing the young Bronson give a performance, which he certainly wouldn't give after becoming a star. If you've only seen Bronson's later day stuff then you're in for a treat as we see a different type of Bronson here. A fast talker, one that smiles and even one who flirts with the ladies. This adds a little more charm to the film that I'm sure it didn't have back when it was originally released. Susan Cabot is very good as Bronson's girlfriend, a dirty little girl who doesn't mind looking at other men. The action is very good throughout and the film has a great music score but I wish it had tried something a little different every once in a while. The best moments in the film are the ones with Bronson messing with a caged lion.

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.