The Outfit

Awful screenplay and the music was beyond bad. You have to feel really sorry for Lance Henriksen who is a great actor(did a marvelous job as Abraham Lincoln in THE DAY LINCOLN WAS SHOT). The main guy tried too hard to be Clint Eastwood

Poorly made gangster movie about the supposed feud between "Dutch" Schultz and "Legs" Diamond. Silly script, Dreadful dialogue, amateur acting. The production values are not too bad, but it's flat and trite with every imaginable cliche.

The only other movie I've seen which uses slow downbeat jazz in ALL of the scenes is Bloodmatch 1991. And like this movie, there was slow jazz even in the fight scenes. This movies had more corn than the then illegal whiskey; and went on way... too... long.

Saw 'The Outfit' a long time ago in my quest to see anything with Lance Henriksen in it, but it didn't leave much of an impression at that time. So now I've gone back to rewatch it and give it another chance. Let's just say it's not able to fully capture what it was going for on its own or as a Henriksen fan.

Two mobsters at the top of their game - Dutch Schultz (Henriksen) & Legs Diamond (Josh Mosby) - battle each other for bootlegging control in 1930's American. While the FBI having been able to place an agent (John Christian) inside Diamond's organization use his influence, trust & knowledge to take the both of them down permanently as both gun it out for each other.

They got the vintage cars, the right type of clothing and no shortage of Tommy guns. However it's never able to overcome it's low budget in the sense that it can provide the feeling you're watching something of the time period. The musical score is horrible and the story has no depth to sustain interest.

The good news is if you're a Lance Henriksen fan you get a ton of him. This isn't one of those movies that splashes his name on the movie box and then he shows up for five minutes. Angry, firing off Tommy guns, yelling so much that his voice becomes coarse and in one scene, he barely has any left. However the other two predominant cast members Martin Kove as an FBI boss and Billy Drago as fellow mobster Lucky Luciano rank slightly above extended cameos. Billy appears in three scenes (none of them action oriented).

Trying for authenticity, but failing is 'The Outfit' problem. Acting itself is pretty solid and unfortunately this is the only title we got with Lance and the late Billy together. Fans of these men give this a go otherwise there's gangster flicks showcasing a more storied look at the mob than this tale can provide (92 min version).

THE OUTFIT will never be considered a gangster classic worthy of standing alongside THE GODFATHER or THE UNTOUCHABLES, but it's worth watching just for fun.

If anyone has seen the 1992 made-for-video Dutch Schultz biopic HIT THE DUTCHMAN, you might recall that Legs Diamond spoke with an Irish accent, but in real-life Diamond was an American who never spoke with an accent. Josh Mosby plays Diamond just right. Also, the real-life Dutch Schultz looked more like the character that James Remar played in THE COTTON CLUB, rather than Lance Henriksen's portrayal. Finally, while Billy Drago was good as Frank Nitti in THE UNTOUCHABLES, he's not as well cast here as Lucky Luciano. While some people may have thought that Billy was Italian in real life, he's actually a Kentucky-born Native American, which explains his slightly darker skin. While the cover of the video shows Billy holding a Thompson submachine gun, he never actually uses a gun in this movie. Also, while the cover of the video lists him as one of the main stars, he actually has a very minor role limited to a few appearances.

I'm just a sucker for gangster movies, so that's why I own it.