Portrait of a Mobster

When Vic Morrow in the title role proclaims to the assembled members of his freshly formed organization, "I'm a Bronx boy!" you can feel he wasn't just acting. A Jewish boy from the Bronx (N.Y.) himself, Vic Morrow was made for the role of the Jewish mobster Dutch Schultz, known as the Beer Baron of the Bronx. And when Schultz reminisces to Leslie Parrish about getting respect on the mean streets of the East Bronx by being tougher than anyone else, you get the impression Morrow is summoning up his own experiences. He is simply superb in the role, portraying Schultz as brutally ambitious, cruel and crude ("I'm sorry he got plugged," Schultz says to the daughter of a man he himself killed.) yet oddly sympathetic, the product of a criminal environment who had little choice but to turn out as he did.

This black and white picture lacks high production values, marquee names or a brilliant script. It scrambles some of the known facts in Schultz's life and shortchanges some important characters. What it does have is sharp, memorable characterizations--of Schultz himself, of Mafia boss "Lucky" Luciano (who in fact took out the "contract" on Schultz), with actor Ray Danton reprising his portrayal of "Legs" Diamond, and "Mad Dog" Coll.

First, I was very enjoyed and surprised to see Ray Danton in his Legs Diamond character, which he also had in Budd Boetticher's RISE AND FALL OF LEGS DIAMOND, shot the same year. Very smart. Here, Vic Morrow is the lead in a terrific performance, one of his best, for a good Joseph Pevney's film, Pevney who was only an excellent film maker with no personnal touch, as were Joseph Newman or Richard Thorpe, and so many other directors. This movie is of course a rise and fall scheme of a gangster, nothing new. I repeat, there were dozens of those during the early sixties. This one is not a masterpiece but a gritty, tough one.

There are many actors who's talents are made for certain parts. From the very best to the lowly actor, some parts are best suited for others. This is the story of Arthur Flegenheimer, who became the notorious "Dutch Schultz " and made his fortune in Organized Crime in the 1930's. The selection of Vic Morrow as Schultz was a fortunate step for Morrow and for his fans. The rise of this talented, but troublesome individual lent many to believe he was very lucky. His side kick Bo Wetzel played by Norman Alden predicted that so long as they two of them were together, nothing could happen to them. His foresight was better than Shultz' as proved by their historical demise. Joseph Gallison plays Vincent 'Mad Dog' Coll and Ray Danton is dangerous as 'Legs' Diamond. The rise and fall of this brutal gangster is aptly plays for the audience and even if you know the fate of the hood, it's nice to see Morrow at his best in this part. Good film. ***

By all accounts Dutch Schultz was one brutal man who shot first and asked no questions. In real life and in Portrait Of A Mobster Schultz acts pretty much the way he does here. He also took the name of Dutch Schultz as part of his persona. By his real name of Arthur Fliegenheimer no one would buy that as intimidating. Just like Adolph Hitler never used Schickelgruber.

Vic Morrow may have gotten his career role in Portrait Of A Mobster. If the facts are sketchy he's got the essence of Schultz down cold. In this tale young Fliegenheimer is turned down by Leslie Parrish in a marriage proposal and she teams up with policeman Peter Breck. Smart girl had a sixth sense on these things.

One thing is definitely true. According to gangland lore Schultz was done in on orders from Lucky Luciano played here under an alias by Frank DeKova. Schultz wanted to hit Thomas E. Dewey who was preparing a case against him. The newly formed national syndicate thought that would bring down too much heat so Schultz had to be eliminated. Of course when Dewey got Luciano he might have had cause to regret stopping Schultz.

What is also true is the trial he got with the change of venue to Malone, New York, county seat of Franklin County in New York State and right up against the Candian border. What you see there is exactly what happened.

While he was alive Schultz was the uncrowned and uncontested Boss of the Bronx. Portrait Of A Mobster shows the essence of his reign.

Portrait Of a Mobster is a good little movie about the rise and fall of gangster Dutch Schultz, and is a fairly typical example of the nostalgic gangster films of the late fifties and early sixties, many of them biographies of famous criminals (Al Capone, Legs Diamond, Arnold Rothstein). What distinguishes this film is that its lead actor, Vic Morrow, was more talented than most, and deserved a better picture. The production values of the movie are decent but hardly spectacular, and are roughly on par with the TV shows its studio, Warner Brothers, was producing at around the same time, especially The Roaring Twenties, which this movie could almost be an offshoot of. Many studio contractees have key supporting parts in the film. But it's Morrow's complex and serious performance that holds the movie together and gives it a touch of class. Morrow was in some ways like Jeff Bridges in being a deadly seriously dramatic actor who seldom, if ever, relied on charm. Like so many gifted actors he went the television route and a year after this film was cast as one of the leads in the popular Combat! series, which ran for several seasons and made Morrow somewhat of a star. He continued to work regularly thereafter, always doing first rate, sometimes exceptional work (check out his chilling performance in The Glass House). But Morrow never really had much of a movie career after his small screen success, becoming a reliable actor on mostly made-for-TV movies. He died fairly young in a freak accident involving a helicopter while working on a movie. One wonders what might have happened to Morrow had he stuck to making films, staking his claim as a serious actor on stage and screen. We'll never know, but his work in Portrait Of a Mobster offers a tantalizing glimpse of the star Morrow might have been.