Mitraillette Kelly

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.

Machine Gun Kelly is directed by Roger Corman and written by Robert Wright Campbell. It stars Charles Bronson, Susan Cabot, Morey Amsterdam, Jack Lambert, Frank DeKova and Connie Gilchrist. Music is by Gerald Fried and cinematography by Floyd Crosby.

George Francis Barnes Junior, AKA: Machine Gun Kelly, was a prohibition era American hoodlum, this movie is an interpretation of his time in the public enemy limelight.

Never climbing up to high energy rat-a-tat-tat action levels, Corman's "mini" biopic none the less breezes along and remains fascinating throughout. The makers paint Kelly as something of a weak willed type of guy who is impotent without his Thompson Submachine Gun. This is a man firmly dangling on the end of the puppet strings being twirled and pulled by his Moll, Flo Becker. Oh he's not beyond slapping his woman around, or bullying one of his weaker willed accomplices, but Corman and Campbell assure us that Kelly is not to be gloried, even giving him a pathological fear of dying that shows him in this movie form as something of a coward.

Of course this is just a movie, and for historical facts and figures et al, folks are warned this is not a biography to use as a starting point to explore Kelly's reputation…

Bronson as Kelly is wonderfully broody and he handles the fluctuations in Kelly's psyche with convincing skill. Cabot as Flo is a sex-bomb, and deviously appealing with it she is as well, while Amsterdam gets to play a character so colourful and kinked, it wouldn't be out of place in classic era film noir. Crosby was an ace cinematographer, capable of making the cheapest crime movie production looking a whole lot more expensive, such is the case here. While Fried provides a progressive jazz musical score that ranges from Ant Hill Mob like breeziness to funky piano based frenzies.

All in all, a good gangster movie that benefits from some well written and performed characterisations. 7/10

Let us get one thing straight. If you watch this movie to understand the story about the kidnapping of Oklahoma oil magnate Charlie Urchell in 1933 by George "Machine Gun" Kelly and his gang, you are going to be disappointed. The Urchell case made headlines across the nation that year because of the size of the ransom demand (over $100,000 - quite a sum in Depression America), and because in 1933 every kidnapping resurrected the hurt felt (at that time) that nobody had been arrested and made to pay for the kidnap murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr. in March 1932. The newly revamped F.B.I. under J. Edgar Hoover went after the kidnappers, and actually captured Kelly and his gang (and Urchell was not hurt). But aside for one moment at the tail end of this movie where an F.B.I. man summarizes Kelly correctly (he calls him "Pop Gun" for his lack of real courage) this film is totally wrong about the story - it basically jettisons it.

That isn't necessarily bad. Hoover and his men had a fairly simple time catching the inept Kelly. Here we are watching the rise and fall of a criminal legend, played well by Charles Bronson, and directed with some restraint by Roger Corman. We see that he is fixated on being a mean, violent man, who is trying to impress his girlfriend Flo (Susan Cabot). In reality Flo was able to manipulate George, and was whatever brains the organization actually had. But the role to watch in this film is that of Morey Amsterdam as Fandango. Amsterdam, a great one liner comic in the Henny Youngman tradition, is best recalled for his regular role as "Buddy Sorrell" in THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW in the 1960s, especially when confronting his bete noir Richard Deacon as producer "Mel Cooley". Here he plays a petty criminal who is injured on the way up by Kelly, and helps bring him down. Given acceptance of Corman's production value limits and the script's, Amsterdam's Fandango is a really vicious character, and a welcome surprise to people who just recall the marvelous comic performer. For him and Bronson's performance I'll give this a "7".

Maybe this movie shouldn't be rated this high, but why carp? This is about as good as Roger Corman can get, and uncomplicated too. The script isn't the smartest bank-robber thriller ever, but it's got some good twists and snappy dialog to go along with the package. And unlike many of Corman's early pictures, this one isn't hampered in the least by its low budget. On the contrary, the level of violence is enough that he doesn't have to spend very much on a lot of stunts or blood. If anything, it's a worthy homage to the tommy-gun inspired gangster flicks of the 1930s, done without pretension and with a gutsy leading man.

Charles Bronson stars in the title role, and it's by some of Bronson's own ingenuity with a part like this, and on the part of the script to try and add a little dimension to what could've been a one-dimensional crook into a somewhat sympathetic criminal. The moral of the story for young George Kelly might be that behind a bad-ass man there's a far meaner bad-ass of a woman pulling the strings, bringing out the worst in her man. This isn't so much about full-on reality in so much as Corman tries to get the pulpiest material he can without any filler. While this leaves a little character development up for grabs, and some of the usual lot of not too great acting, there's some real fire going on in the conventional storytelling.

All around, a terrific little B-movie, probably one of Corman's best (in short, not at all a disappointment, especially for those looking for a great early Bronson in tip top shape, and with some range of emotions to boot).