Gang Land - L'intouchable

This is a truly horrible movie. I joined as I felt the need to speak out. Trying to watch this movie was an exercise in frustration, which goes beyond the old suspend your disbelief mantra.

It's really funny - watching "Verne Miller" today, after the triumph of "The Miller's Crossing". Where Coen brothers weave a brilliantly tricky and slick tale of deceit and treachery, director Rod Hewitt chooses more simple and straightforward approach to a story of real gangster Verne Miller who once has been as famous as Al Capone. And the man was worth it. Verne Miller began his criminal career during "the roaring twenties" and had been killed in 1933 (his killers were never found). His name was on the front pages for almost a decade and yet he remained a mystery. He liked to show off: once he forced his victim to inform the newspapers about his own death (the man was executed by Miller a few moments later with a receiver in his hand - thus providing reporters with the first "live" murder coverage in history). As irresistibly sexy as imaginatively cruel, this man was a true Don Juan: women loved Miller and stayed loyal to him not only in his days of glory but even when he became desperate and ill animal, hunted by police, FBI and criminals. Larger than life and bigger than his time, Verne Miller was also a gentleman: he couldn't fail a friend as well as he couldn't miss a shot - that's why he didn't survive in the world of organized crime. Film's stylized, half-documentary style (probably imposed by the budget restraints) paradoxically clicks with Miller's outrageous story (a little more of "attitude" - and it would become utterly camp). Hewitt's direction sometimes is too reserved and detached, but he manages to avoid both romantization and cheap moralism while Scott Glenn gives a winning performance as Vern Miller - he plays him as true crime artist, vulgar and pathetic poet of adrenalin rush. Of course, the material itself is very rewarding, but it's Glenn's strong presence that makes Miller's flights of fancy quite convincing - for example, once he fools the enemy and his bodyguards by pretending a mannequin with a painted face. While other actors occasionally slip into self-parody, Glenn shines in both action and romance, exuding inner force and raw sexuality. Looking eerily Bogartian with his rugged face and sardonic grin, Glenn is the main reason to watch this movie, as repulsively charismatic as its protagonist. Verne Miller, sporting garish red ties and old-fashioned code of honour, seems an ironic monument to American individualism, crashed by corporative society - a lonely, tragic figure in a bleak, desolate landscape. It's a pity Vern Miller hadn't been born fifty years earlier. It's a pity Scott Glenn didn't end up in "The Miller's Crossing".

While the movie is about Verne Miller's life it also documents one of the most important events in law enforcement history, the Kansas City Massacre. It was this event that took place at Union Station Kansas City in 1933 that permitted Federal Agents to carry weapons. However, two points to bring up. First is continuity. At the time of the Kansas City Massacre, Al Capone was in Alcatraz and was not, as the movie indicates, out of prison to tell his men not to touch Frank Nash. The second relates to reality. Union Station Kansas City was depicted as an old wooden train "depot" when in reality it is a magnificent 850,000 sq. ft. edifice of marble and granite. Other inconsistencies have been brought to light with recent research. The most significant of these is that the officers killed at Union Station were not killed by Vern Miller and his two cohorts but by other police officers. This was uncovered after the production of this movie.

Scott Glenn takes on the role of the infamous mob assassin Verne Miller and he simply excels in the part that fits his dry, lean persona. While the production might be low-budget, execution mildly slapdash (although it does have some imaginative flourishes) and the story's account of this larger-than-life figure is somewhat makeshift in its sensationalized details when he becomes an important underworld figure. It's the performances that drive this one home, especially Glenn. I always found him to be an under-appreciated actor and here he's no different.

In 1925, ex-lawman Verne Miller is released from prison after spending two years there for embezzlement. Soon he finds himself working along side Chicago Mobster "Scarface" Capone and becoming his number one hit- man. But things begin to change for the worse when he starts going behind Capone's back, the Feds start interfering and his health starts declining.

Gangland: "The Verne Miller Story" is a distinctively stark mobster feature (The intro is stylishly presented, like it's taken out of a Bond feature with its saucy opening song). Each scene seems to move quite quickly as in the end it's rather a simplistic take on the rise and fall of Verne Miller. Perfect it's not, but thoroughly entertaining and Glenn gives his character quite a humane quality which stands out in certain scenes when compared to the calculative nature he goes about his business. The dramatics of the narrative can be all over-the-place, sometimes even being comedic in an unintentional manner. Still there are offbeat moments (especially surrounding Thomas G. Waites' portrayal of Capone), a surreal quality (carnival setting and a certain death scene or two) and the script have its witty exchanges. Even brutal, without being excessive in the visuals (like the Kansas City Massacre, which saw Capone turn his back on Millar). Miller is portrayed as quite ladies man, and the women on show give strong performances with the likes of the seductive Barbara Stock (however I did find her narration unnecessary), Lucinda Jenny and Diane Salinger. Also showing up in accessible support are Ed O'Ross, Sonny Carl David, Andrew Robinson and Xander Berkley.

1987's "The Verne Miller Story" is a rather unique gangster movie. First of all, it deals with a man that very few people are probably familiar with today, that being Verne Miller. Verne Miller was a former, highly decorated soldier from serving in World War I, who became a tough on crime law man in South Dakota. Then one day, after Verne Miller had gone on vacation, it was discovered that he had embezzled several thousand dollars from the county and the "vacation" was nothing more than a cover for a get away. Eventually, he was caught and spent some time in jail. After he got out, he became a full fledge gangster. That much is certainly true. The movie presents Miller as a killer but one that has a heart. For example, there is a part in the movie where Miller takes on a false identity and goes to a fair where he encounters a group of blind children. Verne offers to help the children win prizes by participating in a shooting game and wins a prize for all of the children and goes on his way. Whether or not any of that is true, I cannot say. What I can say is that Scott Glen, who plays Verne Miller, does a great job making you believe that something like that could have happened. The move than follows Miller as he becomes more and more powerful in the underworld by killing for Capone. Along the way, he makes numerous woman friends and lives the high life in a country club. Eventually, he becomes too big for his own good when he leads the Kansas City Massacre, something that the real Verne Miller did. All in all, this is not a bad movie. It has the touches of an artistic movie as far as the colors and cinematography (see the scene that has Miller dressed up as a mannequin for a murder and you'll see what I mean). Great acting by Scott Glen and good shot out scenes. If you love movies like "Bonnie and Clyde", then check this out.