Resgate de uma Vida

This little gem of a film was treated as exploitation trash, but a fascinating kidnapping tale with unrequited love and dysfunctional family relations. Scott Wilson (so brilliant in In Cold Blood) is incredible as Slim, the lonely offbeat member of the gang who is somewhat understood (but very edgy). Throw in Kim Darby, Tony Musante, Irene Dailey (more demented than she was in Five Easy Pieces), and Joey Faye as Woppy, how wrong can you go?

There's a good sense of time period. This film is nothing compared to Bonnie and Clyde, but closer to Thieves Like Us. Connie Stevens is an added attraction. Give these folks a chance. Rated 7 out of 10.

The Grissom Gang should have been a great film. WIth its vicious comic sense, hard-boiled crime story and Gothic overtones, and of course its episodes of wild violence, this would have made a wonderful 80 minute B-movie. Unfortunately, at 125 minutes, it's way overlong. The middle seems to go on and on, during which not much happens beyond the ersatz courting of the kidnap victim by her psycho-hick kidnapper. Within any one scene, the pacing is rather good, creating a tension that leads one on for at least one viewing; but the pacing scene-to-scene is atrocious, and there are a lot of scenes that should have been cut or reduced to mere snippets. The role of the private detective should have been broader, but he doesn't really figure into the story until the final third and by then there's no real reason to get interested in his point of view. The kidnap victim's changes of heart are not well handled, partly because the role is given to Kim Darby, an unattractive actress of limited range. The acting throughout is intentionally over the top, rather as we saw from the AIP gangster films of the same era (eg., St. Valentine's Day Massacre and Bloody Mama), but those films used the broad performances to quicken the pace. Here the saggy pacing allows the camp of the performances to appear unintentional and thus flawed. Aldritch, taking his cue from the imprisonment of the kidnap victim, has given the film a sense of stuffy claustrophobia - most of the film seems to take place in small rooms. If the film were shorter and the drama heightened by more focused performances, this could have been effective, but as it is, one rushes to the window gasping for air after the movie's over. Finally, one has to note the confusing soundtrack which, though original, manages to sound cut-and-paste.

Aldritch can certainly take credit for the best of the film, but he has to take blame for the worst of it as well. He seems to be trying to make James Hadley Chase into another William Faulkner, and I'm afraid that can't be done. Aldritch needed to let Chase be Chase and make a tight slam-bang actioner; if he wanted to do Faulkner's "Sanctuary," he should have bought the rights to that novel instead.

If a movie deserves the definition of hard-boiled, this is "Grissom Gang". The characters seem to know just a way to face any problem, either major or minor: kill, kill, kill. The setting in the rural, poor Midwest in the years of Depression is both evocative and grinding: it gives the audience a feeling of bleakness and unavoidable violence. The story is carefully constructed, exciting, full of suspense. The characters are very well shaped, much care is given to details. The direction by Aldrich is superb: the action scenes are beautifully filmed, the timing is admirable. In the development of the plot we don't find those failures of strain, digressions and intervals of bore which were so common in the movies of those years, under pretension of style. All the actors' performances are outstanding. Scott Wilson draws, with masterly acting, the extraordinary character of Slim Grissom. At first, he seems just a half-witted hooligan, but we quickly realize that he is the toughest of them all, looking at other characters' behavior: they are all scared of him, even his gang mates. Actually, the smart gangster Tony Musante seems to take fun in teasing the stupid Slim: but it is clear that this is by no means a good idea. Wilson's acting gives likelihood to Grissom's possessive, infantile, somewhat touching love for Miss Blandish (Kim Darby). He states that, to save her, he is ready to kill his own mother: we have already learned to never underestimate his words. Kim Darby deserves a special mention, in the role of the spoiled girl who learns to survive at all costs, sexual abuse included. She is great here, she was extraordinary in "True Grit": I wonder why she didn't become a major Hollywood star. Despite some minor faults, "Grissom Gang" is excellent, by far better, in my opinion, of other celebrated movies of the same rural-America-gangster genre, such as Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde", Altman's "Thieves like us", Corman's "Bloody Mama".

Man, is this an early 70's movie or what?? Made around the time realistic brutality and violence were embraced, this film makes sure you embrace it too. The camera stays on the murder victims for a long period of time and makes sure the blood is red, REALLY red. Machine gun riddled bodies litter this fun mess of a movie. At the height of Kim Darby's fame, she gives it her all, desperately trying to make ridiculously written scenes work with Scott Wilson, who chews up the garishly decorated scenery. (Wilson's work with Robert Blake in IN Cold Blood still ranks as some of the finest in American film). The actress playing Ma is so over-the-top you gotta love it. It lookslike she was directed with Think Bette Davis!! She snarls, whoops, shouts, I even think they give her a moustache. And boy do they sweat in this movie. The lighting is designed to bring it out and everybody sweats. The cops sweat, the gangsters sweat, the stoolies sweat, even Connie Stevens sweats!

A few years before Patty Hearst was kidnapped and then joined her kidnappers on their crime spree we had The Grissom Gang. Based on a British film and book the scene shifts from working class Great Britain to the midwest of the Depression.

Kim Darby light years from Mattie Ross in True Grit plays the spoiled debutante daughter of Wesley Addy who gets kidnapped after the first gang that kidnaps her botches a robbery and kills the man with her. Then The Grissom Gang kills the original bunch and takes over. Addy pays the ransom, but his daughter doesn't come home.

The brains behind this crew is Ma Grissom who is played with extreme malevolence by Irene Dailey. She wants her killed, but her lunkhead son Scott Wilson wants her for his very own. He's not real good with the social skills.

At first Darby is playing for time, but eventually she works out a strange relationship with Wilson. She knows he's keeping her alive and for the first time it isn't because of her wealth that he's interested in her. A new experience for her even though she's the object of the affection of a stone cold killer very expert with a knife.

The Grissom Gang is one of the bloodiest films I've ever seen so if your taste runs to violence this is the film for you. It also really captures the essence of Kansas City in the 20s, a very wide open town run by political boss Tom Pendergast.

Scott Wilson turns in the best performance. It's a difficult part because you never forget he's a killer. But you almost feel sorry for him with his lack of social skills and his puppy love crush on Kim Darby. There's also good role for Robert Lansing who plays a private detective who unravels the whole mystery about Kim Darby's whereabouts.

All in all a good gangster film is The Grissom Gang.