L'Héritier d'Al Capone

The career of notorious 1930's bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd is recounted in this sleazy production that also manages to unfold in rather lackluster fashion. Ericson certainly merits the nickname 'Pretty Boy', however his romanticized killer fails to generate an eye-catching level of viciousness. Thus, the story lacks necessary spark at the center. Still, the producers do manage a few compensations. The movie does a pretty good job showing Floyd's lingering roots in Oklahoma where he was something of a folk hero, banks being not too popular in the Depression era 30's. The rural set-ups are also well done showing the shantytown poverty of the time. However, the rest of the production is threadbare, to say the least.

Then too, poor Joan Harvey (Lil) may look the part of Floyd's squeeze, but her acting skill sort of comes and goes. On the other hand, Carl York as Curly manages to inject some real feeling into an otherwise colorless narrative. Good to see Peter Falk getting his first movie break. Too bad he wasn't given a bigger role and a chance to spice things up. Lives of real gangsters were popular on both TV (The Lawless Years, and The Untouchables) and in a number of movies of the time (Capone, Baby Face Nelson). Unfortunately this minor effort is one of the more forgettable ones.

considering the budget and casting this is a good effort - I just LOVE the completely out-of-place soundtrack (the jazz score really is quite good in its own right) - you would think they would on occasion use some country music - I know it bears little semblance to the historical Floyd story but kudos for the great cast - T-Bag from Prison Break is definitely channeling Pretty Boy's brother, Curly and Al Lewis is awesome - Ericsson is actually quite good too and doesn't really resort to over-the-top caricatures as one might think - Peter Falk has a nice role too pretty much like his role as Abe Relas in Murder Inc - as Sabre pointed out above, the machine guns look like French MAT49s (not yet available in the 1930s but used by the post-war French army in Indochina and Algeria) - a similar weapon (although with a folding metal stock) was used in The Laughing Policeman to great effect - the cops seem to use Thompsons like you would expect - I think this fits in rather nicely with all the second-tier crime flicks that came out in the last 50s and early 60s

Without a doubt one of the worst gangster films ever made. Ranks with Ma Barker's Killer Brood for total inaccuracy. At least the characters are close to who they are supposed to be, even if the names are made-up. Al Ricardo instead of Adam Richetti, Shorty Walters instead of Bill "The Killer" Miller, The Courtney Brothers instead of the Ash Brothers, and Machine Gun Manny instead of Verne Miller, to name just a few. All through the film, Floyd appears to appreciate being called Pretty Boy, when in reality he hated it.

Probably the silliest scene in the flick is the Union Station massacre. Manny and Floyd blast away with some unrecognizable foreign-made machine guns -----definetely not Tommy Guns-----and kill the Frank Nash character and several cops without shattering the windshield or leaving so much as a single bullet hole in the car. .

I recently paid five bucks for the CD at a going-out-of-business sale. It was barely worth it.

I will not teach you anything by telling that the early sixties was for Hollywood the period of gangster biographies: MURDER INC, RISE AND FALL OF LEGS DIAMOND, PURPLE GANG, YOUNG DILLINGER, MAD DOG COLL, BONNIE PARKER STORY, BABY FACE NELSON, PORTRAIT OF A MOBSTER, PAY OR DIE, KING OF THE ROARING 20's...all more or less small budgets, but all effective, sharp, brutal. This one makes no exception to the rule. John Ericson is the main element of this also very good directed movie from a film maker whose it is I suppose the best job. It is obviously not a huge budget film, but it is sharply made, with an excellent music score. Just enjoy, this feature is not so hard to get.

This movie came out in 1959, the same year I was born in Oklahoma. I liked this movie and felt that John Ericson did a decent job playing Pretty Boy, even though he looked more like a Ricky Nelson with a James Dean type of murky frown. Ericson, five years later, would play "Pan" in one of my favorite Tony Randall movies, "The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao". Also, in 1965, he played opposite to Ann Francis in "Honey West". Pretty Boy Floyd can be compared to a modern Jesse James. Their home folks and friends help protect and hid them for law enforcement. Their Robin Hood deeds bought them country folk loyalty and legendary status in their respective areas. The movie didn't display this well. This movie could have been better. It left out so much, example being his relationship to his family. I remember a story where he pretended to whip his son in order to appease his wife. Not once in this movie do you hear the name Melvin Purvis, the head G-man under Hoover at the time. Did Purvis and Floyd hold phone conversations ? or did I get that from another Hollywood movie ? It was never proved that Pretty Boy was involved in the Kansas City Massacre. This movie's reenactment looked more like a large alley than a Union Station parking lot. It was rather weak, but what do you expect from a 1959 flick. The best thing about this movie is seeing Barry Newman (the lawyer in "Petrocelli" - 1974 T.V. series) and Al Lewis (grandpa in the "Munsters" T.V. sitcom) in their first screen appearances. It also has Peter Falk (Columbo) in one of his early performances. I think Al Lewis's performance was the best overall. He was very convincing in playing the unstable bad guy.