Machine-Gun Kelly (USA, 1958) 80 min B&W DIR-PROD: Roger Corman. SCR: R. Wright Campbell. MUSIC: Gerald Fried. DOP: Floyd Crosby. CAST: Charles Bronson, Susan Cabot, Morey Amsterdam, Jack Lambert, Richard Devon, Frank DeKova, Connie Gilchrist, Wally Campo, Barboura Morris. (American International Pictures)
Although Charles Bronson was still a dozen years away from a steady career as a leading man, in 1958 however, he was given first-billing in a string of smaller pictures. In addition to this cult favourite, the action star also played leads in the modest western Showdown at Boot Hill, the great revenge melodrama Gang War, and the TV series, Man with a Camera. There is a glimpse of his future star appeal in the title role here, as a prohibition-era gangster who has one Achilles heel: of losing his grip whenever he sees any death-related objects (funeral caskets, or even skull-and-crossbone symbols). Well, he has two, actually. The second is his moll, Flo (Susan Cabot), who soon becomes too cunning for Kelly’s own good.
This film examines Kelly’s fall from grace in a psychological sense. It doesn’t end with a bang, but a whimper. In the exciting opening, we witness Machine Gun Kelly and crew perform a meticulous bank robbery, and director Roger Corman documents Kelly’s ingenuity in every detail, from the robbery, to the mathematically precise “drop”. And we also see that Kelly is no pushover, as he slaps around one crony who tries to bilk more money out of him. For this time, we think Machine Gun Kelly is a minor action classic (with a great jazz score from Gerald Fried), until the gunshots and fists become secondary to an interesting character study.
In the scene that essentially changes the tone of the picture, Kelly sees a casket coming out of a funeral home just moments before a robbery, and he is so distraught over the image that the job results in disaster. The next plan, to kidnap the daughter of a wealthy man, is also undone, as he further begins to lose his faculties. He’s still a tough guy, but he unfortunately reveals his vulnerability around the wrong people, as he is more morally sound than the lechers who taunt the guardian of the kidnapped girl, and he loses his ability to command.
Despite the supporting cast, (including, of all people, Morey Amsterdam as one of the henchmen) this is essentially a two-character study, as we witness the Kelly-Flo relationship come apart. Susan Cabot (who, when wearing a lot of eyeshadow, eerily resembles Sean Young) is quite good as the moll, who soon reveals herself as a lot more crafty than first believed. One can only wonder what would have happened to her career if she became anything other than The Wasp Woman. And of course, so early in his career, Charles Bronson is fine in a role one would later consider a “typical Charles Bronson role”- a violent man who nonetheless has a soft spot under the rough exterior.
Originally published in The Roger Corman Scrapbook.
Greg Woods
Greg Woods has been a film enthusiast since his teens, and began his writing "career" at the same time- prolific in capsule reviews of everything he had watched, first on index cards, then those hardcover dollar store black journals, then an old Mac IIsi. He founded The Eclectic Screening Room in 2001, as a portal to share his film love with the world, and find some like-minded enthusiasts along the way. In addition to having worked in the film industry for over two decades, he has been a co-programmer of films at Trash Palace, and a programmer/co-founder of the Toronto Film Noir Syndicate. He has also written for Broken Pencil, CU-Confidential, Micro-Film, and is currently working on his first novel. His secret desire is for someone to interview him for a podcast or a DVD extra.