Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786301967969 Format: Black & White, NTSC ISBN: 6301967968 Label: 20th Century Fox Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: 20th Century Fox Release Date: May 05, 1993 Running Time: 104 minutes Studio: 20th Century Fox Theatrical Release Date: March 25, 1959 Sales Rank: 16900
Amazon.com: Rod Steiger. That's why you need to see this well-crafted but otherwise undistinguished biopic of America's most iconic gangster. Produced for Allied Artists (the upscale version of Monogram, the studio that made Dillinger in the mid-'40s), the film gets underway with the Brooklyn hoodlum's arrival in Chicago on the eve of Prohibition. His old pal Johnny Torrio (Nehemiah Persoff) takes him on as right-hand man, and before you can say "spaghetti alla marinara," the ambitious Alphonse has persuaded "Johnny Papa" that they should eliminate their opera-loving boss, Big Jim Colosimo (Joe De Santis), and divide up the Chicago territory with "Bugs" Moran (Murvyn Vye), Dion O'Banion (Robert Gist), and "Hymie" Weiss (Lewis Charles). As scripted by Malvin Wald (The Naked City) and Henry F. Greenberg, and directed by Orson Welles protégé Richard Wilson, the film dutifully hits the high points of "Scarface Al"'s career. Stylistically, though, and despite the presence of cinematographer Lucien Ballard (who would also shoot Budd Boetticher's The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond), it's outclassed by any episode of the TV series The Untouchables, destined to make pop-cultural history three years later.
But Steiger, in an early starring role, is aces. He gets all the shadings: the courtier's faux-humility as he ingratiates himself with the bosses, the shrewd sizing-up of each rival's strengths and vulnerability, the need to have his way through charm or brute force--two valences of the same charisma. There are even uncanny moments (and this, of course, is pure accident--or mythic rightness) when you'd swear you could glimpse the once and future Tony Soprano. --Richard T. Jameson
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Vintage Chicago
In this movie, Rod Steiger creates the definitive Al Capone. All other movie Capones pale in comparison. Steiger and Capone were made for each other. Both realize their essential natures in each other. ... Read More
Rating: - Setting the Mold for the Untouchables.
Reviewer disclaimer: This review is done ONLY for "Al Capone" starred by Rod Steiger and NOT for the documentary about Al Capone.
This film, arguably, set the mold for the famous TV series ... Read More
