****SPOILERS*** A robotic looking as well as acting David Janssen plays big time gangster Arnold Rothstein the man with the "Big Bankroll" who broke his father Abraham's, Jeseph Schildkraut,-An observant and synagogue going man of the Jewish faith-heart by not studying to become a rabbi or cantor and even worse later marrying a "Shiksa"-A woman not of the Jewish religion-Carolyn Green, Dianne Forster, who to add insult to injury refused to convert to Judaism. But the biggest and baddest thing that Arnold did was getting involved with the mob in becoming its major bag-man and financier that had him end up losing every thing he had, including his life, by the time the movie ended.
We get to see Arnold work himself up the ladder of organized crime since he was a teenager with his good friend "Irish" Johnny Burke, Mickey Rooney, whom he later set up to get rubbed out by the mob. That by Arnold tricking him to testify against corrupt cop Let. Phil Butler, Dan O'Herlihy, who's been a pain in Arnold and Johnny's butts since they were teenagers running numbers for the local mobsters. It's later that he had Butler who was behind Burke being rubbed out get arrested indited convicted as well as executed, all within a 24 hour period, by getting those he hired to knock Burke off to testify against him. With his wife Carolyn having nothing at all to do with him Arnold soon found out that all the palaces of interest his was involved in, gambling dens speakeasies and whore houses, were closed to him leaving him out in the cold.
****SPOILERS**** Finally finding a crap game that he was invited into Arnold was set up to be knocked off by his fellow card players who plugged him under the table as he finally got the hand of a lifetime-A Royal Flush-that eluded him all his life. Still even when shot Arnold was impeccably dressed and groomed-without even as much as a strand of his hair out of place-without his clothes mussed up or stained by his blood as he staggered out of the room and was hospitalized where he died, still in perfect and pristine condition,the next day.
The movie concentrated so much on Arnold's love life as well as double-crossing his friends and associates that it completely overlooked his biggest crime that almost destroyed organized Baseball the infamous 1919 "Black Sox" scandal. You never really get to see and appreciate just what a big man in the world of crime that Arnold Rothstein really was. He comes across as a petty crook who never gets beyond running a second rate gambling den which is always getting raided instead of him being the big time operator that he really was.
P.S The movie "King of the Roaring Twenties" turned out to be actor Jack Carson's-As "Big Jim" O'Brian-last movie appearance.
We get to see Arnold work himself up the ladder of organized crime since he was a teenager with his good friend "Irish" Johnny Burke, Mickey Rooney, whom he later set up to get rubbed out by the mob. That by Arnold tricking him to testify against corrupt cop Let. Phil Butler, Dan O'Herlihy, who's been a pain in Arnold and Johnny's butts since they were teenagers running numbers for the local mobsters. It's later that he had Butler who was behind Burke being rubbed out get arrested indited convicted as well as executed, all within a 24 hour period, by getting those he hired to knock Burke off to testify against him. With his wife Carolyn having nothing at all to do with him Arnold soon found out that all the palaces of interest his was involved in, gambling dens speakeasies and whore houses, were closed to him leaving him out in the cold.
****SPOILERS**** Finally finding a crap game that he was invited into Arnold was set up to be knocked off by his fellow card players who plugged him under the table as he finally got the hand of a lifetime-A Royal Flush-that eluded him all his life. Still even when shot Arnold was impeccably dressed and groomed-without even as much as a strand of his hair out of place-without his clothes mussed up or stained by his blood as he staggered out of the room and was hospitalized where he died, still in perfect and pristine condition,the next day.
The movie concentrated so much on Arnold's love life as well as double-crossing his friends and associates that it completely overlooked his biggest crime that almost destroyed organized Baseball the infamous 1919 "Black Sox" scandal. You never really get to see and appreciate just what a big man in the world of crime that Arnold Rothstein really was. He comes across as a petty crook who never gets beyond running a second rate gambling den which is always getting raided instead of him being the big time operator that he really was.
P.S The movie "King of the Roaring Twenties" turned out to be actor Jack Carson's-As "Big Jim" O'Brian-last movie appearance.