Every dog has their day, and a bad dog is going to be put down once it is revealed that they are no good to be out in society. Al Capone managed to rise to the top of the Chicago underworld and control the mob during prohibition. But the legal system has a way of catching crooks, and no matter how long they are getting away with crimes, eventually, they are caught, and this film shows the rise and fall of such a man. There have been several films that have dealt with Capone's life, and several others that had him as a major character, but most people will remember Rod Steiger's intense performance as the poem in this low-budget crime drama that seems a bit too modern to have been truly set during the time when Capone ruled.
In spite of that, it is very interesting to watch, violent and unrelenting in its view of a mad dog let loose in society. Capone knows from the very beginning that there is money to be made in prohibition, and from the very start, violence is his key to moving up the ladder. One man is killed through Capone's machinations, and he actually marries the widow (Faye Spain) who finds out too late what kind of a rotten person he is. Kicked out of Chicago and banished to L.A., Capone organizes the St. Valentine's Day Massacre which puts him in complete charge. Friends who betray him are killed, and yet the law still can't touch him. He has the nerve to recite the constitution even as he is breaking more laws.
how much of this is fact and how much of this is fiction? it would take a lot of research to create a chart of the truth and the falsehoods. But as a film, it is intense, and the performances are riveting. stiver of course, is one of the greatest actors the screen has ever known, and this is perhaps one of his best-known performances. Martin Balsam and James Gregory also deliver excellent performances, one as a friend who finds out too late what it costs when you betray a rabid dog, and the other as the legal eagle who sets out to destroy Capone and finds an ironic way to do so. There's no Eliot Ness here so don't expect a retread of "The Untouchables", but what there is reveals raw intensity at a time when crime was paying. Fortunately, that period was brief for its Mastermind. This film lead the way to other films about famous gangsters of the time, and all of them are quite similar in their structure, seeming more set in their current day than the times they are actually set in.
In spite of that, it is very interesting to watch, violent and unrelenting in its view of a mad dog let loose in society. Capone knows from the very beginning that there is money to be made in prohibition, and from the very start, violence is his key to moving up the ladder. One man is killed through Capone's machinations, and he actually marries the widow (Faye Spain) who finds out too late what kind of a rotten person he is. Kicked out of Chicago and banished to L.A., Capone organizes the St. Valentine's Day Massacre which puts him in complete charge. Friends who betray him are killed, and yet the law still can't touch him. He has the nerve to recite the constitution even as he is breaking more laws.
how much of this is fact and how much of this is fiction? it would take a lot of research to create a chart of the truth and the falsehoods. But as a film, it is intense, and the performances are riveting. stiver of course, is one of the greatest actors the screen has ever known, and this is perhaps one of his best-known performances. Martin Balsam and James Gregory also deliver excellent performances, one as a friend who finds out too late what it costs when you betray a rabid dog, and the other as the legal eagle who sets out to destroy Capone and finds an ironic way to do so. There's no Eliot Ness here so don't expect a retread of "The Untouchables", but what there is reveals raw intensity at a time when crime was paying. Fortunately, that period was brief for its Mastermind. This film lead the way to other films about famous gangsters of the time, and all of them are quite similar in their structure, seeming more set in their current day than the times they are actually set in.