My favorite from the WB gangster flick genre of the 1950's and 60's. Contains the memorable line (from Shultze to henchmen after a confrontation with his dipsomaniac girlfriend), "There should be a law against women drinking".
A real virtuoso performance from Vic Morrow who even gets to SING a number or two in this film (though not terribly well). Morrow is consistently believable as the execrable Dutch Shultz, real name Arthur Flegenheimer, the New York prohibition mobster who dominated the headlines for a time in the early 1930's.
The film is notable in that it does not stray too far from historical fact. The phone-booth gun-down of Shultze's arch-enemy, Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll is totally accurate and Shultz's own messy demise along with a number of his henchmen at the Palace Chop House in Newark is reasonably close to the factual details. Shultz's racketeering masterpiece, the control and expansion of "the numbers" in the early thirties under the direction of genius mathematician turned crook, George "Addadabba"Berman is portrayed quite well. (The real Berman met his end in Jersey that night along with his boss, but the numbers racket went from strength to strength)
Many,if not most of the character players in this film were experienced screen thugs or cops from the Warner stable and they all carry their roles well. The love-interest between Shultz's much ill-used moll and her insipid former boyfriend is a bit on the flat side. We can certainly see why she prefers the despicable Dutchman !
Morrow also has what has to be one of the most unromantic lines in screen history, and perfectly in character : As the girlfriend (ably played by Leslie Parrish) emerges from their bedroom disheveled and hungover, Shultz simply sneers at her, "You stink!" Nice guy.
Had he not been so successful in the role of the good Sergeant Saunders in the hit TV series "Combat", Vic Morrow could have gone onto to great heights as a screen villain, and in fact later in his career , he was showing promising signs of developing such roles further. His performance as the boss con in "The Glasshouse" (1972) showed that he had lost none of his touch.
Incidentally, Leslie Parrish went on to turn in a solid performance as Lawrence Harvey's doomed fiancé in "The Manchurian Candidate".
I've always regarded Vic Morrow's portrayal of Dutch Shultze as definitive, and its interesting to compare it with Dustin Hoffman's effective but very different treatment of the same character role in "Billy Bathgate".
R. B.
A real virtuoso performance from Vic Morrow who even gets to SING a number or two in this film (though not terribly well). Morrow is consistently believable as the execrable Dutch Shultz, real name Arthur Flegenheimer, the New York prohibition mobster who dominated the headlines for a time in the early 1930's.
The film is notable in that it does not stray too far from historical fact. The phone-booth gun-down of Shultze's arch-enemy, Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll is totally accurate and Shultz's own messy demise along with a number of his henchmen at the Palace Chop House in Newark is reasonably close to the factual details. Shultz's racketeering masterpiece, the control and expansion of "the numbers" in the early thirties under the direction of genius mathematician turned crook, George "Addadabba"Berman is portrayed quite well. (The real Berman met his end in Jersey that night along with his boss, but the numbers racket went from strength to strength)
Many,if not most of the character players in this film were experienced screen thugs or cops from the Warner stable and they all carry their roles well. The love-interest between Shultz's much ill-used moll and her insipid former boyfriend is a bit on the flat side. We can certainly see why she prefers the despicable Dutchman !
Morrow also has what has to be one of the most unromantic lines in screen history, and perfectly in character : As the girlfriend (ably played by Leslie Parrish) emerges from their bedroom disheveled and hungover, Shultz simply sneers at her, "You stink!" Nice guy.
Had he not been so successful in the role of the good Sergeant Saunders in the hit TV series "Combat", Vic Morrow could have gone onto to great heights as a screen villain, and in fact later in his career , he was showing promising signs of developing such roles further. His performance as the boss con in "The Glasshouse" (1972) showed that he had lost none of his touch.
Incidentally, Leslie Parrish went on to turn in a solid performance as Lawrence Harvey's doomed fiancé in "The Manchurian Candidate".
I've always regarded Vic Morrow's portrayal of Dutch Shultze as definitive, and its interesting to compare it with Dustin Hoffman's effective but very different treatment of the same character role in "Billy Bathgate".
R. B.