The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond

19601960
Not RatedNot Rated
1h 41m

Neo-noir about a small-time New York City criminal whose ambition is to become a big-time crime boss during the Prohibition era.Neo-noir about a small-time New York City criminal whose ambition is to become a big-time crime boss during the Prohibition era.Neo-noir about a small-time New York City criminal whose ambition is to become a big-time crime boss during the Prohibition era.

6.8/10

1.2K

Top credits

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Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 1 nomination total

Karen Steele in The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960)

Ray Danton and Gordon Jones in The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960)

Ray Danton and Karen Steele in The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960)

Ray Danton and Elaine Stewart in The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960)

Elaine Stewart in The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960)

Ray Danton and Simon Oakland in The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960)

Jack Diamond and his sickly brother arrive in prohibition New York as jewel thieves. After a spell in jail, the coldly ambitious Diamond hits on the idea of stealing from other thieves himself and sets about getting close to gangster boss Arnold Rothstein to move in on his booze, girls, gambling, and illicit drug operations. —Jeremy Perkins {J-26}

neo noir character name as title legs diamond character seven word title dance hall 61 more

Taglines
- The Wildest Mobster of the Roaring Twenties!
Genres
Certificate
- Not Rated
Parents guide
- Add content advisory

Trivia
Film debut of Dyan Cannon. This is her first released film. She made This Rebel Breed (1960) previously, but it was released after this film.

Goofs
When Jack returns to Alice in the movie theater he's been gone so long that she was worried what happened to him, yet he tells her his brother's phone was busy, and she believes him. He also tells her that even though no one answered the phone, his brother is all right. She also believes that.

Quotes
Jack 'Legs' Diamond: You can't kill me, I'm Legs Diamond.

Connections
Featured in Histoire(s) du cinéma: Toutes les histoires (1989)

Soundtracks
It Had to Be You
(uncredited)
Written by Isham Jones and Gus Kahn

Top review

7/10

How much of this is true? Who knows.

I am no expert on the life of 'Legs' Diamond, but I assume that the studio took great liberties with presenting his life story. This is because I've seen several other gangster films made between 1958-1962 and all of them seemed to play fast and loose with the facts. I think a lot of this was because of the TV show "The Untouchables". Its success spurred on these gangster biopics and like most of the biopics, the TV show played VERY fast and loose with facts....all because they were meant as entertainment first...and last.

Ray Danton plays the leading role. While Danton was a very good looking and smooth character, photos of the real 'Legs' show that he was far from the sexy hunk who could charm women. So, Danton was poor when it came to looking like Diamond...but was great for attracting females to the theaters to see him!

The story is a somewhat predictable tale of a monster who was bigger than life and had bigger than life ambitions....and the expected fall. After all, this IS in the title of the movie! So is it any good? Yes. The story is violent, exciting and never lets up....so it should keep your interest. Excellent direction sure didn't hurt this film, either!

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