Machine-Gun Kelly (1958)

 

Bronson the gangster…

Charles Bronson stars in his first leading role as the notorious gangster George R. “Machine-Gun” Kelly. He, along with female companion Florence ‘Flo’ Becker (Susan Cabot) and a gang of criminals are making life sour for bank owners. After a robbery goes wrong Kelly takes out the rest of the gang conspiring to kill him for fouling up. His next move with Flo is to kidnap the daughter of a wealthy businessman for ransom.

Bronson is surprisingly charismatic and loose in this film. His stoic nature more apparent in later films takes a backseat here and he shows remarkable capability. It’s also fun watching him in a rare role as a villain that even manages to generate sympathy, at times anyway. I’ve never seen Bronson laugh as heartily before either. There is a duality to his character. On one hand he’s like a small child terribly afraid of death. Being a bank robber isn’t the wisest of career choices then, but life isn’t predictable. On the other hand he can be a cold and calculating killing-machine. Much of this is due to Flo’s ability to manipulate him. Behind every strong man there is an even stronger woman. Her role becomes progressively more interesting as the film develops. I love watching her going from slyly sexy to a cold and calculating bitch. While there is a serious tone underlying humor frequently sneaks in punctuating that it’s just a film. Most of the laughs are provided by comedian Morey Amsterdam, which clearly isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. He is also involved in one of the most unexpected highlights in the movie.

A classier sort of gangster.

Director and b-movie maestro Roger Corman shot the entire film in merely eight days. I expected it to look a lot rougher, but everything is filmed with an on-the-run sensibility. Machine-Gun Kelly probably gained from this. Both the characters in the movie and the people making it are in a hurry, but still take time to evaluate what has to be done. With such a rigid shooting schedule and budget there is little room to elaborate on anything. A bank robbery is filmed from the outside leaving a shadowy figure holding his hands up and a bullet through the door as illustrations of what’s going on. It’s a necessary minimalistic approach, but it works. I still wish we could have seen more scenes cementing Machine-Gun Kelly’s name though. Fortunately Bronson was just warming up and has since addressed this issue with a hailstorm of bullets.

Machine-Gun Kelly isn’t a miracle of movie making, but in its rather simple script there are some interesting themes both explored and left for the imagination. If you like either Charles Bronson, b-movies with gangsters, Roger Corman or a combination of them then Machine-Gun Kelly is worthwhile.

6/10