Studs Lonigan

The title role for this film went to Christopher Knight, which is surprising since this was his first role! In fact, after making this movie, he only played one more part in his very brief career. The story is a very low-budget combination of the three books by James T. Farrell...and combining all these stories into one film made for a very dull and disjointed...rather episodic picture. The problem also is that Studs was really not a criminal type...more a ne'er-do-well who never amounted to anything in this film set through the 1920s. Had he done more with is life, the film would clearly have worked better. But a film about a loser who never amounts to much...well, making it work is very difficult if not impossible.

The only reasons to watch the film is that it's free to watch on YouTube and you can see Jack Nicholson in a relatively bland part as one of Studs' friends. Not much fun watching this one...and I really wanted to like it much more than I actually did.