If a movie deserves the definition of hard-boiled, this is "Grissom Gang". The characters seem to know just a way to face any problem, either major or minor: kill, kill, kill. The setting in the rural, poor Midwest in the years of Depression is both evocative and grinding: it gives the audience a feeling of bleakness and unavoidable violence. The story is carefully constructed, exciting, full of suspense. The characters are very well shaped, much care is given to details. The direction by Aldrich is superb: the action scenes are beautifully filmed, the timing is admirable. In the development of the plot we don't find those failures of strain, digressions and intervals of bore which were so common in the movies of those years, under pretension of style. All the actors' performances are outstanding. Scott Wilson draws, with masterly acting, the extraordinary character of Slim Grissom. At first, he seems just a half-witted hooligan, but we quickly realize that he is the toughest of them all, looking at other characters' behavior: they are all scared of him, even his gang mates. Actually, the smart gangster Tony Musante seems to take fun in teasing the stupid Slim: but it is clear that this is by no means a good idea. Wilson's acting gives likelihood to Grissom's possessive, infantile, somewhat touching love for Miss Blandish (Kim Darby). He states that, to save her, he is ready to kill his own mother: we have already learned to never underestimate his words. Kim Darby deserves a special mention, in the role of the spoiled girl who learns to survive at all costs, sexual abuse included. She is great here, she was extraordinary in "True Grit": I wonder why she didn't become a major Hollywood star. Despite some minor faults, "Grissom Gang" is excellent, by far better, in my opinion, of other celebrated movies of the same rural-America-gangster genre, such as Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde", Altman's "Thieves like us", Corman's "Bloody Mama".
