The clothes and cars are of the 1930s, but sometimes the score sounds like something from the 30s, and other times, with bongos, it sounds like the soundtrack of a beatnik movie of the early 60s and late 50s. Even stranger, the actors talk like Beatniks lots of times. There is little bank robbery action here. Roger Corman did not have the same budget Warren Beatty had with "Bonny and Clyde" over at Warner Brothers, so he had to make do with this largely being a relationship and character study picture with scenes that could be staged on cheaply dressed sets.
This is notable and worthwhile for several reasons. It is an early role for Charles Bronson in the title role. In this highly fictional biopic Kelly is afraid of things that remind him of death - coffins and skulls for example. His fear of coffins plays heavily in one botched bank robbery when he encounters a funeral procession and is feet from the coffin and ends up being a no show for the job. Also, Susan Cabot, often remembered for playing the lead in Wasp Woman, is a dragon lady as Kelly's girlfriend. She seems to be much bolder and more bloodthirsty than Kelly is. In fact, Kelly had a wife that encouraged him in his life of crime and got him into machine guns. But the biggest reason to watch this - Morey Amsterdam. If you only remember him as Buddy Sorrell on the Dick Van Dyke Show in the 60s, and the bane of the existence of yes man Mel Cooley, then this performance is a revelation. He is a wacko but cowardly comrade of Kelly's that Kelly "teaches a lesson" to in a most unique way. This does not improve his overall mood, and though he has only a supporting role it is memorable.
Machine Gun Kelly and his wife were actually taken alive as shown in the film. For all of his bravado Kelly didn't want to die. Kelly died in prison in 1954. His wife was paroled in 1958, the same year this film was released. I wonder if she ever saw it?
Just one more thing - Connie Gilchrest plays Ma Becker here, Kelly's girlfriend's hard boiled brothel running mother. I kept thinking that if this picture had been made ten years later, Shelley Winters could have done a lot with this part, maybe even stolen the picture. I guess Corman and I were on the same page, because in 1970 he cast Winters as Ma Barker in "Bloody Mama" in a very similar kind of role.
