Wonderful Movie

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The first must-see film of the year.

The infamous St. Valintine Day Massacre in 1929 was the beginning of the end of Chicago mobster Alfonse "Big Al" Capone, Jason Robards, in that it drew the attention of the US Justice Department as well as IRS on him that eventually ended up putting him behind bars, for of all things tax evasion, and out of commission for good. It was the Irish George "Bugs" Moran and "Bug's, Ralph Meeker, himself that Capone targeted who in fact escaped being killed just moments before the shooting began. Moran and his boys were out having a cup of coffee that snowy morning that kept them away from the garage on 2122 N. Clark St where the massacre happened.Big Al had it in for Moran since 1924 in him trying to cut in on his action in North Chicago that drove him psycho.It was his overreaction to all this that in the end put then heat-or law- on Big Al like no other mobster ever could. The St. Valintine Day Massacre was the last of the Capone gangland wipe-outs that resulted, on both sides, in some 600 gang land killings in Chicago during the Capone years and by far the bloodiest. Not only did seven members of the "Bugs" Moran gang get killed but those who murdered them over the next few years ended up also getting iced themselves. As for "Bugs" Moran he in fact died in his sleep in 1957 after serving a 10 year sentence on a robbery conviction.Using hoods dressed as Chicago police Capone, who at the time was vacationing in far off and sunny Florida, had Moran's boys feel they were just getting pinched by the police on a minor charge and be booked and let go before the day ended. As things turned out it was to be the last day of their lives. Director Roger Corman's first major movie that had him being taken seriously by the Hollywood big wigs who never thought that much of him and his talent as a serious filmmaker.P.S It was Capone's use of fake police to do his dirty work that was soon to be copied by fellow big time mobster "Lucky" Luciano two years later in the notorious September 10, 1931 massacre-Depicted in movies like "Stone Killer" & "The Valichi Papers"- of some 40 old line Mafia hoods in NYC and its surroundings that in the end made the mob or Mafia far more effective dangerous and successful, by letting non Sicilians to join it, then it even was during the Al Capone era.

My summary quote spoken by Al Capone (Jason Robards) is quite insightful into the mind of a gangster, who lives by a different moral code than the rest of society. While speaking that line, Capone is in the midst of planning to take out his North Side rival Bugs Moran (Ralph Meeker), almost as if it's his civic duty to unite all illegal activities in the city under one crime family.Well I'm not a student of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, but reading a handful of reviews on this board it seems this film was a fairly accurate representation of the events leading up to that fatally famous day. Criticism of Robards' choice to portray Capone doesn't bother me much, though I have to say he did take it over the top at times. His "We're gonna get him before he gets me" line in the face of his gang's seeming reluctance to go for all out war was about as definitive a statement a mobster can make outside of "Make him an offer he can't refuse".There's a cool cast of supporting players here, and probably the best scene for me was George Segal displaying his aversion to fur coats when his gal Myrtle (Jean Hale) revealed the price tag. That tussle just seemed to go on and on and I never did get the impression the coat was going back. I had to do a double take a couple of times when it looked like Jack Nicholson showed up as one of the tommy gunners; his uncredited appearance here was kind of cool.One item I'll have to go back and check was that flashback scene of Al Capone recounting the first attempted hit on his life, occurring across the street from a movie theater. The marquee displayed the title 'The Mad Rider' but there's nothing like that in the IMDb database. There are a handful of films going by "The Masked Rider" prior to 1922 and another one in 1941 which wouldn't have worked, so I'm curious as to why the film makers used that title. A half century later now so I don't think we'll ever know.

I saw this movie when it was first released in the Sixties and I have seen it many times over the years. I still enjoy it with every viewing and I think it ranks in my top five all-time gangster movies. The St. Valentine Massacre screenplay was written by Howard Browne who was actually a young reporter in Chicago at the time the story unfolded. I found the Moran gang of Irish and German hoods more interesting than the Italian and Jewish mobsters of the Capone outfit. I have also found that the New York Irish gangsters like Owen Madden, Mad Dog Coll and Legs Diamond more fascinating than their Italian and Jewish counterparts like Benny Siegel, Frank Costello and company. The Irish were more like cowboys, rogues and desperadoes while the Italians and Jews were boring businessmen in suits.

Although reviewers were mixed in their feelings for this semi-famous gangster picture from 1967, I think most of them missed the point. Roger Corman's "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" was filmed on a budget of exactly $1,000,000. Even for 1967 standards, that's about as low as you can go. And look what he got for his cool million; Jason Robards, Ralph Meeker, George Segal, Joseph Campanella, Bruce Dern (a Corman stock player back then) and a host of other famous names including soon-to-be movie star Jack Nicholson. Some reviewers were obviously thrown for a loop because of Corman's use of a narrator to the events (Paul Frees) and the fact that he tackled a worthy subject compared to his earlier sci-fi and biker film efforts. Their preconceptions of Corman's talent got the better of them and this film proved that he was a first-class director worthy of respect from his peers. The plot involves the famous massacre of Chicago gang-lord Bugs Moran's men during the height of prohibition. Al Capone (a raging Jason Robards) was the architect of these murders and was aided and abetted by "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn (Clint Ritchie) who was the true mastermind. Moran himself (Ralph Meeker) was able to avoid the "hit" and lived to tell about it. George Segal is the real star of the show as Peter Gusenberg, one of Moran's henchmen. His fight with his girlfriend (Jean Hale) over an expensive fur is one of the highlights of the film. Jack Nicholson (another Corman regular) makes a brief appearance as one of Capone's hit men and is allowed to utter one memorable line about the effects of "garlic-flavored" bullets. The film stays relatively close to true events and except for the fact that Jason Robards doesn't look anything like the real Al Capone and is too old for the part, the movie is mostly historically accurate. All in all, "The St. Valentine's Massacre" is an entertaining and informative movie, and all done on a shoestring budget. As they say, they don't make them like this anymore.