Al Capone

As much a sweeping biography as a film noir, Richard Wilson’s underappreciated Al Capone presents a fast-paced, multi-layered interpretation of America’s most famous gangster from his arrival in Chicago and first job as a bouncer to his ultimate incarceration for tax evasion. Driven by a tour-de-force performance by Rod Steiger that brilliantly captures the man’s charm, volatility, and cunning, the film covers Capone’s rise and fall, including the takeover of Cicero, the killing of rival O’Banion, the threat from Weiss and Bugs Moran’s gangs, the Valentine’s Day massacre, Capone’s flight to Florida, and his final arrest for non-violent crimes. Along the way, we also follow Capone’s love life in the form of the fictional Maureen Flannery (Fay Spain), the widow of a Capone murder victim whom he courts and seduces and wins over (these scenes are brilliantly acted by both performers); by the end, she’s begging Capone to kill her. (In real life, Capone stayed married to his Brooklyn bride his entire life, but there’s no reference to her in the film.) Wilson doesn’t shy away from brutal violence like the Valentine’s Day firing line in the warehouse or the subway station ambush of Keely (Martin Balsam), and he and cinematographer Ballard create several high-octane scenes with dramatic noir lighting, such as the poker game visited by Moran (Murvyn Vye) in the shadows and shot overhead with only a dangling ceiling lamp, or the back room scene when Keely is confronted by Capone and roughed up by his thugs. All the major studios had until recently agreed not to produce films about real-life gangsters, so this is the first feature film about Al Capone.