Gangster films have had a hold on American audiences going back to the 1930's
when Cagney, Bogart, Muni and Robinson made their names on the bodies they
killed in this genre. By the end of the 30's their popularity began to wane
but by the late 1950's they came back with a flourish and have never really
gone away completely. There were a bunch of gangster biographical films made
around that time with Dillinger, Capone, Mad Dog Coll, Dutch Schultz and
Legs Diamond being subjects and in the TV show The Untouchables nearly every
gangster from the 1930's got his spot on the show. Sometimes the gangsters
were portrayed romantically - Bonnie and Clyde - but more often than not
they were shown to be the cold blooded killers they were. That is certainly
the case with Legs Diamond who is a sociopathic killer. There are no tears
shed when these guys get their just desserts.
Legs Diamond was a real character who got into the rackets in the 1920's
and worked his way up the old fashioned way - bootlegging, murder, collections.
At one point he became the bodyguard to Arnold Rothstein, the famous gambler
who reputedly fixed the 1919 World Series. He met his demise for welching
on a big bet in 1928. Diamond was also famous for being shot a few times
and being left for dead and he always managed to survive. He was thought
to be unkillable. He wasn't. Two close-up shots to the head will cure living
in a hurry.
The film sort of follows this story without exaggerating too much. Diamond
is played by Ray Danton who I just saw as the rapist in The Beat Generation.
His acting is good as long as he gets to portray suave psychos. A year after
this film he was Legs Diamond again in Portrait of a Mobster about Dutch
Schultz - who many think was behind the killing of Legs. I guess you really
can't kill Legs Diamond. The girl who loves him is played by Karen Steele
who had been in two Budd Boetticher films previously. Boetticher directed
a number of different genres in his career but much of his reputation is
tied to a series of Westerns he made in the 1950s. Another one of the women
Legs uses and discards - Dixie - is played by Diane Cannon - later to become
Dyan Cannon.
This is a solid fast moving film shot in black and white for Warner Brothers
who of course had made all those black and white gangster films in the 1930's.
Diamond was an independent gangster - shifting around allegiances and partners
- but by the late 1920's most of the criminal enterprises had come under
the rule of the Mafia and Legs - being Irish and independent - was an outlier
and his time was up. Also appearing is Simon Oakland, Warren Oates and Frank
DeKova. I remember seeing this on TV as a child and loving it and have always
wanted to see it again. It didn't live up to my childhood memories but then
few things do.
