Gangster Story

Rating:
Summary: You can't get away with that
Review: Hackneyed, lame-brained, boring. Where do you begin with Walter Matthau's GANGSTER STORY?
Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. Might as well end there, too. The story is implausible and confusing. Matthau plays a gangster who blows into an anonymous big town, looks like it might be Los Angeles, pulls a bank heist, has the mob and the cops on his trail, meets a librarian, falls for her...
Ah, what's the use? There's a plot, of sorts, but it's buried under drab photography, choppy editing, flat-line direction (Matthau's first and last time in the director's chair), funny scenes that aren't, dramatic scenes that are.
Matthau may not have been a comedic genius, but he carved a comfortable little niche for himself, starting with his role as the shyster lawyer in Billy Wilder's THE FORTUNE COOKIE. In the next couple of years he starred in two more very good comedies, A GUIDE FOR THE MARRIED MAN and THE ODD COUPLE, and his star was set. Unfortunately, GANGSTER STORY was made years before Matthau found his comedic footing. Matthau plays it dramatic and romantic, and never has a director so underused an actor.
The librarian, by the way, is played by Carol Grace, who had married Matthau in 1959 - GANGSTER STORY was released in 1960. It was the first of two movies she would appear in, the other being Elaine May's 1976 MIKEY AND NICKY. They remained married up till his death in 2000.



Rating:
Summary: An Unconventional Walter Matthau movie!!
Review: In this low budget movie starring Walter Matthau(probably during his lean years) in a non-comedic role as a gangster trying to create a crime syndicate and teaming up for a heist.It's an interesting,must see movie!!