The Highwaymen

 Public Enemy Era (1932-1935), T-Z  No Responses »
Jun 282019
 
The Highwaymen

Rating: ★★½☆☆
When a prison guard is killed during a breakout organized by the outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, former Texas Ranger Frank Hamer is asked to hunt them down. The script works hard to show that Bonnie Parker was a trigger-happy, murderous psychotic in order to justify her death during the ambush at the end of the movie, which requires stretching and mutilating the facts. A personal project for screenwriter John Fusco, his determination to rehabilitate the image of Frank Hamer drives him to ignore the vital contribution made by many small-town sheriffs and FBI agents in order to transform Hamer into an super investigator. Read More…

A Bullet for Pretty Boy

 A-D, Public Enemy Era (1932-1935)  No Responses »
Jun 062019
 
A Bullet for Pretty Boy

Rating: ★★☆☆☆
The soundtrack is good. The locations and period cars are great. Unfortunately, the dialogue is dull, and is not helped by the performance of the actors. Basically, I enjoyed the movie whenever no one was talking. Um, the best that I can say is that it is not horrible. At least, its weaknesses can be blamed on a low budget and a cast of amateurs, unlike far too many big-budget spectacles that are hard viewing. Read More…

Bloody Mama

 A-D, Public Enemy Era (1932-1935)  No Responses »
Mar 092017
 
Bloody Mama

Rating: ★★½☆☆
Determined to escape grinding poverty, Katherine Barker leads her four sons on a crime wave. The movie is a strange experience. Even by today’s standards, it is pretty weird. Despite the large number of good character actors, it is a nasty, disturbing film. Read More…

The Bonnie Parker Story

 Public Enemy Era (1932-1935), T-Z  No Responses »
Feb 092017
 
The Bonnie Parker Story

Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Yet another crime-does-not-pay film filled with endless snarling between the outlaws. Man, the late fifties sucked for this type of film. Recognizing that she is headed for a career as a prostitute since jobs are hard to get in the Depression, Bonnie Parker, a bored waitress, agrees to work with bank robber wannabee Guy Darrow. Realizing that he is a two-bit operator who prefers to rob gas stations because it is safer, she forces him to rob banks, but they are hunted by a relentless Texas Ranger. Aside from an impressive inaccuracy, the script ups the yuckiness factor when it shows that firing guns turns her on. An unpleasant film. Read More…

Baby Face Nelson

 A-D, Public Enemy Era (1932-1935)  No Responses »
Dec 012016
 
Baby Face Nelson

Rating: ★½☆☆☆
Baby Face Nelson (Mickey Rooney) becomes a bank robber after he is released from prison but gradually becomes a trigger happy maniac. The role was ideal for Mickey Rooney, who had spent over a decade playing the relentlessly optimistic teenager Andy Hardy, whose response to every crisis was “Hey gang, let’s put on a show!” However, he had came home from WWII to find that there were few roles for a 5’2” adult with a baby face. Aside from several key events, the rest of the movie seems to have been made up. Read More…

Machine Gun Kelly

 E-N, Public Enemy Era (1932-1935)  No Responses »
Nov 102016
 
Machine Gun Kelly

Rating: ★½☆☆☆
Playing Machine Gun Kelly, a famous bank robber and kidnapper during the Public Enemies Era, Charles Bronson has his first leading role. Aside from the title character, all of the other characters are fictional. As is almost the entire movie. An incredibly anti-crime movie, every single one of the criminals is repulsive. Populated by nasty characters, it is simply an unpleasant movie. Read More…

Ma Barker’s Killer Brood

 O-S, Public Enemy Era (1932-1935)  No Responses »
Oct 272016
 
Ma Barker's Killer Brood

Rating: ★★½☆☆
Although the script states that Ma Barker was so cunning that she was never arrested in two decades of crime, the real J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, had labeled Ma the brains of the Barker-Kasrpis Gang in order to avoid the blame for killing an unarmed grandmother. While the script transforms Ma Barker into a criminal mastermind who makes Walter White look like an indecisive bumbler, the overall story is relatively accurate. Emphasis on relatively. Despite the complete disconnect from historical reality, it is a fun movie. Read More…

The Lady in Red

 Public Enemy Era (1932-1935), T-Z  No Responses »
Sep 222016
 
The Lady in Red

Rating: ★★★★☆
Set during the Public Enemies Era, the film presents the life of Polly Hamilton, John Dillinger’s girlfriend when he was killed by FBI agents. Powered by a brilliant script, the movie moves at a breakneck pace, blasting information about the Depression until the romance between Dillinger and Polly slows things down. Despite the connection to Dillinger, it is really an examination of women in the Depression, capturing the bleak reality of life before the introduction of labor regulations, especially the limited range of career opportunities for women. Read More…

G-Men

 E-N, Public Enemy Era (1932-1935)  No Responses »
Apr 282016
 
G-Men

Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Attorney James “Brick” Davis (James Cagney) joins the Department of Justice after his friend is shot from behind while arresting a counterfeiter, and becomes involved in the FBI’s campaign against a gang that has committed a wave of bank robberies. The film presents several key events of the Public Enemies Era but does not include any of the actual Public Enemies. Intended to reassure the public, a single gang is responsible for the entire crime wave. G-Men was clearly designed as an apology for Warner Brothers’ previous gangster films, which had caused it to be known as the gangster studio. While the intent is laudable, the film lacks energy, and is only for Cagney fans. Read More…

Bonnie and Clyde

 A-D, Public Enemy Era (1932-1935)  2 Responses »
Feb 062014
 
Bonnie and Clyde

Inspired by the success of its miniseries Hatfields and McCoys (2012), the History Channel teamed up with Lifetime (both are part of the A & E network) to produce a two-part miniseries on Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, who robbed banks and grocery stores during the Public Enemy Era (1933-1935). Unfortunately, the miniseries is boring, inaccurate crap. While many movies treat historical facts as items in a supermarket that can be put back on the shelves if they are inconvenient, Bonnie and Clyde sinks to new depths. The script is a Bizarro-world version of the real outlaws that leaves out most of the members of the Barrow gang, makes Bonnie the mastermind, scrambles the real events beyond recognition, and has a demented, glory-hungry Bonnie mail pictures of themselves to the newspapers because she would rather be famous than live. Oh, and Clyde has visions of the future. It is actually worse than the 1967 version with Warren Beatty, and I hate that movie. Do not watch this. Read More…

Public Enemies Era

 Historical Background  No Responses »
Jan 302014
 
Public Enemies Era

When outlaws like the Barker-Karpis Gang, the Clyde Barrow Gang, John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd began to attract national attention in 1933, the FBI was an under-funded, amateurish organization. A series of celebrity kidnappings and the massacre of four law enforcement officials in Kansas City in June 1933 led to calls for a national police force, and the FBI would lead the war on crime. In 1934, the many bank robbers would be divided into five nice, clear groups: the family of kidnappers, the lovers on the run, the charming escape artist, the psychotic killer and the misunderstood country boy. A year later, almost none of them were still alive and the FBI was a national institution.
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Pretty Boy Floyd

 Historical Background  No Responses »
Dec 052013
 
Pretty Boy Floyd

Charley “Pretty Boy” Floyd (February 3, 1904-October 22, 1934) grew up on a farm in Oklahoma. Tiring of the harsh existence and drudgery of farming, he left his wife and newborn son at home and looked for better employment opportunities outside the state. Robbing a bank, he was arrested after flashing around money, and spent three and a half years in prison, where he learned the science of robbing banks. After his release, he partnered with George Birdwell to rob numerous banks in Oklahoma until Birdwell died during a shootout in November 1932. Floyd had become notorious in Oklahoma, but was still able to make frequent visits to his family. However, he attracted national attention when it was learned that he had arrived in Kansas City the evening before the Kansas City Massacre, a failed attempt to rescue bank robber Frank Nash, which left four lawmen and Nash dead, on June 17, 1933. Hoping to wait out the attention, Floyd hid for a year in Buffalo, New York. When the FBI announced on October 11, 1934 that he was considered a major suspect, Floyd tried to reach the safety of his family in Oklahoma, but was fatally wounded trying to escape a group of FBI agents and local police officers in East Liverpool, Ohio on October 22, 1934.
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Bonnie and Clyde

 Historical Background  No Responses »
Jun 242013
 
Bonnie and Clyde

Bonnie Parker (October 1, 1910-May 23, 1934) and Clyde Barrow (March 24, 1909-May 23, 1934) were poor, young people with little hope for the future when they met in Dallas, Texas in January 1930. Clyde was arrested shortly after, which would have ended most relationships but Bonnie’s love was true. Despite a brutal experience in prison, Clyde hated the drudgery of honest work, so he returned to a life of crime, bringing Bonnie with him. After a drunken encounter with police officers at a dance resulted in a dead deputy on August 5, 1932, surrender was no longer an option for Clyde because he would get the electric chair. Recently released from prison, his elder brother Buck met Clyde, Bonnie and new recruit, 16-year-old W.O. Jones, hoping to persuade Clyde to surrender, but the vacation ended on April 13, 1933 when two police officers died in a shootout, and Buck and his fiance Blanche found themselves part of the gang. The gang became national celebrities after pictures of them posing with guns were found in their abandoned apartment. Several months later, Buck was severely wounded in another shootout with police, and died of his wounds shortly after a posse discovered the gang’s campsite. Hoping to gain more members for the gang, Clyde helped several prisoners break out of Eastham Prison Farm on January 16, 1934. Angered by the attack, the warden persuaded the governor of Texas to hire former Texas Ranger Frank Hamer to hunt down the gang. Betrayed by gang member Henry Methvin in exchange for a pardon, Bonnie and Clyde were lured into an ambush where they were killed on May 23, 1934. Read More…

J. Edgar

 E-N, Post-WWII (1945-1950), Public Enemy Era (1932-1935), WWI (1914-1918)  No Responses »
Jan 302012
 
J. Edgar

Rating: ★★½☆☆

J. Edgar is a touching movie about gay lovers when the idea of gay rights did not exist, but the love story takes precedence over the story of a paranoid, narrow-minded bureaucrat who believed that his own patriotism was the ideal and anyone who did not meet his standards was a threat to the nation. Read More…