Spikeopath Al Capone is directed by Richard Wilson and written by Malvin Wald and Henry F. Greenberg. It stars Rod Steiger, Martin Balsam, Nehemiah Persoff, Fay Spain, Joe DeSantis and Murvyn Vye. Music is by David Raksin and cinematography by Lucien Ballard.Alphonse Gabriel Capone, it's a name synonymous with gangsters of 1920s America, and of course of cinematic films. Richard Wilson's film is one of the better gangster biopics out there, filmed in semi-doc style, it unfolds with great human drama without glorifying the subject matter. If anything it's refreshingly unsentimental in its approach.Steiger is Capone (never Caponee!) and he puts his method stomp all over the role, carrying the film squarely on his well cast shoulders. He has all the ticks and mannerisms of Capone to either chill the blood or charm the other characters in the play, it is very much a powerhouse performance.As a history lesson it's not wholly accurate, but much of it is rigid in the life and times of the famous criminal. The period detail is splendid, with the backdrops boosted no end by the gorgeous monochrome photography served up by Ballard. Enthralling, sometimes violent and always intriguing, this is well worth a look. 7/10

Gord Jackson Method actor Rod Steiger probably spent a lot of time prepping his impersonation of Twenties Chicago mobster Al Capone for the film of the same name. Method actors tend to do that sort of thing. Sometimes it works, at other times it doesn't. In Steiger's case, it's 'spot on.' Eschewing any pretence at subtlety, his coarse, sweaty, psychotic Capone is pure evil, street-smart scum who can preside over a hit from another time zone while simultaneously enjoying good music, expensive scotch and a civilized conversation with a fascinated, old aristocrat. Based upon the life of racketeer Alphonso Capone, AL CAPONE violently traces the hood's 1920s rise from journeyman bodyguard in a Chicago nightclub/whorehouse to feared crime boss whose devotion to position, power and money are the only real loves of his life. And of course, as with any true love there will be those inevitable bumps and detours, ups and downs along the way. Indeed true love, like those pesky universes sometimes referred to, have this rather nasty habit of not unfolding as one might otherwise wish. Filmed in 1958 and released by poverty row studio Allied Artists in 1959, AL CAPONE also effectively features Fay Spain, James Gregory, Martin Balsam, Nehemiah Persoff and Murvyn Vye along with a fine David Raksin (LAURA) score. A riveting black and white gem, it was economically directed by Richard Wilson and is probably the best screen presentation of the Capone story, with the charismatic Rod Steiger brilliantly capturing the diabolical drive and zealotry of a maniacal monster barely a step removed from the suicide-bombing fanatics of today.This one is not to be missed!

LeonLouisRicci The years have not been kind to this flat 50's style recreation of 20's style gangsterism. The film is overwhelmed by Rod Steiger's performance and underwhelmed by the stiff conventionalism of the era's film making. The roaring 20's presented in the repressed 50's where decadence is bad table manners and spouting, yelling, and mumbling display an uneducated ignorance. Everything in this movie is tame where it should be wild and soft where it should be coarse.Historically Hollywood never did quite get it right, to be kind, and not even until very recently has the true ugliness and understanding of the unfairly glamorized criminal been portrayed for the destructive force that it is. Even so, even today, entertainment usually supersedes responsibility, but not because of community standards and motion picture code restraint.

bigpurplebear-1 Many actors have portrayed Capone over the years. It's virtually a "cottage industry," guaranteeing that yet another Capone flick will hit the screens before the collective audience has quite recovered from its yawn at the last one. And yet, for me, no one has ever come quite so close to nailing the role as Rod Steiger in this 1959 black-and-white low-budget effort.As a matter of fact, using the term "low-budget" does this film a disservice, calling to mind as it does the run-of-the-mill output of producer/distributor Allied Artists (usually on the scale of "Attack Of The 50-Foot Mummified Woman Meets Godzilla's Teenage Werewolf Son"). For this film, however, the studio assembled a strong acting ensemble which includes Martin Balsam, Nehemiah Persoff, Murvyn Vye, and James Gregory, all of whom deliver standout performances. Yet it's Steiger whose performance holds this film together. His Capone is a monster whose mood swings defy the term "mercurial," yet his psychopathy seems somehow strangely -- disturbingly -- human. You can sense the demons deep within him, and how they drive him, but you're never allowed to glimpse them, not even momentarily, lest you lose sight of the fact that this man truly is a monster. Eerily compelling, even hypnotic (particularly as he woos -- and wins! -- the widow of a cop he's previously murdered), Steiger invests his characterization with the bravura of the opera which the real-life Capone professed to admire. Alternately wheedling and bullying, bellicose and scheming, he assumes a larger-than-life mythos which resonates all the more uncomfortably due to a sense of plausibility, the feeling that such men do continue to exist among us.The storyline itself is more or less factual, save for Gregory's character (which isn't even really a composite of any particular real-life law enforcement personnel), as well as a decision to re-name Balsam's character rather than use the identity of the real-life Jake Lingle, upon whom the character is based. Certain incidents have been fictionalized as to the way they happened, but that's to be expected in the interest of dramatic effect.Overall, the film achieves an almost documentary effect. Steiger's performance makes it a very chilling documentary, indeed.