kapelusznik18 The infamous St. Valintine Day Massacre in 1929 was the beginning of the end of Chicago mobster Alfonse "Big Al" Capone, Jason Robards, in that it drew the attention of the US Justice Department as well as IRS on him that eventually ended up putting him behind bars, for of all things tax evasion, and out of commission for good. It was the Irish George "Bugs" Moran and "Bug's, Ralph Meeker, himself that Capone targeted who in fact escaped being killed just moments before the shooting began. Moran and his boys were out having a cup of coffee that snowy morning that kept them away from the garage on 2122 N. Clark St where the massacre happened.Big Al had it in for Moran since 1924 in him trying to cut in on his action in North Chicago that drove him psycho.It was his overreaction to all this that in the end put then heat-or law- on Big Al like no other mobster ever could. The St. Valintine Day Massacre was the last of the Capone gangland wipe-outs that resulted, on both sides, in some 600 gang land killings in Chicago during the Capone years and by far the bloodiest. Not only did seven members of the "Bugs" Moran gang get killed but those who murdered them over the next few years ended up also getting iced themselves. As for "Bugs" Moran he in fact died in his sleep in 1957 after serving a 10 year sentence on a robbery conviction.Using hoods dressed as Chicago police Capone, who at the time was vacationing in far off and sunny Florida, had Moran's boys feel they were just getting pinched by the police on a minor charge and be booked and let go before the day ended. As things turned out it was to be the last day of their lives. Director Roger Corman's first major movie that had him being taken seriously by the Hollywood big wigs who never thought that much of him and his talent as a serious filmmaker.P.S It was Capone's use of fake police to do his dirty work that was soon to be copied by fellow big time mobster "Lucky" Luciano two years later in the notorious September 10, 1931 massacre-Depicted in movies like "Stone Killer" & "The Valichi Papers"- of some 40 old line Mafia hoods in NYC and its surroundings that in the end made the mob or Mafia far more effective dangerous and successful, by letting non Sicilians to join it, then it even was during the Al Capone era.

lord woodburry Although Jason Robards doesn't look very Italian, he exudes The Big Feller's flamboyancy throughout this documentary styled movie about the infamous prohibition era massacre on February 14, 1929 at the Clark Street Garage in Chicago. The film brings the viewer through the history of Capone's bloody rivalry with the North side Irish German gang, the foiled attempts of the North Side Gang to take out Capone and Capone's bloody reprisals eliminating each successive Northside leader until the Northside's crown fell to Bugsy Moran (Ralph Meeker).Ralph Meeker plays the part of the Northside leader as a foil to Jason Robard's mercurial Capone. In the film version, both Capone and Moran have excellent heads for business, leadership and strategy but Meeker as Moran assumes an aura of polished reserve and distance.As the movie opens Capone hat in hand requests Mafia approval of a hit on Moran.But on this occasion the Northside has the jump on Capone. The Mafia Don is executed. However Moran's expectation that the assassination will cause an ascension of Joe Aiello (Alex D'Arcy) a Mafioso more friendly to Moran proves to be unrealistic. Capone brutally kills Joe Aiello in reprisal.The stage is now set for the biggest assassination in US history as Capone uses imported Mafia hoods to dress up like cops and machine gun down Moran's entire mob. Mafia spies misidentified a Moran lookalike as Moran; Moran escaped the trap.Reporter: Y'know some are sayin' that it really was the cops who shot those men.Bugs Moran: You must be new to this town, mister. Only Al Capone kills like that.Only Frank Gusenberg (David Canary) lived to die in hospital. There he was interrogated by the stereotypical "good guy cop" of the 1960s, Russ Conway who had played The Hardy Boy's father, a serial that went along with The Micky Mouse Club. Interrogator: (to Frank Gusenberg in hospital) I've got to level with you Frank, you're not going to make it. Want me to call a preacher? Frank Gusenberg: Go Away.It was a nice touch of comic relief at the end of a gruesome story, although succeeding generations unfamiliar with the Mickey Mouse Club will not understand.Comparable films include Ben Gazzara in Capone and Tony Curtis in Lepke. I don't think the film is quite in the same genre as THE GOODFATHER I & II, which I much admire. This is a historical biopic; Godfather is all too real fiction.

toolkien ....just a little too much "you dirty rat" milieu to it. The characterization is too comic bookish. All in all it's just outdated for being from 1967. Jason Robards and George Segal are both very fine actors and they were largely annoying with overacting. It takes some very poor direction to get such performances out of two such good actors. Roger Corman, of course, is known for his B movie legacy and this IS a cut above some of his other works, but certainly not enough to make it very good. The story? I don't want to spoil the ending in case some people don't know it. Is it terrible? No. But it's not good, there's better ways to spend a couple hours on a movie you haven't seen. There's plenty of other movies out there and it is likely you'll find one better than this.

The_Void For me, the great Roger Corman will always be best remembered for his film versions of classic Edgar Allen Poe stories; but he also made a lot of films outside of the horror genre and clearly stories of true American crime interested him as aside from this film he also directed Bloody Mama based on Ma Barker. The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre has a fairly strong cult following and I went into this film with some fairly high hopes because of that; although unfortunately I have to say that I'm not as big a fan as many as while this is undoubtedly an interesting and well made crime film; it also has several flaws. The plot focuses on the Prohibition era and in particular the rivalry between two prominent gangs, one of which lead by the infamous Al Capone. As the title suggests; the main focus of the film is on the famous 'Saint Valentines Day Massacre' which saw a group of men gunned down in cold blood. The film focuses on the main players in both the gangs and focuses on the events up to and including the incident.As anyone who knows anything about Roger Corman would expect; the film does not benefit from a big budget and in some ways feels like a cheaper version of several big budget crime flicks. However, in spite of this, Corman still manages to give his film a good style and the film really does feel like its taking place in the late 1920's. The plot does not play out like a regular crime film and instead we get a fragmented report on the key events and it almost feels like it could be a documentary with reconstructions. Corman was obviously keen to focus on the history too as there's a voice-over that fills the audience in on key happenings. In my opinion, the film would have been better as a straight drama as the way it has been done means that it's interesting in parts and then not interesting in others and there's not a great deal of fluency which is a shame. The film has a sense of inevitability to it all the way through as it's always clear how it will end and while it contains no surprises; The St Valentines Day Massacre is at least a successful retelling of the famous event of it's title.