Main Cast: Rod Steiger, Fay Spain, James Gregory, Martin Balsam, Nehemiah Persoff
Release Year: 1959
Country: US
Run Time: 104 minutes
Plot
Rod Steiger is the screen's first "method mobster" in the title role of Al Capone. The film traces Big Al's progress from a torpedo in the hire of Chicago gangster Johnny Torrio (Nehemiah Persoff) to Capone's takeover of the Windy City's bootlegging operations, and his ultimate downfall at the hands of the IRS. Rod Steiger delivers every line with maniacal gusto, as though it will be his last; sometimes he sounds like Frank Gorshin doing a Rod Steiger impression, but for the most part it is a dynamite performance. Featured in the cast are Murvyn Vye as Bugs Moran, Joe De Santis as Big Jim Colosimo, Lewis Charles as Hymie Weiss, Robert Gist as O'Banion, and James Gregory and Martin Balsam as composite characters, respectively based on honest Chicago cop John Siege and duplicitous newspaper reporter Jake Lingle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Murvyn Vye - Bugs Moran; Joe de Santis - Big Jim Colosimo; Lewis Charles - Hymie Weiss; Robert Gist - O'Banion; Sandy Kenyon - Bones Corelli; Raymond Bailey - Mr. Brancato; Al Ruscio - Tony Genaro; Louis Quinn - Joe Lorenzo; Ron Soble - Scalist; Steve Gravers - Anselmo; Peter Dane - Pete Flannery; Raiken Ben Ari - Ben Hoffman; Robert Christopher - Man; Clegg Hoyt - Lefty; Roy Jenson - Customer; John Mitchum - Photographer; Jack Orrison - Police clerk; Sam Scar - Louie
Credit
Hilyard M. Brown - Art Director, Richard Wilson - Director, Walter A. Hannemann - Editor, David Raksin - Composer (Music Score), Lucien Ballard - Cinematographer, John Burrows - Producer, Leonard J. Ackerman - Producer, Henry Greenberg - Screenwriter, Malvin Wald - Screenwriter
