Main Cast: Barry Sullivan, Belita, Joan Lorring, Akim Tamiroff
Release Year: 1947
Country: US
Run Time: 84 minutes
Plot
Having struck gold with the previous season's Dillinger, the King Brothers returned to Monogram as producers of The Gangster. Adapted by Daniel Fuchs from his own novel Low Company, the film stars Barry Sullivan as flint-faced racketeer Shubunka. Shown to be a product of the slums, Shubunka spends his adulthood in pursuit of power and riches, with no time for friendship or romance. Wounded in a gangland shootout, Shubunka ruminates on his past, present and (unlikely) future, wondering if it's all been worth it. Promoted as a "psychological" drama, The Gangster has plenty of gunplay and bloodshed to satiate action fans, and a surfeit of sex appeal in the form of gangster's moll Nancy (played by Monogram's resident skating star Belita). Prominent in the supporting cast is the ineluctable Sheldon Leonard as Shubunka's chief rival, delivering a subtler variation on his patented tough-guy screen persona. The Gangster was directed by Oscar-winning art director Gordon Wiles, later a mainstay of such TV series as Land of the Lost and Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
F. Paul Sylos - Art Director, Norma - Costume Designer, Gordon Wiles - Director, Walter Thompson - Editor, Louis Gruenberg - Composer (Music Score), Irvin Talbot - Musical Direction/Supervision, Gordon Clifford - Songwriter, Herb Nacio Brown - Songwriter, Ern Westmore - Makeup, Paul Ivano - Cinematographer, Frank King - Producer, Maurice King - Producer, Sidney Moore - Set Designer, Roy Seawright - Special Effects, Daniel Fuchs - Screenwriter, Daniel Fuchs - Book Author
