Main Cast: Ray Danton, Karen Steele, Elaine Stewart, Jesse White, Simon Oakland
Release Year: 1960
Country: US
Run Time: 101 minutes
Plot
This effective gangster film on the notorious New York mobster Jack "Legs" Diamond is interspersed with moments of comic relief and was released just a few months after The Purple Gang shot their way across the silver screens in the U.S. Ironically, that gang and Diamond met their ends in the same year, 1931, and their rise was largely due to Prohibition. "Legsie" (Ray Danton) gets his name because he was a dancer, but he gets his reputation because he double-crosses anyone. He is a psychopath who works his way up the body count to the top of his own network of rackets. Along the way he meets and marries his wife Alice Schiffer (Karen Steele) and survives three attempts on his life that send him to the hospital each time. His reputation for "invulnerability," the inability of the police to touch him, gangsters who kill each other off, the racketeering with union bosses, and the hijacking of liquor shipments are all elements found in this film and The Purple Gang as well. Watch for a young Dyan Cannon in a bit part as Dixie, back when her first name was spelled like everyone else spells Diane. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Robert Lowery - Arnold Rothstein; Judson Pratt - Kats Walsh; Warren Oates - Eddie Diamond; Frank de Kova - Chairman; Gordon Jones - Sgt. Cassidy; Joseph Ruskin - Matt Moran; Richard Gardner - Vince Coll; Nesdon Booth - Fence; Buzz Henry; Robert Herron; Judd Holdren - Haberdashery Clerk; Roy Jenson - Bodyguard; Dyke Johnson; Sid Melton - Little Augie; Frances Mercer - Woman; Dorothy Neumann; Dyan Cannon - Dixie; Carey Loftin - Thug; Jim Drum - Officer; Joseph Marr; George Taylor - Switchboard Operator
Credit
John S. Poplin - Art Director, Howard Shoup - Costume Designer, Budd Boetticher - Director, Folmar Blangsted - Editor, Leonard Rosenman - Composer (Music Score), Gordon Bau - Makeup, Lucien Ballard - Cinematographer, Milton Sperling - Producer, Clarence I. Steensen - Set Designer, Joseph Landon - Screenwriter
