Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Wordiezett So much average

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

ofpsmith Gangster Story is kind of a flat story. The story itself is decent but I don't think it was carried out very well. Not to mention some parts of the story were just pointless. It was a good story at first but then I thought it got lost. Jack Martin (Walter Matthau) is a bank robber on the run from the law. Using skills of deception and multiple identities, he manages to pull off a bank heist. When he meets librarian Carol Logan (Carol Grace) he moves in with her, and decides to stay in town. But local crime boss Earl Dawson (Bruce MacFarlane) hears that somebody pulled off a heist in "his territory" he attempts to enlist Martin into his crime family. After that the story just kind off runs around. It's a coherent story, but it's lazy and poorly done. The romance between Martin and Carol is spontaneous and it's not really interesting either. I've heard that this film is based on a true story. Weather or this is actually true is unknown to me. What I do know is that Gangster Story is a lazy and boring film noir.

GUENOT PHILIPPE What a real pleasure for me to discover this flick. I was really amazed. Not a great picture, but short, sharp, accurate in action and characters. For a B movie I mean. No wasted shots in directing. Of course, we have already seen this scheme a thousand times, but it is still effective. Matthau is excellent and prepares us for "Charley Varrick", shot a decade later: A bank robber with the crime syndicate on his heels. No user seems to have noticed that.Description of the two heists of the film are delightful, meticulously described. And the bank robbery at the beginning is very funny. But this doesn't alter the tragic content of the story.

JoeytheBrit Although this is film-making from the lowest echelons of independent cinema, with a budget that makes a shoestring look fat, there is something about it that just occasionally raises it above the countless other no-budget b-movies of its type.Of course, the fact that Matthau's in it is probably the only reason we still have the opportunity to see it today. As well as starring, Matthau directed, and it's easy to see why he chose to stick with acting. Walter's choice of shots is sometimes comically bad; at one point, two characters holding a conversation look as if they're both staring at empty corners of the room because of the confused shooting angles he adopts.The story is a run-of-the-mill crime plot chronicling the rise and fall of Jack Martin, an escaped convict with nerves of steel and a sense of humour. Martin manages to persuade the police to help him rob a bank, and gets his pursuers to hold a library door open for him so that he can make his escape. Inside the library, he woos the prim librarian (the future Mrs Matthau) by admitting he's a bank robber. No ordinary anti-hero then - at least not for the early sixties.Sadly, that's pretty much all this film's got going for it. Matthau aside, the acting is pretty awful and there are plot holes you could drive an armoured truck through.

Richard Green Thanks to Turner Classic Movies, this rarely seen film was available on a schedule with other Walter Matthau vehicles. Mr. Matthau was both the star and the director ( his only effort ).It has all the elements of a great crime drama. It has a minimalist style that reflects the very limited shooting budget. Perhaps that was not the intention when it was created, but it provides something which great American movies often have -- an authentic background for the authentic characters created ....It also seems evident that in his later career, Mr. Matthau had become something many actors aspire to being -- a movie star -- but in this strange and somewhat haunting crime story, he's immersed in the part of the ne'er-do-well hoodlum. He's not a very nice fellow, but he's got a certain charm and "panache" on screen. Perhaps this is the result of his being responsible for the whole effort, or perhaps he really enjoyed the rather villainous and amoral character of Jack Martin. Whatever the viewer decides about that question, this movie entertains in a thoughtful way, giving the viewer a definite feeling of "being there".It's true that there are some elements of the plot which seem to be, now, rather hackneyed. That's the reason it did not receive a vote of eight or nine. But from beginning to the end, the minimalist style allows the plot to envelop the characters and to support them.Criminals have their own code, it is true. This is not a story about a good guy gone bad, in my opinion. He's a rake and an opportunist, this Jack Martin. Matthau is superb in this role. Carol Grace adds a lot to the haunting feeling that permeates this film, partly because it isn't so easy to see what her character's motivations are as the plot goes on. She portrays a woman of deep longings overshadowed by a deeper loneliness. That alone says a lot about the era, the tail end of the Eisenhower years, and the big cars and big landscapes which abound only add to that sense of 'something missing.' Perhaps TCM will be kind enough to run it again in a more favorable time slot for all the fans of great but austere crime drama. It's a winner in that regard. It doesn't fit the usual concepts of "film noir," I suppose, but it is about what crime does to those who choose to follow its ways. Matthau was not, perhaps, reaching for greatness in this effort but he found it anyway. Seven out of ten for his acting and seven out of ten for his directing.