BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Coventry I've always been a tremendous fan of Charles Bronson! Let's be honest, if you like testosterone-packed action cinema with a minimum of intellect and a maximum of violence, you simply have to be a Bronson fan. But this love and admiration has always been based on straightforward action flicks (like "Death Wish", "10 to Midnight" and "Mr. Majestic) or – perhaps to a lesser extent – to his modest share in great classics (like "The Great Escape" or "The Magnificent Seven"). These are all terrific movies, and then I haven't even yet mentioned all the guilty pleasures (like "Murphy's Law", "Telefon", "The Stone Killer"…), but now I can safely guarantee that you simply haven't seen the true nature and versatile talents of Charlie Bronson before you've seen "Machine Gun Kelly"! This is truly a spectacular one-man tour-de-force performance that provides more than enough evidence that Bronson can carry an entire film, memorize a scenario full of dialogues and bring depth and personality to a seemingly bland character! Once again my deepest sympathy and respect for Roger Corman. Not only did this man discover numerous of greatly talented people and offered them their first chances in the film industry, he often also provided them the opportunity to demonstrate their versatility and potential, like here with Charles Bronson. For those too lazy to read Wikipedia (and I don't blame you), George "Machine Gun" Kelly was a real gangster during the 1920s and 1930s, active around the same time as other infamous and often heard names like John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson. The film states at the beginning, however, that the titular character is real but that the rest of the events and supportive characters in the story are pure fictional. That may be true, but still I 'm sure that both Corman and Bronson carefully studied the personality and factual crime cases that George Kelly committed in great detail, because it's too intense and plausible to be invented by a scriptwriter. The story and structure of the film are extremely well-developed. We open with a meticulously planned and executed bank robbery during which Kelly and his accomplices switch vehicles, split up in groups and hand over the loot to a fourth accomplice and successfully mislead the numerous amount of police officers. Throughout this entire robbery scheme, not a single word is spoken, yet we already find out everything we need to know about the hierarchy within the gang and a lot about the gangsters' personas. It's praiseworthy how Corman brings all of this into scene. In fact, if you watch both "Machine Gun Kelly" and also "The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre" (1967), you find it almost regrettable that he didn't make any more factual mafia/gangster sagas. Under the subtle influence of his woman and her brothel-owning mother, Kelly wants to climb up the gangster ladder and become more than a feared bank robber. He develops a plan to kidnap the only daughter of a rich industrialist widower and becomes public enemy number one in a very brief period of time. But Machine Gun Kelly is such a megalomaniac and aggressive individual that he turns all his henchmen against him. On top of that, he has a phobia for death and dying that interfere with his plan at the most inconvenient moments. Bronson's performance is one of the most impressive ones I've ever seen in a low-budgeted B-movie. He finds the exact right balance between psychopathic and pathetic, between robust and vulnerable and between petrifying and pitiable. Kelly insults and shouts at everybody, takes pleasure into hurting people and carelessly cheats on his wife, but when he spots a coffin or even just a funeral home, he cringes! With a few exceptions left, I've seen all of Bronson's movies, but this is the one and only where he puts a dozen (and more) emotions into his character. Corman also ensures a fast pacing, suspense and many action-packed sequences. The only real default of the film is the rather irritating and excessively overused music.

Leofwine_draca Roger Corman is, of course, renowned as one of the leading purveyors of schlocky B-movie fare, particularly during the late 1950s when he first came to prominence. This was a guy who always knew how to bring in his movies under budget and how to make every nickel count. However, having just watched MACHINE-GUN KELLY, a true-life biopic of a Prohibition-era gangster, I have to say that I feel Corman's efforts were best suited to the horror and sci-fi genres.The problem with MACHINE-GUN KELLY is that it just isn't very interesting. Despite the excitement inherent in the premise of having a bank robber as a film's leading character, this turns out to be a talky, staged and frankly dull affair in which the paucity of the budget is more than apparent. Sure, there are some decent sequences along the way, including a couple of exciting bank robberies and some interesting interludes with a big cat, but that's about it.The focus of the film seems to be on characterisation, and in particular providing a character assassination of Kelly himself. He's portrayed as a guy who's an absolute coward when he doesn't have his gun in hand, and he ends up being manipulated by his associates and dames. Charles Bronson is great fun, of course, and it's nice to see him being more expressive than he would be in later years, but he has little to work with and long stretches of the film fall flat.

bkoganbing For anyone who's looking for the real story of George 'Machine-Gun' Kelly they'll be in for a disappointment. In the wake of the success of The Untouchables on television, Hollywood was rediscovering the gangster era and the criminals that were household names in the Twenties and Thirties. Both the major studios and independents like Roger Corman took a crack at all their stories.Although Kelly in real life was as big a punk as Charles Bronson plays him here, this is not his real story by a mile. Still Bronson does a good job and in fact this was the first film in which he was given first billing. He turns out in the film to be very good at bullying people, but when in a fight for his life, does a begging act that hadn't seen a cinematic equal since James Cagney turned yellow going to the chair in Angels With Dirty Faces.The one with the real gonads in the outfit is his wife played by Susan Cabot. In fact Kelly is even intimidated by her mother, beautifully played by Connie Gilchrist as a bordello madam. She's a woman who's been handling his type for years.The most interesting character in the film is Morey Amsterdam playing the flamboyantly gay Fandango, Kelly mob member. This was a time when gay was practically invisible and only an independent producer/director like Roger Corman in 1958 would have had a gay character.Would that Amsterdam played a positive role model or that a positive role model was in the film to counterbalance. Amsterdam is very stereotypical and at that time there was no organized gay movement to protest. Over twenty years later there was a great hue and cry over the film Cruising and that would have been nothing had Machine-Gun Kelly come out then. Machine-Gun Kelly is far from the best work that either Roger Corman or Charles Bronson ever did. Still it might be of interest for the curious.Oh, and Kelly never utters those words he allegedly said about the FBI giving them their nickname of G-Men.

mlraymond This is a pretty dull excuse for a gangster movie, but it is a curiosity worth checking out, due to its cast. Bronson is effective as Kelly, though the script is uninspired. Susan Cabot turns in another of her strangely charismatic performances as Kelly's moll.Veteran bad guy Jack Lambert is well cast as a surly gangster, with Morey Amsterdam a bit incongruous as one of the mob. The most memorable character might well be Connie Gilchrist as the bordello madam ,who is the mother of Kelly's girlfriend. She has to be one of the most obnoxious characters in movie historyThe Depression background is reasonably authentic, and a few action sequences are okay, but it generally is lacking in real excitement. This movie is mainly of interest to Roger Corman cultists and Charles Bronson fans. Gangster movie buffs and true crime enthusiasts might find it of minor interest.