Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

ThrillMessage There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Robert J. Maxwell Roger Corman, now past the age of 90, is to be congratulated for making movies on a shoestring. The guy was a master, and an educated one too -- engineering from Stanford. And an engaging actor too in small parts.That's not to say the movies he made were good. The Poe stories weren't Poe stories, just lurid tales in gaudy color with Vincent Price's mellifluous voice haunting the sound tracks.Corman joined the parade that was turning out gangster "biographies" around 1960. This one is not as good as Rod Steiger's "Capone" but no worse that Mickey Rooney as Baby Face Nelson.It's routine in every detail. The acting is pedestrian when it's not plain bad -- as in Susan Cabot's or Frank DeKova as an alcoholic gas station owner. Bronson was not yet the irresistible force for justice that he was to become, so he's still in his sinister mode -- sneering and insulting everyone.These insults are unexplainable. Everyone insults everyone else or at least teases them. Bronson never smiles except when Morey Amsterdam as a homosexual is humiliated. He's a pustule ready to pop. Yet his colleagues seem to enjoy taunting him, especially about his fear of death, even though they must KNOW he's going to deck them for it.It would have been nice if the dialog were in any way original but it lacks sparkle. There isn't a memorable line in the entire movie. And it would have been so easy -- "Mother of Mercy, is this the end of Machine Gun Kelly?" "I wish you was a wishin' well so's I could tie a bucket to ya and sink ya." (Huh?) If Kelly really were like this, he must have been an unpleasant man.

dougdoepke Another drive-in special from the guy who really knew how to make them, the ever resourceful Roger Corman. No 1958 teen-ager in the back row, front, or in-between really cared about subtleties of plot, characterization, or other adult stuff like historical accuracy. Just make the big screen go fast, tough, and sexy, especially for the hot-and-heavy back row who probably didn't care if it was Doris Day as long as they had a place to park in the dark. Seeing the movie 50 years later, I now know that Bronson can smile and squint at the same time. Actually, he's more animated here than the Mt. Rushmore super-star he later turned into. I doubt younger viewers can appreciate just how different he was from the pretty-boy 1950's dominated by the likes of Tab, Troy, and Rock. Once you saw that Bronson mug, you didn't forget.Other reviewers are right. It's colorful characters here that count and there's a good bunch of them, especially the tough-as-nails old bordello madam. You know it's a drive-in special when the producers don't even try to disguise the cat-house with a dance hall cosmetic. And where did they get that really exotic idea of the mountain lion. My guess is that Corman stopped somewhere in the desert where gas stations of old used roadside zoos as a hyped- up come-on. I thought they would use the critter to kill off one of the characters, especially the oily Amsterdam. My favorite scene is where tough guys Jack Lambert and Bronson square off in a hard-eye squinting contest. I doubt that you could pass a laser beam between them. Anyway, the movie was not exactly Oscar bait in 1958, but even now it's still a lot more tacky fun than a lot of the prestige productions of that year.

trimmerb1234 This clearly is a budget movie yet it's quite professional, does entertain and interest. The interest is provided not so much by the action sequences which are fairly weak but by the characters - underworld but unlovely, unheroic and flawed. The kind of movie that would not make stars of its cast. Bronson does quite well - as well as he ever did - in the lead role. The rest of the cast is up to the job notably Fandango who clearly had star quality. The central idea that he was afraid of signs of death was rather crudely handled. Bronson was Bronson - a undoubted tough immobile face - not one to register fright or anxiety. Other movies would have had music, close ups and sharp editing to heighten the effect.For me the irksome thing was the visual aspect - cheap restricted interiors with flat lighting (a single general lighting set-up simply ensuring every part of the set was lit ie the shots were not preplanned and lit accordingly. Consequently there is little contrast and no deep shadows - as to be seen on live TV shows). Even the outdoor scene especially "the flats" were curiously nearly all mid grey and matt coloured. Also the cinematography - there are no memorable images. Well lit and shot movies provide images which can stand on their own as quality photographs.Worth comparing with the much superior "Asphalt Jungle".

funkyfry A unique crime story -- a small-time thief (Bronson) is turned into a legend by his tough-as-nails moll (Cabot). "Machine Gun" robs a chain of banks and finally turns his ambitions to kidnapping -- hounded all the way by a compulsive fear of death. The photography by Crosby is elegant, the acting of the lead pair and the supporting cast are all pretty much dead-on. A tight, efficient telling of a memorable tale, peopled with all sorts of interesting characters (the gas station owner/accomplice who keeps a deadly menagerie behind the garage, Cabot's mom who keeps telling Kelly what a disappointment he is because he hasn't broken into the "big time", etc.). Interestingly, this film takes the gangster genre beyond film noir (finally, after 3 decades) by making his characters not only self-loathing but WORTHY of self-loathing!One of Corman's very best films as a director.