I'd like to think that Roger Corman and the cast had a jolly good time making this outrageous movie. Certainly everyone in the cast seems to be enjoying himself. It's as if Corman's directorial advice had been boiled down to one sentence: Swing away.
A nice cast, full of familiar faces. Most enjoyable: Jason Robards Jr. trying to imitate an Italian mobster using every operatic device in the book. See him learn of the death of an underling and break into sobs. Watch him explode in rage and spout Italian in an American accent. Shiver at the relish with which he proceeds with the castration of an "assassino". Laugh out loud as he gesticulates, he shrieks, he chokes with contumely, his exopthalmic eyeballs threatening to pop at any moment and launch themselves at his target.
Most entertaining scene: George Segal, as one of the seven, who has a fight with his paramour over an expensive fur coat. He smashes a half-eaten sandwich in her face, she kicks him in the jewels after his violence turns him amorous, he throws her out into the hall in her scanties, then dashes after her and grabs the coat out of her hands, while half a dozen onlookers stand by and complain about the noise.
I've seen this twice. Can't recall if the first viewing left me confused or not, but this one did. All I could make of it was that Capone and O'Banion were enemies, blaming each other for breaking the agreement. And the seven men blown to pieces in the garage were mostly unlucky schlubs. The story, addled by violent flashbacks to previous murders, is complicated enough to resemble the Borgia court.
Most memorable element of the film: Paul Frees' fruity intonations as he narrates the plot. "On the last morning of his life, Peter Gusenberg ate a ham sandwich on rye with pickles and mustard...."
A nice cast, full of familiar faces. Most enjoyable: Jason Robards Jr. trying to imitate an Italian mobster using every operatic device in the book. See him learn of the death of an underling and break into sobs. Watch him explode in rage and spout Italian in an American accent. Shiver at the relish with which he proceeds with the castration of an "assassino". Laugh out loud as he gesticulates, he shrieks, he chokes with contumely, his exopthalmic eyeballs threatening to pop at any moment and launch themselves at his target.
Most entertaining scene: George Segal, as one of the seven, who has a fight with his paramour over an expensive fur coat. He smashes a half-eaten sandwich in her face, she kicks him in the jewels after his violence turns him amorous, he throws her out into the hall in her scanties, then dashes after her and grabs the coat out of her hands, while half a dozen onlookers stand by and complain about the noise.
I've seen this twice. Can't recall if the first viewing left me confused or not, but this one did. All I could make of it was that Capone and O'Banion were enemies, blaming each other for breaking the agreement. And the seven men blown to pieces in the garage were mostly unlucky schlubs. The story, addled by violent flashbacks to previous murders, is complicated enough to resemble the Borgia court.
Most memorable element of the film: Paul Frees' fruity intonations as he narrates the plot. "On the last morning of his life, Peter Gusenberg ate a ham sandwich on rye with pickles and mustard...."