This is inspired by the fact that I recently watched Robert Aldrich's "The Grissom Gang" on DVD.
Usually, when we talk about "gangster movies," we mean stories of urban life derived from the careers of the Chicago and New York gangsters.
However, there is an important subset of gangster films based on rural desperados of the 20th Century.
Bonnie and Clyde provide a number of these: "You Only Live Once," "They Drive By Night," "Gun Crazy," "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Thieves Like Us."
John Dillinger is represented by "High Sierra," "Petrified Forest," two movies named "Dillinger" (1945 and 1975).
Ma Barker is the basis for "Bloody Mama" and "Grissom Gang."
Are there any other films that I'm overlooking? I think New World did several films to follow up on "Bloody Mama."
What are your favorites?
Rural Desperado movies
I can recommend 1989's fun DISORGANIZED CRIME
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097211/
to everyone willing to take an almost Ealing-esque comedy caper. Corbin Bernsen sends for 4 compatriates to hold up a small Montana town's bank, only to be captured by chasing FBI guys before his 4-some arrives. But they carry on with no plan, and Bernsen's escapes from his Keystone Kop Feds. Quite fun.
HIDE-OUT (1934, d-W. S. Van Dyke w/Robert Montgomery, Maureen O'Sullivan, Edward Arnold) has big-city gambler-gangster Montgomery holed up in the O'Sullivan family farmhouse. About 90% more romantic comedy than a caper film...
DESPERATE (1947, d-Anthony Mann; Steve Brody is the good guy, Raymond Burr as bad guy). Brody is tricked into letting his delivery truck be used in a cop-killing heist, then flees from Burr's gang out into the sticks. Raymond Burr can be such a vicious bad guy - I wonder what would happen if he ever bleached his hair out and wore specs? Ya think some neighbor would be watching him instead of Grace Kelly?!! Oh well... at least one movie director did.
What about BADLANDS (1973, d-Scorcese, Martin Sheen). This is more like a spree-killing travelog and may not fit in this collection, although there were certain Bonnie & Clyde wishes.
CHINA LAKE MURDERS (1990 w/Calif county sheriff Tom Skerritt trying to solve a few open highway murders, all committed by CHiPs motorcycle cop Michael Parks. This is almost OK CORRAL in its feel as the parties discover each other and dance around a while before settling matters. I guess I throw this one in mainly for its Death Valley location.
Another Psycho-In-Rural Clothing might be the Australian FORTRESS (1986, Rachel Ward)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091069/
where Schoolmarm Rachel and her Outback 1-room-class are captured by some 'militants' for ransom and decide to fight back on their own. Not a great work but interesting, with a rather dashing end-of-film scene.
Fritz Lang's FURY (1936, Spencer Tracy) is about a lynch-attempt in a small town - probably only capable in such a rural community, too. No travelog here, everything is centered on this one small town. Probably not a good fit into this collection.
Small-town psycho-bully Dennehy's IN BROAD DAYLIGHT (1991) brings back Fortress, Fury and China Lake Murders, too, especially after last week's latest real-life crime drama around the same Skidmore, Missouri.
1953's HITCH-HIKER with popeyed William Talman as the psycho who never sleeps may or may not fit into this. A one-man terror isn't exactly my idea of this collection's parameters, but this and the same year's JEOPARDY (Barbara Stanwyck, hubby and son are taken hostage by escaped con Ralph Meeker) share this this cross-country terror spree.
IN COLD BLOOD? Hmmm... barely, but probably not.
While 1998's NEWTON BOYS qualifies on technicalities, I could easily never see it again.
WHITE HEAT (1949 Cagney) might fit in a lot of categories. Some rural settings for scenes, but the action is just about all Big-City.
And probably one that should fit is MA BARKER'S KILLER BROOD
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054041/
from 1961 with a nifty little performance by Ma Lurene Tuttle. She's usually seen shoplifting in The Andy Griffith Show, but KILLER BROOD puts her into a fairly strong (thought campy) performance.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097211/
to everyone willing to take an almost Ealing-esque comedy caper. Corbin Bernsen sends for 4 compatriates to hold up a small Montana town's bank, only to be captured by chasing FBI guys before his 4-some arrives. But they carry on with no plan, and Bernsen's escapes from his Keystone Kop Feds. Quite fun.
HIDE-OUT (1934, d-W. S. Van Dyke w/Robert Montgomery, Maureen O'Sullivan, Edward Arnold) has big-city gambler-gangster Montgomery holed up in the O'Sullivan family farmhouse. About 90% more romantic comedy than a caper film...
DESPERATE (1947, d-Anthony Mann; Steve Brody is the good guy, Raymond Burr as bad guy). Brody is tricked into letting his delivery truck be used in a cop-killing heist, then flees from Burr's gang out into the sticks. Raymond Burr can be such a vicious bad guy - I wonder what would happen if he ever bleached his hair out and wore specs? Ya think some neighbor would be watching him instead of Grace Kelly?!! Oh well... at least one movie director did.
What about BADLANDS (1973, d-Scorcese, Martin Sheen). This is more like a spree-killing travelog and may not fit in this collection, although there were certain Bonnie & Clyde wishes.
CHINA LAKE MURDERS (1990 w/Calif county sheriff Tom Skerritt trying to solve a few open highway murders, all committed by CHiPs motorcycle cop Michael Parks. This is almost OK CORRAL in its feel as the parties discover each other and dance around a while before settling matters. I guess I throw this one in mainly for its Death Valley location.
Another Psycho-In-Rural Clothing might be the Australian FORTRESS (1986, Rachel Ward)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091069/
where Schoolmarm Rachel and her Outback 1-room-class are captured by some 'militants' for ransom and decide to fight back on their own. Not a great work but interesting, with a rather dashing end-of-film scene.
Fritz Lang's FURY (1936, Spencer Tracy) is about a lynch-attempt in a small town - probably only capable in such a rural community, too. No travelog here, everything is centered on this one small town. Probably not a good fit into this collection.
Small-town psycho-bully Dennehy's IN BROAD DAYLIGHT (1991) brings back Fortress, Fury and China Lake Murders, too, especially after last week's latest real-life crime drama around the same Skidmore, Missouri.
1953's HITCH-HIKER with popeyed William Talman as the psycho who never sleeps may or may not fit into this. A one-man terror isn't exactly my idea of this collection's parameters, but this and the same year's JEOPARDY (Barbara Stanwyck, hubby and son are taken hostage by escaped con Ralph Meeker) share this this cross-country terror spree.
IN COLD BLOOD? Hmmm... barely, but probably not.
While 1998's NEWTON BOYS qualifies on technicalities, I could easily never see it again.
WHITE HEAT (1949 Cagney) might fit in a lot of categories. Some rural settings for scenes, but the action is just about all Big-City.
And probably one that should fit is MA BARKER'S KILLER BROOD
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054041/
from 1961 with a nifty little performance by Ma Lurene Tuttle. She's usually seen shoplifting in The Andy Griffith Show, but KILLER BROOD puts her into a fairly strong (thought campy) performance.
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moira finnie
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Hey, interesting topic, Mike. You might be interested in seeing an aspect of this sub-genre explored a bit in a thread called Country Noir, found here earlier this year.
Thanks for reminding me of "White Heat." I think that definitely is inspired by Ma Barker, but that aspect of the situation is pretty downplayed. (We see Cagney's mother fixation, but we don't see his mom so much, and she isn't a cigar-chomping grotesque as cinematic Ma Barkers tend to be.) Also, the film, as I remember it, becomes more urban as it goes along.
Mike, we've had GRISSOM sitting on our shelves for a while but this topic made me kill some time watching this thing.
Wanna tell me why I didn't care for this film very much? Is it because there aren't likeable characters? Is it because I didn't like any of the actors? (I think the old Service Station attendant - at the end of the movie - is one of the faces I've rather enjoyed in his past character roles. But his 3 lines on-screen didn't save this film.)
I don't know if I can complain about the story, the acting, the film's construction too much - I think the largest hurdle that trips this film might be my basic dislike and uncaring attitude toward the characters.
Do you think if I'd been furnished with actors I like that I might have enjoyed this film or it's story more? Did it need some ultra-vicious villain that the ultra-good-guy could have vanquished in the end? Did the Stockholm-Syndrome Damsel In Distress remove her "In Distress" factor?
Or does it suffer from the timing as a 'mere' Bonnie & Clyde rip-off?
After paying attention to this, I'd suspect Matthew McConaughey's 1998 NEWTON BOYS is about the closest fit to this thread's goal. And that's a film I found myself going, "Ho hum - how about just killing all of them and let's get outta here?"
Wanna tell me why I didn't care for this film very much? Is it because there aren't likeable characters? Is it because I didn't like any of the actors? (I think the old Service Station attendant - at the end of the movie - is one of the faces I've rather enjoyed in his past character roles. But his 3 lines on-screen didn't save this film.)
I don't know if I can complain about the story, the acting, the film's construction too much - I think the largest hurdle that trips this film might be my basic dislike and uncaring attitude toward the characters.
Do you think if I'd been furnished with actors I like that I might have enjoyed this film or it's story more? Did it need some ultra-vicious villain that the ultra-good-guy could have vanquished in the end? Did the Stockholm-Syndrome Damsel In Distress remove her "In Distress" factor?
Or does it suffer from the timing as a 'mere' Bonnie & Clyde rip-off?
After paying attention to this, I'd suspect Matthew McConaughey's 1998 NEWTON BOYS is about the closest fit to this thread's goal. And that's a film I found myself going, "Ho hum - how about just killing all of them and let's get outta here?"
Mike, the recent showing of HEAT LIGHTNING (1934 d-Mervyn LeRoy w/Aline MacMahon - what an odd name for this film) and HIGHWAY WEST (1941 with Brenda Marshall and Arthur Kennedy) had two films that were compared to PETRIFIED FOREST, and dealt with bad guys on the lam at some off-the-beaten-trail gas station.
I ended up favoring HEAT LIGHTNING a bit more because of Aline MacMahon and her choice for the finale. Arthur Kennedy plays the bad guy in HIGHWAY and delivers the more sinister performance, but I enjoyed both of these 'desparadoes on the rural lam' films.
I ended up favoring HEAT LIGHTNING a bit more because of Aline MacMahon and her choice for the finale. Arthur Kennedy plays the bad guy in HIGHWAY and delivers the more sinister performance, but I enjoyed both of these 'desparadoes on the rural lam' films.