Portrait of a Mobster (1961)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Joseph Pevney

Writers:

Howard Browne (writer)
Harry Grey (book)

Release Date:

5 January 1962 (West Germany)

Genre:

Biography | Crime | Drama

Tagline:

The screen puts on brass knuckles and a bulletproof vest to tell the Dutch Schultz story all the way!

Plot:

This movie portrays the rise and fall of 1920s gangster Dutch Schultz. While building his own mob ring...

Plot Keywords:

Gangster | 1920s | Prohibition | Mobster | Corruption

Cast

Vic Morrow	...	Dutch Schultz
Leslie Parrish	...	Iris Murphy
Peter Breck	...	Frank Brennan
Norman Alden	...	Bo Wetzel
Robert McQueeney	...	Michael Ferris
Ken Lynch	...	Lieutenant D. Corbin
Frank DeKova	...	Anthony Parazzo
Stephen Roberts	...	Guthrie
Joseph Gallison	...	Vincent Coll
Ray Danton	...	'Legs' Diamond
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Larry J. Blake	...	John Murphy
Anthony Eisley	...	Legal Advisor
Eddie Hanley	...	Matty Krause
Harry Holcombe	...	Capt. Bayridge
John Kowal	...	Lou Rhodes
Frances Morris	...	Louise Murphy
Gil Perkins	...	Joe Murdoch
Poncie Ponce	...	Master of Ceremonies
Robert Shield
Arthur Tenen	...	Steve Matryck
Joe Turkel	...	Joe Noe
George Werler	...	Thompson

Runtime:

USA:108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Norway:16 | West Germany:18 (nf)

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Projectionist (1971)

It Had To Be Vic.

When Vic Morrow in the title role proclaims to the assembled members his freshly formed organization, "I'm a Bronx boy!" you can feel he wasn't just acting. A Jewish boy from the Bronx (N.Y.) himself, Vic Morrow was made for the role of the Jewish mobster Dutch Schultz, known as the Beer Baron of the Bronx. And when Schultz reminisces to Leslie Parrish about getting respect on the mean streets of the East Bronx by being tougher than anyone else, you get the impression Morrow is summoning up his own experiences. He is simply superb in the role, portraying Schultz as brutally ambitious, cruel and crude ("I'm sorry he got plugged," Schultz says to the daughter of a man he himself had killed.) yet oddly sympathetic, the product of a criminal environment who had little choice but to turn out as he did.

This black and white picture lacks high production values, marquee names or a brilliant script. It scrambles some of the known facts in Schultz's life and shortchanges some important characters. What it does have is sharp, memorable characterizations--of Schultz himself, of Mafia boss "Lucky" Luciano, of "Legs" Diamond and "Mad Dog" Coll.