The Grissom Gang (1971)

Director:

Robert Aldrich

Writers:

James Hadley Chase (novel)
Leon Griffiths (writer)

Release Date:

24 September 1971 (West Germany)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

The psychotic killer, the young heiress...the kidnapping that becomes a love story.

Plot:

Set in the 1920s Depression, a gang of half-witted small-time hoods led by Slim Grissom kidnap heiress...

Plot Keywords:

1930s | Criminal Gang | Kidnapper Kidnapped Relationship | Kidnapping | Nightclub Singer

Cast

Kim Darby	...	Barbara Blandish
Scott Wilson	...	Slim Grissom
Tony Musante	...	Eddie Hagan
Robert Lansing	...	Dave Fenner
Connie Stevens	...	Anna Borg
Irene Dailey	...	Gladys 'Ma' Grissom
Wesley Addy	...	John P. Blandish
Joey Faye	...	Woppy
Michael Baseleon	...	Frankie Connor
Ralph Waite	...	Mace
Hal Baylor	...	Chief McLaine
Matt Clark	...	Joe Bailey
Alvin Hammer	...	Sam
Dots Johnson	...	Johnny Hutchins (as Dotts Johnson)
Don Keefer	...	Doc Grissom
Mort Marshall	...	Heinie
Elliott Street	...	Gas station boy
Dave Willock	...	Rocky
Alex Wilson	...	Jerry McGowen
Raymond Guth	...	Farmer
John Steadman	...	Oldman

Directed by
Robert Aldrich

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
James Hadley Chase		novel "No Orchids for Miss Blandish"
Leon Griffiths		writer

Produced by
Robert Aldrich	....	producer
William Aldrich	....	associate producer

Original Music by
Gerald Fried

Cinematography by
Joseph F. Biroc

Film Editing by
Michael Luciano
Frank J. Urioste

Casting by
Lynn Stalmaster

Costume Design by
Norma Koch

Production Management
Fred Ahern	....	production manager

Stunts
Dick Durock	....	stunts
Jesse Wayne	....	stunts

Other crew
Alex Romero	....	choreographer

Production Companies

• ABC Pictures
• Associates & Aldrich Company, The

Distributors

• Cinerama Releasing Corporation (1971) (USA) (theatrical)
• Anchor Bay Entertainment (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (2004) (USA) (VHS)
• Centfox (1971) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Transvídeo (????) (Brazil) (VHS)

Runtime:

128 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | UK:X | West Germany:16 (f) | Singapore:PG | Argentina:18 | Denmark:16 | Finland:K-18 | Norway:18 (1972) | Sweden:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Aldrich Studios, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

ABC Pictures

Trivia:

One of the key props in the film is a diamond necklace. Because of Robert Aldrich's insistence on accuracy, this was a real diamond necklace, that came complete with a special female courier, disguised as a secretary, and with an escort of guards on the set. Special arrangements were made with the local bank and sheriff's department in the location of Placerville, California, while the necklace itself was transported by a motorcade of vehicles.

Quotes:

Eddie Hagan: How come you never get your ass out of bed?
Anna Borg: Well, it's the place you seem to like it the most.

Movie Connections:

Version of No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1948)

From here, it's one step to Miller's Crossing, and for me that's not a good thing...

Robert Aldrich, a director I admire tremendously, was on a hot streak until The Grissom Gang. All through this movie you can feel the invisible presence of Robert Altman about to creep up on Aldrich and steal his throne.

Aldrich's strength is his ability to create self-contained worlds with each film he makes. Their pace is slow and immersive. But the danger is always one of hysterical mannerism and in The Grissom Gang there is nothing left but that. You see, Aldrich doesn't make westerns, he makes an Aldrich Western; he doesn't make gothics, but an Aldrich Gothic; and here he sets his sights on the gangster thriller in the vein of Bloody Mama.

You know right off the bat it's more realistic than any Roaring 20's film that came before because everyone is sweaty. REALLY sweaty. Marlon Brando in full Stanley Kowalski regalia would say, "Dang, man, get a towel" if he saw some of these actors. Oh, and did I mention that the characters have bad teeth, and that Bloody Mama even sports a mustache and ropy muscles? You know, the people in this film are so ugly, and so sweaty, that I am certain that Aldrich has brought absolute realism to the screen, and that no one after him should even attempt to make a movie set in this time period. The more ugly it is, the more real it must be, right? I think I'll throw my collection of 1920-1935 movies away, because they didn't have the courage to show the unvarnished truth!

The point of my sarcasm, in case it's not obvious, is that Aldrich's innovations here are focused on externals, like a Method actor who thinks imitating epilepsy captures the kernel of human pain. Altman in Thieves Like Us or McCabe and Mrs. Miller captures a kind of melancholy delirium in past ages that seemed transitional from his standpoint, but Aldrich has nothing to fall back on but foolish exaggeration. It's supposed to capture the 20's as they might have seemed to a child at that time, larger than life. But you can see the germ of that awful trend that will culminate in Sam Raimi or the Coen Bros., that heartless, childish comic-book emphasis that is divorced from human experience, imaginative empathy for people who are no different than us except trapped in a separate time and place, or anything really but grand guignol posing as "the way it really was."

The word I'm looking for, I think, is "synthetic." This film is absolutely impersonal and drab, to the point where it knocks Aldrich's reputation down several notches. He's one of those directors who can only live through movies, the result of which is that his movies feel nothing like life.