Lester Gillis is a big man in a small body, his social etiquette written in blood by his Chicago Typewriter, his manhood defined by both his Tommy Gun and his raven-haired muse. Don Siegel’s film is a violent testament to the FBI Agents killed by trigger happy punks during Prohibition, revealing the characters without glamour or appeal. DP Hal Mohr captures this perspective in drab compositions and utilizes low key lighting and deep shadow to imbue the film with a gritty realism. In one scene, Mohr frames the protagonist laying on a bed in a seedy hotel room, while outside the window an electric sign blinks its message, lighting the set with its anemic glow. This reminded me of DP Vittorio Storaro’s exceptional photography in THE CONFORMIST where he echoed many film noir tropes, except in lush, exaggerated colors.
Lester Gillis (Mickey Rooney) is paroled from Joliet by mob boss Rocca (Ted de Corsia) but won’t be his hit man on a Union Organizer, as he feels kinship with anyone who takes the heat from the coppers. So, Rocca frames Gillis for the hit but Gillis gets his revenge with the business end of his revolver. With his gal Sue (Carolyn Jones), they go on the lam and eventually hook up with John Dillinger’s gang. Now christened Baby Face Nelson by Public Enemy #1, their heists become a morgue for FBI Agents who are mowed down at 900rpm by the trigger-happy Napoleon. When Dillinger meets his bloody demise, Baby Face and his gang continue their murder spree, collecting bank notes and toe tags in equal measure! During one bank robbery, Baby Face spares the bank teller because he’s a short man like himself, but a previous scene reveals his psychopathic intent as he guns down an innocent motorist without cause.
Siegel depicts the criminals living in squalor, fleeing from one hideout to the next, and shows the brutal consequences of their antics as they suffer gunshot wounds, and become helpless and at the mercy of those around them. For Dillinger, this proves fatal but for Baby Face, his girl stays by his side until the very end, and even delivers his coup de grace to end his suffering. Nice! Every character is so unpleasant and toxic, yet Mickey Rooney makes Baby Face Nelson interesting, a punk whose speaks with his Tommy Gun yet has tender moments with his gal. And Carolyn Jones is gorgeous, a beauty who stands by her man even when he’s shot full of holes. Elisha Cook Jr. makes an appearance in Nelson’s gang in the third act...and survives! Though he takes three slugs from his boss’s .38, he’s saved not by fate but a bullet proof vest. He survives when locked in a bank vault by Baby Face, so our protagonist can get away with all of the dough! What a guy.
“The good do not perish. As for the bad, all that was theirs dies with them and is the end,”
Final Grade: (B)
