The featured image for this post isn’t very interesting but neither is the movie. I recorded it awhile back and watched it after writing about the Black Sox and the 1919 World Series fix.
The movie poses this question: Can you make a dull film about an interesting man like Arnold Rothstein? Director Joseph M. Newman and screen writer Jo Swerling pulled it off. Oy, just oy.
I think they put Roaring 20’s in the title to evoke the memory of the Cagney classic. David Janssen who played Rothstein was no Jimmy Cagney.
Arnold Rothstein’s nickname was The Brain. As portrayed by David Janssen, The Bore works better. It’s a lifeless take on a lively man.
The title of this film is so long that I should have known it was a dud. Short and snappy titles work better for movies. Theatre owners must have struggled to fit King Of The Roaring 20’s: The Story Of Arnold Rothstein on their marquees. That was important in the era of single screen cinemas. Besides, the movie is so dull that snoring 20’s is more like it.
The film began life with a shorter and better title taken from the non-fiction book on which it’s based:
The “big fix of the sporting world” was only mentioned in a throwaway line near the end of the movie. That’s right, the single most interesting thing about Arnold Rothstein isn’t in this fakakta film. Instead, it consists of scenes of David Janssen brooding in offices and casinos. Oy just oy.
The movie has a good cast but with the exception of Keenan Wynn and Mickey Rooney, they’re just as flat and lifeless as the star. Wynn is good as The Brain’s lawyer, but Rooney is OTT hammy as Rothstein’s boyhood pal:
Rooney isn’t as bad as he was in Breakfast At Tiffany’s, but it was still a relief when he was whacked. Rooney’s career mystifies me. He was a good young actor who aged into a shameless ham or is that incurably cured ham? Beats the hell outta me.
In my post about the Al Capone biopic I opened with this:
The runaway success of The Untouchables on TV spurred a new wave of gangster movies in the late Fifties and early Sixties. They’d been out of vogue after worse gangsters were revealed to be running the Axis states in the Forties.”
That goes double for this movie. In fact, the production values are NOT as good as The Untouchables, which was historically inaccurate but lively. King Of The Roaring 20’s: The Story Of Arnold Rothstein is a snoozer. It’s so boring that I played app-Scrabble during the last act.
Grading Time: I give this fakakata film 1 1/2 stars and an Adrastos Grade of D. If you want to see a better take on Arnold Rothstein’s life and times, check out Boardwalk Empire. Michael Stuhlbarg is excellent as The Brain. That fine HBO series also depicts the second most interesting thing about Rothstein: He mentored Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky.
It’s time to share some images. We begin with the book on which this lousy movie is based:
The posters pack more punch than the dull and dreary flick they were designed to publicize. Here are the American and Italian long sheets side-by-side:
The quad is the same as the one for The Big Bankroll:
It repeats the false claim about the fix being in the film. They should have fixed that.
Our weekly trip to the lobby involves coffee. Just writing about this fakakta film makes me drowsy.
The coffee was as weak as the movie. Oh well, what the hell.
Bad movies have lobby cards too. Since there’s no chemistry between David Janssen and Dianne Foster, I neglected to comment on the romantic subplot. Here’s proof that it exists:
Next up, a casino scene followed by Mickey Rooney pleading his case to Jack Carson; even that stellar character actor couldn’t save this fakakta film.
The trailer isn’t online. I suspect it’s as dull as the movie.
I’m trying to stay awake, so the last word goes to Steely Dan with a king song:
