TrueHello
Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
Numerootno
A story that's too fascinating to pass by...
Raymond Sierra
The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
JohnHowardReid
Adjectives such as "polished" and "worth seeing" could not be applied to Gangster Story (1960), which would not be worth watching at all were it not the only film directed by Walter Mathau. True, this movie actually offers further curiosity value in that the feminine lead, Carol Bruce, was in point of fact, Mathau's real-life wife. To my great surprise, Mathau himself is most unflatteringly photographed. Nevertheless, Mathau plays the title role with his usual zest, but his direction is no more than a poor man's television attempt in style, and it shows little inspiration until the action sequences. These at least are handled with a fair degree of competence and make good use of real locations. But maybe these scenes are actually the work of some experienced, but not credited, location director?
bkoganbing
Gangster Story has the distinction of being the first film Walter Matthau ever starred in and the only film he ever directed. And for him personally he wedded his leading lady Carol Grace aka Carol Marcus. She became the second Mrs. Matthau.It has a lot of similarities to one of Matthau's better serious roles Charley Varrick which was directed by Don Siegel after Matthau became a star. Unfortunately this one was shot on a dental floss budget and Matthau the actor did not get any great performances out of his cast.Matthau plays a bank robber who has just escaped police custody and goes right to work and pulls off a nice bank robbery which comes to the attention of a local crime boss. He gets Matthau in his organization and they pull a big score, but the getaway was a bloody mess.Matthau also has taken up with a local librarian who is intrigued by him even before she learns he's a professional criminal. The chance to leave her humdrum life as a librarian to become possibly Bonnie Parker is also intriguing, but up to a point.As for the ending, no surprises but it doesn't end like Charley Varrick. Think of the film Heat from Robert DeNiro's point of view.The only other person in the cast of note is Garry Walberg who plays one Matthau's henchmen from the big score who proves to be a loyal friend.The whole affair in noir black and white looks like it was shot with a Kodak home movie camera. Matthau makes it interesting, but Ed Wood had bigger budgets.
Michael_Elliott
Gangster Story (1958) * (out of 4) Walter Matthau directed this film, his only stint in the director's chair. Matthau plays a hardened bank robber/cop killer who tries to hide in a small town but mafia dudes come chasing him. The plot of this film really makes no sense and the performances are all rather bad. This is an ultra low budget film that seems to have been filmed without sound and then later dubbed in. I'd recommend everyone watch this film at least once to see the dumbest bank heist in the history of film.Thankfully Walter went back to acting.
yardbirdsraveup
In the early days of television, there was an influx of great actors and actresses who decided to test the waters of this new media. We had the likes of Dick Powell, Ida Lupino, Ann Sheridan, Loretta Young, for example. Not so with Walter Mathau. This great actor actually originated from the early days of television and then migrated to the movies. Mathau did countless guest appearances on many television programs before getting his big break in such films as "The Kentuckian" (1955) and "A Face in the Crowd" (1957). This film was only one of a few that he had under his belt until he made "The Gangster Story" in 1960. Incidentally, this was his directing debut also, so between appearing in television and movies, this gave him the rare chance to show his talent in this aspect. Unfortunately for Mathau, this was his only attempt to direct a movie. The quality of this film in it's cinematography, the acting and the dialogue is way below standard and this probably was the reason why he never directed another film.This is, at best, a fair film that is a potential cult classic. The plot is transparent and predictable. The supporting acting is stilted and awkward. His real wife, Carol Grace, plays the typical "bimbo" role of standing-by-her-man-no-matter-how-bad-he-is (*sigh*) in this cheesy docudrama. However, because it is an early Mathau vehicle, it is an interesting conversation piece for those who admire his talents. Not an academy award winner, but an interesting chestnut from a long and illustrious career.
