A rare Roger Corman film made for a Hollywood major studio - although he enjoyed having a larger budget, he disliked the experience, the lack of creative control and waste.
This is a perfectly fine gangster film centred around the famous massacre. It continually emphasises how accurate it is - an opening spiel does, and every time a character is introduced the narrator gives a bit of a brief biography of that character.
This is kind of interesting, but it prevents the audience from investing in anyone particular person. The story feels like a collection of shoot outs - the most effect bit is the final massacre, because they spend a bit more time over the build up to it. Also there are a lot of characters and since many of the actors look the same it is hard at times to tell who is who.
Jason Robards offers an interesting version of Al Capone - personally I thought he was dreadful but he has his fans. George Segal is set up to be a major character - high billing, in the early scenes - but his character kind of fades away. The writer, Harold Browne, later wrote Capone for Corman.
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