Roger Corman didn't have much luck with the bid studios - he was too independent. He was fired of Time for a Killing but completed this one although didn't like the experience - too much money not enough control.
Still he would have had fun being able to pay his crew and shooting on the backlot. The impressive sets are an attraction of the movie - it has a strong cast and plenty of pace. Lots of loud gunfire - blood in the mouths at the end.
I wasn't wild about the script. Howard Browne takes a very documentary approach - there's lots of voice over which is sometimes effective especially when reporting on what happened to the character "eg he died two years later". It was hard for me to follow who was who.
Part of the problem dramatically is neither of the two antagonists - Bugs Moran and Al Capone - were at the massacre. They get all this screen time. There are no central relationships to hang on to just a lot of people yelling.
Ralph Meeker is okay as Moran - the heart throb of Picnic on stage had very much filled out by now and was chubby. Jason Robards is fine as Capone but Corman was right to want Orson Welles in this part. People like Bruce Dern, Dick Miller, Jack Nicholson and Barbara Mouris pop up in the support cast, which is fun. George Segal is effective as a good - he gets some decent scenes, albeit mostly yelling at fifty worders or the blonde. I think the movie would have been more effective focusing on the gunmen and victims with Capone and Moran as cameos.
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