Watch King of the Roaring 20's – The Story of Arnold Rothstein For Free

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

****SPOILERS*** A robotic looking as well as acting David Janssen plays big time gangster Arnold Rothstein the man with the "Big Bankroll" who broke his father Abraham's, Jeseph Schildkraut,-An observant and synagogue going man of the Jewish faith-heart by not studying to become a rabbi or cantor and even worse later marrying a "Shiksa"-A woman not of the Jewish religion-Carolyn Green, Dianne Forster, who to add insult to injury refused to convert to Judaism. But the biggest and baddest thing that Arnold did was getting involved with the mob in becoming its major bag-man and financier that had him end up losing every thing he had, including his life, by the time the movie ended.We get to see Arnold work himself up the ladder of organized crime since he was a teenager with his good friend "Irish" Johnny Burke, Mickey Rooney, whom he later set up to get rubbed out by the mob. That by Arnold tricking him to testify against corrupt cop Let. Phil Butler, Dan O'Herlihy, who's been a pain in Arnold and Johnny's butts since they were teenagers running numbers for the local mobsters. It's later that he had Butler who was behind Burke being rubbed out get arrested indited convicted as well as executed, all within a 24 hour period, by getting those he hired to knock Burke off to testify against him. With his wife Carolyn having nothing at all to do with him Arnold soon found out that all the palaces of interest his was involved in, gambling dens speakeasies and whore houses, were closed to him leaving him out in the cold.****SPOILERS**** Finally finding a crap game that he was invited into Arnold was set up to be knocked off by his fellow card players who plugged him under the table as he finally got the hand of a lifetime-A Royal Flush-that eluded him all his life. Still even when shot Arnold was impeccably dressed and groomed-without even as much as a strand of his hair out of place-without his clothes mussed up or stained by his blood as he staggered out of the room and was hospitalized where he died, still in perfect and pristine condition,the next day.The movie concentrated so much on Arnold's love life as well as double-crossing his friends and associates that it completely overlooked his biggest crime that almost destroyed organized Baseball the infamous 1919 "Black Sox" scandal. You never really get to see and appreciate just what a big man in the world of crime that Arnold Rothstein really was. He comes across as a petty crook who never gets beyond running a second rate gambling den which is always getting raided instead of him being the big time operator that he really was.P.S The movie "King of the Roaring Twenties" turned out to be actor Jack Carson's-As "Big Jim" O'Brian-last movie appearance.

You would think that it might be difficult to make a dull movie about the "roaring" twenties. This movie succeeds in spades. The lead actor (TV"s The Fugitive) is as stiff and flat as any ever seen on the big screen. Most of the performance involves staring down and looking up once in awhile with a half smile.In fact only big little Mickey Rooney shows any life and thus through contrast steals the shallow show where the most exciting scene involves the transportation of a racehorse. Of all the The Untouchables rip-offs of that era this is the worst. There is very little violence, except a punch thrown now and then, and very little else worth watching in this slow as sludge, talky, unconvincing Biography. What we are left with is a TV looking widescreen film that has nothing in its scope. This movie is so bad that maybe we should turn our binoculars around just to get a laugh.

Sometimes actors do quite well on the small television screen. With their features filling 225 square inches, every blink, every jactitation, every fleeting suggestion of a smile registers like an earthquake. Then, when the actor appears in feature films, lamentably, we get to see that there isn't that much behind the momentary disarrangement. That's what seems to have happened to David Janssen. Not that he may have been anything other than a nice guy in real life, but that he had only two or three notes on his instrument."King of the Roaring Twenties" has a script by a Hollywood craftsman but it's as dull as some bent piece of old pewter found in a dark attic corner, and much of the responsibility is Janssen's. After all, Arnold Rothstein was a monumental figure in the world of gambling and organized crime. He was the Louis B. Mayer of the syndicate, larger than life. Michael Lerner turned him into an unforgettable figure in "Eight Men Out." And what do we get from David Janssen. A kind of nice, polite, quiet guy who has a habit of looking up shyly from his lowered head, whose voice hardly rises above a tranquil and reasoned moderato. He gets no help from the director, Joseph M. Newman. A viewer feels that if Janssen could do it, he'd actually erase himself from the screen, leaving a small hole behind. The other actors all walk through their parts except for the thumotic Mickey Rooney.The story, anyway, borrows from all the other stories of the rise and fall of gangster figures. The protagonist must sacrifice his old childhood friend on the altar of his megalomania; the young cop who warned him early in his career must go on to plague him as an adult; and, if possible, the guy must be assassinated, and preferably in some public place.As irritating as anything else is the kind of attention paid to wardrobe and the musical score. This is the early years of the 20th century -- Rothstein was at his peak in 1916 and died in 1928 -- yet the characters wear modern suits, except, in a nod to period fashion, the suits generally have vests and the hats sometimes bear a family resemblance to a derby.Franz Waxman must have been asleep at the switch when he wrote the music. It's all undemanding modernistic jazz, with not a tango or a Charleston in a cartload.What a terrible bore.

Although Arnold Rothstein was a great deal older than David Janssen when he portrayed Rothstein in King Of The Roaring Twenties, he does deliver a good performance as the rather bloodless Rothstein who had the heart of a calculating machine. He came by that personality by being a mathematical genius as a child and deciding to apply his talents in the best way calculated to make money. Rothstein in real life and Janssen on the screen spent their lives calculating. In fact the title is something of a misnomer because Rothstein being born in 1882 to a respectable middle class Jewish family with father played in the film by Joseph Schildkraut, started his career way before the Roaring Twenties set in. His most famous exploit, the fixing of the 1919 World Series is certainly before the Twenties, but when Prohibition came in, Rothstein saw the possibilities.The characters in the film are mostly fictional and in some cases pseudonyms are used. Jack Carson's farewell big screen role as Tammany politician Tim O'Brien is more than likely based on Jimmy Hines, later convicted by Thomas E. Dewey. Carson is always good in any film he's in.The two supporting players who stand out are Dan O'Herlihy as a fictional rogue cop who was taking payoffs back when Janssen was a kid and Mickey Rooney who was the best in the film as Rothstein's boyhood pal who meets a tragic end. The women in Rothstein's life are Dianne Foster and British bombshell Diana Dors who do well as typical Roaring Twenties flappers.The film has the look and feel of The Untouchables TV series which spawned a revival of the gangster films, this time using the real names of the public enemies. The smartest one of them all Arnold Rothstein might well have been called, King Of The Roaring Twenties.