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It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Roger Corman, now past the age of 90, is to be congratulated for making movies on a shoestring. The guy was a master, and an educated one too -- engineering from Stanford. And an engaging actor too in small parts.That's not to say the movies he made were good. The Poe stories weren't Poe stories, just lurid tales in gaudy color with Vincent Price's mellifluous voice haunting the sound tracks.Corman joined the parade that was turning out gangster "biographies" around 1960. This one is not as good as Rod Steiger's "Capone" but no worse that Mickey Rooney as Baby Face Nelson.It's routine in every detail. The acting is pedestrian when it's not plain bad -- as in Susan Cabot's or Frank DeKova as an alcoholic gas station owner. Bronson was not yet the irresistible force for justice that he was to become, so he's still in his sinister mode -- sneering and insulting everyone.These insults are unexplainable. Everyone insults everyone else or at least teases them. Bronson never smiles except when Morey Amsterdam as a homosexual is humiliated. He's a pustule ready to pop. Yet his colleagues seem to enjoy taunting him, especially about his fear of death, even though they must KNOW he's going to deck them for it.It would have been nice if the dialog were in any way original but it lacks sparkle. There isn't a memorable line in the entire movie. And it would have been so easy -- "Mother of Mercy, is this the end of Machine Gun Kelly?" "I wish you was a wishin' well so's I could tie a bucket to ya and sink ya." (Huh?) If Kelly really were like this, he must have been an unpleasant man.

Many minor thugs of the 1930s were glamorized and their exploits way overstated in movies and TV shows (like "The Untouchables"). One of the more overstated was George "Machine Gun" Kelly--a mostly unsuccessful loser of a criminal who is given star treatment here in a low- budgeted Roger Corman film. So understand...much of what you see is fiction...especially the way Charles Bronson plays the guy like he was a complete psycho. It IS enjoyable to watch...just understand it's really not a history lesson!In the film, Kelly mostly threatens and kills his criminal associates with the exception of his girlfriend. Some he shoots, some he betrays to the cops and two he pushes into a crate with a mountain lion so it can maul them!! Clearly, this sort of gangster had trouble getting along with others!! And, throughout the entire film, Kelly is a total jerk and is totally unhinged--like a psychotic with a bad migraine. As I already said, it is cool to watch...but also patently ridiculous. No one this nutty would be allowed out in public more than about 5 minutes before the guys with nets would show up to welcome him to his new home! I think the poster currently associating the movie on IMDb is about what you see in the movie!!While most of the stuff Kelly does in the film is fiction, the second half of the movie is all about the very famous kidnapping case that brought him to national attention....and a long prison sentence. And, the craven way that he surrendered...that WAS the real George Kelly!

Roger Corman is, of course, renowned as one of the leading purveyors of schlocky B-movie fare, particularly during the late 1950s when he first came to prominence. This was a guy who always knew how to bring in his movies under budget and how to make every nickel count. However, having just watched MACHINE-GUN KELLY, a true-life biopic of a Prohibition-era gangster, I have to say that I feel Corman's efforts were best suited to the horror and sci-fi genres.The problem with MACHINE-GUN KELLY is that it just isn't very interesting. Despite the excitement inherent in the premise of having a bank robber as a film's leading character, this turns out to be a talky, staged and frankly dull affair in which the paucity of the budget is more than apparent. Sure, there are some decent sequences along the way, including a couple of exciting bank robberies and some interesting interludes with a big cat, but that's about it.The focus of the film seems to be on characterisation, and in particular providing a character assassination of Kelly himself. He's portrayed as a guy who's an absolute coward when he doesn't have his gun in hand, and he ends up being manipulated by his associates and dames. Charles Bronson is great fun, of course, and it's nice to see him being more expressive than he would be in later years, but he has little to work with and long stretches of the film fall flat.

George Kelly is a small-time crook looking to make some big newspaper headlines to impress his imposing moll Flo. After one successful bank robbery after another, one turns into a botch job with Kelly's phobia of death leaving on his men dead and the other wanting his blood. After ridding that problem, due to Flo's pressure to do something. She influences him into kidnapping a wealthy businessman's daughter, but this would lead onto their downfall with Kelly's lurking weakness coming through. Roger Corman does it again. "Machine-Gun Kelly" is another fine example of perfect film-making on a minimal budget and time restraint, where he's still able to deliver a sturdy, brisk and fleshed-out b-gangster film with a professional touch. The picture looked good, and photographer Floyd Crosby's sharp and shadowy handling brought out the film's brooding ambiance. While Gerald Fried's jazzy music score keeps it all in an exciting and saucy mood. Corman's style isn't overly jumpy, but more so tight, tough and namely suggestive in its actions and basic story telling. Actually there's plenty of time and focus on the material, and that of the complex character of Kelly. One of the major curiosities however, would be that of Charles Bronson's sterling performance as George "Machine-Gun" Kelly. For his first lead role he plays it accordingly, with an on edge and moody shade of an infant bully. Equally as impressive was his icy co-star Susan Cabot. Her vividly titular performance as the cheeky, sly broad of Kelly's is dominantly manipulative. The support cast (Morey, Frank De Kova, Jack Lambert, Richard Devon, Connie Gilchrist) added much-welcomed colour and personality. Corman's straight-laced direction is efficiently organised and he brews up a smoky atmosphere with its authentically wishy-washy 1930's settings. R. Wright Campbell's pulp material is loaded with a snappy, economical and highly engaging script and is loosely based on a 1930s gangster. It's actually an innovative little set-up with some effective psychology brushes and a downbeat ending that fits right at home with the central character's ineptness of his reputation. Kelly's character really sticks out a like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the hardened criminal figures. It's all about the power and name one achieves from these acts is what they're after, not just the doe. This what makes Kelly look uncomfortable. Even with its limitations, it turns out to be a highly entertaining and satisfying low-scale crime caper by Roger Corman.