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Beautiful, moving film.

A different way of telling a story

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

I especially love the 1970's film making era, and with a seasoned director such as Robert Aldrich managing the cameras, I was sure I would not be disappointed with the Grissom Gang. The opening panoramic scene which takes place at a gas station/general store was vintage 1970's film making style, and I thought the film was off to a great start. The movie takes place in the 1930's era and stars Kim Darby as Barbara Blandish who plays a rich and spoiled heiress who is kidnapped by a crew of semi smart gangsters who are led by a tough talking Ma Grissom played by Irene Dailey. Ma Grissom's slow witted son Slim Grissom who has never had physical contact of any kind with the opposite sex becomes infatuated with their kidnap victim Barbara. While in captivity Barbara is shown several times screaming her rich pretty little head off, thus the scream queen summary. The dim witted Slim takes a lot of verbal abuse from the other gang members as they like to make fun of his so called friendship with Barbara when in fact they know that after the ransom is paid, they will have to dispose of Barbara as she is the only living witness to their crime.No plot is complete without including a weasel eyed gang member in the story line and who better to play this part than the venerable character actor Tony Musante who plays Eddie Hagan. Eddie expresses that he is more than up to the task of killing Barbara when the time is right because he knows how much that will just torment Slim who has fallen in love with Barbara.As the law closes in on the gang, Barbara continues to try and escape and Slim promises to protect his new found love from the other gang members. Tempers flare amongst the gang members, and the audience is anticipating one of those great Bonnie and Clyde shootouts with the law. Director Robert Aldrich includes a number of car chases and shoot outs in the Grissom Gang, the three main characters are exposed to the audience for who they are and who they believe in. I wouldn't want to spoil a good ending so you will just have to watch it. I would not call this a great movie, but it is certainly worth a Sunday matinée watch. I give it a 6 out of 10, and I thank Robert Aldrich for another good film on his extensive resume which includes the classic and hard to find on DVD Choirboys, as well as box office bonanzas The Longest Yard, and the Dirty Dozen.

The 1930's. Spoiled and snotty wealthy heiress Barbara Blandish (superbly played to prissy perfection by Kim Darby) gets abducted by a vicious family of depraved and dangerous outlaws. Complications ensue when the infantile, yet lethal and volatile Slim Grissom (a remarkable performance by Scott Wilson) falls for Barbara. Barbara soon realizes that she will have to do whatever it takes to stay alive. Director Robert Aldrich, working from a tough and biting script by Leon Griffiths, expertly maintains a tense and sordid atmosphere throughout, offers a vivid, grimy and credible evocation of the bleak and desperate Depression era, stages the sporadic shoot-outs and startling outbursts of raw, bloody violence with his customary flair, and further spices things up with a wickedly funny sense of pitch-black humor. Moreover, Aldrich and Griffiths score bonus points for their admirable refusal to either sanitize or romanticize the clan of ferocious and frightening criminals in any way; these folks are truly mean, scary and even downright grotesque. The thespians who portray this ghastly bunch all do sterling work: Tony Musante as smooth heel Eddie Hagan, Irene Dailey as fearsome, venomous matriarch Gladys "Ma" Grissom, Joey Faye as the jolly Woppy, Ralph Waite as the excitable Mace, and Don Keefer as the timid, laid-back Doc. Contributing equally fine supporting turns are Robert Lansing as shrewd, weary private eye Dave Fenner, Connie Stevens as brassy, cynical, dim-witted tramp singer Anna Borg, and Wesley Addy as Barbara's cold, disapproving millionaire father John P. Blandish. Better still, we've also got a strangely touching, albeit off-kilter central love story amid all the stark cruelty and unsparing unpleasantness. Gerald Fried's sprightly, rousing score, a jaunty soundtrack of vintage catchy 30's swing tunes, Joseph F. Biroc's sharp, polished cinematography, and the devastating downbeat ending all further enhance the overall sound quality of this supremely harsh, but still gripping and satisfying crime saga.

Robert Aldrich's lurid film has a lot going for it and a lot not going for it. On the plus side there is a dynamite performance by Kim Darby as a kidnap victim who may or may not be starting to enjoy her grim predicament. On the minus side, the gang of kidnappers, a Ma Barker-type and her motley brood, simply is not threatening ENOUGH to make you believe Darby is in a lot of danger. I couldn't help wondering why she didn't just up and leave. Another deficit is the TV-movie feel of the whole thing -- this is definitely NOT Aldrich's most stylish film. Irene Dailey is fine as the mother, but it would have been more fun had the role been played by Cloris Leachman or Shelley Winters. Featuring Scott Wilson, Tony Musante, Robert Lansing and, in a brief but foul-mouthed cameo, Connie Stevens!

a better Patty Hearst movie than the ones actually made about Patty Hearst. not quite up there with the likes of Bonnie and Clyde and Thieves Like Us, but definitely worth seeing as an example of the 1970's ambivalence about anti-social characters and crime. the reviews make quite a big deal about the violence but you will hardly notice it--a great deal of shooting, some of that orange glop they used in the 1970s, but hardly emotionally wrenching like, say, The Wild Bunch or Texas Chainsaw Massacre...great performance by Scott Wilson who shows up on TV a lot these days.