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Rod Steiger in Al Capone (1959)Fay Spain, James Gregory, Nehemiah Persoff Co-Star in Gangster Movie
Rod Steiger has the title role in Allied Artists' Al Capone (1959), a movie biopic of the notorious Chicago gangster. Fay Spain, James Gregory, Nehemiah Persoff co-star.
In 1959, Big Al got the Hollywood treatment in director Richard Wilson's "bullet force" crime drama, Al Capone. Rod Steiger played the infamous Chicago mobster, with Fay Spain, James Gregory, Nehemiah Persoff and Martin Balsam along for the ride. Screenplay, Director, MusicMalvin Wald and Henry F. Greenberg penned the screenplay. Directing the film was Richard Wilson, a longtime associate of Orson Welles whose previous credits included Man with the Gun (1955) and Raw Wind in Eden (1958). David Raskin composed the original music score. Al Capone CastRod Steiger (1925-2002) starred as Al "Scarface" Capone. Other cast members included Fay Spain (Maureen Flannery), James Gregory (Sgt. Schaefler/Narrator), Martin Balsam (Mac Keely), Nehemiah Persoff (Johnny Torrio), Murvyn Vye (George "Bugs" Moran), Robert Gist (Dion "Dini" O'Banion), Lewis Charles (Earl "Hymie" Weiss), Joe De Santis (Big Jim Colosimo), Sandy Kenyon ("Bones" Corelli) and Raymond Bailey (Mr. Brancato). Production DatesAl Capone was filmed in Hollywood from September 16 to mid-October 1958. Burrows-Ackerman Productions produced the movie for theatrical distribution by Allied Artists. Al Capone Movie BiographyAl Capone opens in 1919, with the Brooklyn-born Alphonse Capone arriving in Chicago. Capone becomes a bodyguard/bouncer for gangster Johnny Torrio, who traffics in "booze, gambling and broads." Capone also makes the acquaintance of another mobster, Big Jim Colosimo, who controls the First Ward. On the advice of Capone, Torrio orders a hit on the troublesome Colosimo and several of his lieutenants. Capone then pays a visit to the widow of one of the murdered men, eventually taking her as his girlfriend. When Johnny Torrio is sent away to prison and subsequently retires from the rackets, Al Capone consolidates his position, eventually becoming the undisputed crime czar of Prohibition-era Chicago. It's a corrupt, bloody rise to the top, with Capone bribing various public and law enforcement officials and murdering anyone who stands in his way. Following the election of a reform mayor who vows to clean up the city, Capone moves his criminal headquarters to neighboring Cicero. He later takes up residence in Miami Beach, where he orders the elimination of Bugs Moran and his top deputies in the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Capone's reign eventually comes to an end when he is convicted of income tax evasion. Sentenced to 11 years in the big house, Capone serves the final stretch of his prison sentence at infamous Alcatraz, where he is beaten by his fellow inmates. Release, ReviewsAl Capone made its world premiere in Miami, Florida, on February 25, 1959. The selection of Miami was no accident, as the real Alphonse Gabriel Capone (1899-1947), who died not in a hail of gunfire but of neurosyphilis, had maintained a retreat in Miami Beach. "A tough, ruthless and generally unsentimental account of the most notorious gangster of the prohibition-repeal era, Al Capone is also a very well-made picture," said Variety. "This candid gangster picture...makes the underworld out to be the tawdry and deceitful domain it surely is...Mr. Steiger's well-studied performance makes Capone look the bloated brute he was," opined Bosley Crowther of The New York Times (3/26/59). Al Capone on VHSAl Capone is currently available on VHS only from 20th Century Fox (1993). "The Most Dangerous Man The Nation Has Ever Known!" trumpets the movie trailer for Al Capone. Not quite, but don't tell the foreign tourists that.
The copyright of the article Rod Steiger in Al Capone (1959) in Biopic Dramas is owned by William J. Felchner. Permission to republish Rod Steiger in Al Capone (1959) in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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