The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond

Viewed November 4, 2021. Shot in dingy, contrasted black-and-white, the images have an expressive punch - Karen Steele's face neatly divided by the criss-crossing barrier of a prison waiting room, Ray Dalton's anguished close-up in the finale - and Boetticher whips through his various violent scenes at a quick, tossed-off pace, to suggest the way Legs Diamond views everyone and everything around him as disposable.

Ray Danton has the coldest eyes of any gangster I have ever seen. His is a fine, often overlooked performance in the gangster genre. Warren Oates offers good support, and Boetticher directs with precision and elegance.

even by noir standards (and budd standards FTM) this fella sure is a piece of work! this lacks a safety net in a similar way to something like NIGHTCRAWLER or BREAKING BAD; the protagonist overflows so magnificently with ambition and resourcefulness he snags me into his orbit, but my sympathies are increasingly exploited as the depths of his sociopathy and megalomania are revealed. BB is easy to dismiss as simplistic at first glance but it's only because his visions have such clarity and focus.

O Rei dos Facínoras estreava há 60 anos em New York. Os filmes não-westerns do Boetticher são bem menos famosos, mas nem por isso menos qualificados como grandes obras, aqui temos um filme de gângster ainda old school, diferente do tipo que nasceria a partir da Nova Hollywood alguns anos depois, mas com um profundo estudo de caracterização do personagem principal. DVDRip no MakingOff.