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The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967)

 
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 06, 2020 4:33 pm    Post subject: The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967) Reply with quote



TSVDM was co-produced by Roger Corman and 20th Century Fox, as well as directed by Corman.

Narrated by the terrific Paul Frees.

Released on June 30th, 1967.

The movie tells the true events that lead up to the mass assassination of 7 members of the mobster George "Bugs" Moran in Chicago on February 14, 1929.

Moran was at war with Al Capone and his criminal organization for the massive profits garnered from the sale of alcohol during Prohibition.

After constant warfare between the 2 mobs where numerous mobsters are killed, Capone fearing for his own life from attempted ''hits'' on him decides that Bugs must be killed once and for all.

The film then follows the meticulous planning for the ''wipe out'' and the eventual results and aftermath.

I find this a compelling movie as we are given insights as to how both Moran and Capone operated with the film favoring neither mobster.

Just the facts ma'm as Sgt.Joe Friday used to say on Dragnet.

Well, mostly the facts. As with with many film adaptations of historical people and events there are some liberties taken with the film. However, they get a great deal of it correct in this case. So the willing suspension of disbelief is not too seriously strained in this instance.

Jason Robards performance so dominates the movie that you are not even bothered by the fact that he looks nothing like the real life Capone. Robards is so adept at capturing the cunning street shrewdness and savagery of Big Al that you ignore the physical differences between the actor and real life mobster.

The rest of the cast is excellent and made up of a plethora of marvelous character actors you will recognize.

The actors who portrayed members of the Moran criminal gang who will become the massacred studied the actual horrific crime photo of the slain gangsters.

This was done so as to accurately recreate the crime scene right down to how the bodies were positioned next to one another when they were found.

Incredibly enough no one was ever charged with the crime.
It was the perfect crime in that regard.

The aftermath caused the public and the media to turn against the criminal empires that they had once romanticized and were infatuated with for being outside the law.

Fun Facts :

Roger Corman originally wanted Orson Welles cast as Capone with Jason Robards as Moran.

20th Century Fox nixed that idea because they felt that Welles was too difficult to direct.

Corman wanted to film on location in Chicago, but there were not enough real life locations that remained looking like they were in 1929. And there were budget considerations.

He shot the film in just seven weeks. Films generally have a three month shooting schedule.

More squib charges were used for the shootings in this movie than The Longest Day war film.

The bordello set used in the movie had previously been used for the same purpose in the 1966 film The Sand Pebbles.

The actual warehouse where the massacre took place was torn down not long after the film's release.

Ironically enough it is a parking lot for a nursing home, something the slain members of the Moran gang on that faithful day would never live to see.

Old age.


Last edited by Pow on Sat Nov 28, 2020 1:30 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 10:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

IMDB has 13 trivia items for this movie/series. Here’s a few of the ones I found the most interesting, in the blue text. Very Happy
________________________________

~ For the massacre scene in the garage, the actors playing the slain gangsters were shown photos and directed as how to fall so their positions were identical to the real photos of the massacre. Two actors bumped together on the way down. After studying photographs they realized they had fallen and collided in the exact way the slain gangsters had fallen and had landed in the correct positions.

Note from me: Coincidence . . .or fate? Shocked (I figure is just coincidence. Rolling Eyes)

~ The film came in at $200,000 under budget, because Roger Corman re-used sets from other movies, including a mansion that served as Capone's home (even though in reality Al Capone lived in a modest brick house in a working-class neighborhood).

Note from me: "Listen, punk! Capone don't live in no stinkin' brick house! He's gotta live in a mansion, ya know whatta mean?"

~ This was Roger Corman's first directorial project for one of the major studios (20th Century-Fox). After approximately 15 years experience as a producer and director of low-budget productions, it was no surprise that he wrapped this production ahead of schedule and well under budget.

Note from me: Old habits are hard to break . . .

~ In the scene where the killer, played by (uncredited) Jack Nicholson, is rubbing garlic in his bullets and says the garlic will cause blood poisoning, that was actually a Sicilian practice, thinking that it would create gangrenous wounds. It didn't really work, but it became a habit among Chicago killers. Nicholson does not rub garlic on the bullets, but watches as one of the gunmen does.

Note from me: Hey, wouldn't those bullets kill vampires, too? AMC should keep that in mind it they do a series called The Walking Dead Mobsters. Laughing


___ The St Valentine's Day Massacre (Trailer 1967)


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_____ The St. Valentine's Day Massacre full movie


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Pow
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 11:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ironically, the building where the massacre of Bugs Moran's hoods took place was torn down years later and is now a parking lot of a nursing home.

Becoming a senior citizen one day was a fate not in the future for those seven men.
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