Jay Raskin It is noteworthy that this was made in 1959, around the same time that "Breathless" and the French Nouvelle Vague was beginning. It looks like a new wave film, but instead of celebrating the freedom and independence of low budget, auteur film-making, it seems to be trying and failing to be a "B" movie or even a Monogram "C" movie.It is much closer to bad early Roger Corman ("Swamp Women" or "She Gods of Shark Reef" than to great early Roger Corman ("Attack of the Crab Monster," or "Bucket of Blood") Matthau has some interesting cutting and camera angles, but he gets no performances out of his cast, including himself. The writing is bland and Ed Wood amateurish. The first bank robbery where Matthau pretends to be shooting a movie to lure the bank president inside his closed bank is ridiculous. The cops who stand guard outside the bank while this is going on would have to be mentally retarded or the most trusting souls in California to fall for the ruse.Matthau kills about seven cops, and a couple of innocent people, yet the movie seems to want to create sympathy for him by making him a Korean/Invasion of Normandy army veteran. Matthau has a bloodhound face that immediately makes us want to sympathize with him. This is the secret of his success, perhaps. It is too bad that as a director he was unable to put it to use.I would recommend this only for fans of Matthau who wish to see every film he was in. Otherwise, if you want a film where Matthau plays a gangster who falls in love and likes to gamble on horses, like this one, but unlike this movie is professionally done, try "Little Miss Marker." That film is delightful.

GUENOT PHILIPPE What a real pleasure for me to discover this flick. I was really amazed. Not a great picture, but short, sharp, accurate in action and characters. For a B movie I mean. No wasted shots in directing. Of course, we have already seen this scheme a thousand times, but it is still effective. Matthau is excellent and prepares us for "Charley Varrick", shot a decade later: A bank robber with the crime syndicate on his heels. No user seems to have noticed that.Description of the two heists of the film are delightful, meticulously described. And the bank robbery at the beginning is very funny. But this doesn't alter the tragic content of the story.

yardbirdsraveup In the early days of television, there was an influx of great actors and actresses who decided to test the waters of this new media. We had the likes of Dick Powell, Ida Lupino, Ann Sheridan, Loretta Young, for example. Not so with Walter Mathau. This great actor actually originated from the early days of television and then migrated to the movies. Mathau did countless guest appearances on many television programs before getting his big break in such films as "The Kentuckian" (1955) and "A Face in the Crowd" (1957). This film was only one of a few that he had under his belt until he made "The Gangster Story" in 1960. Incidentally, this was his directing debut also, so between appearing in television and movies, this gave him the rare chance to show his talent in this aspect. Unfortunately for Mathau, this was his only attempt to direct a movie. The quality of this film in it's cinematography, the acting and the dialogue is way below standard and this probably was the reason why he never directed another film.This is, at best, a fair film that is a potential cult classic. The plot is transparent and predictable. The supporting acting is stilted and awkward. His real wife, Carol Grace, plays the typical "bimbo" role of standing-by-her-man-no-matter-how-bad-he-is (*sigh*) in this cheesy docudrama. However, because it is an early Mathau vehicle, it is an interesting conversation piece for those who admire his talents. Not an academy award winner, but an interesting chestnut from a long and illustrious career.

Richard Green Thanks to Turner Classic Movies, this rarely seen film was available on a schedule with other Walter Matthau vehicles. Mr. Matthau was both the star and the director ( his only effort ).It has all the elements of a great crime drama. It has a minimalist style that reflects the very limited shooting budget. Perhaps that was not the intention when it was created, but it provides something which great American movies often have -- an authentic background for the authentic characters created ....It also seems evident that in his later career, Mr. Matthau had become something many actors aspire to being -- a movie star -- but in this strange and somewhat haunting crime story, he's immersed in the part of the ne'er-do-well hoodlum. He's not a very nice fellow, but he's got a certain charm and "panache" on screen. Perhaps this is the result of his being responsible for the whole effort, or perhaps he really enjoyed the rather villainous and amoral character of Jack Martin. Whatever the viewer decides about that question, this movie entertains in a thoughtful way, giving the viewer a definite feeling of "being there".It's true that there are some elements of the plot which seem to be, now, rather hackneyed. That's the reason it did not receive a vote of eight or nine. But from beginning to the end, the minimalist style allows the plot to envelop the characters and to support them.Criminals have their own code, it is true. This is not a story about a good guy gone bad, in my opinion. He's a rake and an opportunist, this Jack Martin. Matthau is superb in this role. Carol Grace adds a lot to the haunting feeling that permeates this film, partly because it isn't so easy to see what her character's motivations are as the plot goes on. She portrays a woman of deep longings overshadowed by a deeper loneliness. That alone says a lot about the era, the tail end of the Eisenhower years, and the big cars and big landscapes which abound only add to that sense of 'something missing.' Perhaps TCM will be kind enough to run it again in a more favorable time slot for all the fans of great but austere crime drama. It's a winner in that regard. It doesn't fit the usual concepts of "film noir," I suppose, but it is about what crime does to those who choose to follow its ways. Matthau was not, perhaps, reaching for greatness in this effort but he found it anyway. Seven out of ten for his acting and seven out of ten for his directing.