As I have already told many many times in my reviews, the early sixties in Hollywood was the era where gangsters period crime biopics were gallore, more or less inspired from actual facts though: PORTRAIT OF A MOBSTER, PAY OR DIE, MURDER INC, RISE AND FALL OF LEGS DIAMOND, KING OF THE ROARING 20'S, BABY FACE NELSON, YOUNG DILLIGER, AL CAPONE, MAD DOG CALL. Only "mature" Dillinger's character was missing between a 1945 and 1973 movie !!!! This one is not the least in terms of quality, yes, 1961 was the year of this kind of gangster tales, maybe the TV series THE UNTOUCHABLES influenced this period. I am dead sure of it. Robert Blake as here as John Davis Chandler was in MAD DOG CALL; purely terrific as a cold blooded killer. It begins like a DEAD END KIDS flick but the pace rapidly changes. Frank Mac Donald's best film for me, because he was rather a lousy director. Mostly B westerns for B companies.
Review of The Purple Gang
