Molls and Dolls: The Women of Gangster Films (2006)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Martin Scorsese, Drew Casper, Larry Cohen, Michael Madsen, Frank Miller, Nicholas Pileggi, Theresa Russell, Talia Shire, Eric Lax, Robert Evans and Lincoln Hurst are just a few of the people who turn up in this 21-minute documentary that takes a look at the female's role in gangster pictures. We see clips from a dozen or so movies like THE PUBLIC ENEMY, THE ROARING TWENTIES and other Warner stuff as we see how the roles for females changed as time went along. We cover the early stuff where women were mainly used to be pushed around and then we get to where they were able to hang with the boys and enter the illegal business. We also see how the virginal female was always on hand to try and make the bad gangster see the good that he could do. Overall this is another very good featurette from Warner as this really does give you a great idea of the films as well as some of the actresses who really shined during these films. Seeing all the familiar faces talking about movies they love was another good thing even if some of them only get one brief clip to talk about. Fans of the genre should really enjoy seeing this interviews and those unfamiliar with the movies will have a lot of great recommendations.