The Grissom Gang

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nick s 01/31/2024 It was a little too bloody for my taste. But I did enjoy the great acting from the leads and the delicate relationship between the two main characters. Appreciate it when a director takes a road less travelled. Sets, costumes and makeup were great. See more 11/13/2020 Based on the James Hadley Chases classic No Orchids For Miss Blandish. understandingly, it can't match the book for its extreme violence and sadism and nastiness, and for what happens to the helpless heroine in the end. No movie could and get a certificate. But it does what it can to get it past the censor and I suppose you can't ask for more. But it pales alongside the novel. See more 01/31/2014 (***): [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img] Strangely interesting. See more 04/01/2012 The Grissom Gang is a curious film. Cynical and pessimistic, the film is a black comedy about the dumbest crime family and a Stockholm relationship that develops. It's violent, anti-nostalgic, and anti-sentimental. See more 02/26/2011 Subtly was not director Robert Aldrich's style. He saw things in very simple, blunt terms, and did not shy away from what other film makers might consider crude or over the top. When his films work, the punch to the gut knocks the breath out of you. THE GRISSOM GANG works like crazy. This backwoods gangster pic, set during the depression, begins with a kidnapping that goes bad, then morphs into one of the most volatile, edgy love stories every made. Kim Darby plays the love object here: a rich socialite who must do all she can to survive the degenerate Grissom gang that holds her prisoner. Scott Wilson plays Ma Grisson's mentally challenged, psychopathic son, great with a knife but clumsy and tongue tied in love. Aldrich's approach, though often jaw dropping, gets under your skin. Darby was never better and Wilson should have been nominated for an Oscar. See more 04/28/2010 Under-rated gangster gem that evokes the style and themes of classic films while also touching on contemporary sexual politics, ironic use of popular music and humorous genre subtext. Wilson/Darby and Stevens/Musante present two contrasting couples with opposite fates not dissimilar to those in Bonnie and Clyde or Gun Crazy. While Irene Daley gives a fantastic turn as the brutal matriarch, giving Cody's ma in White Heat a run for her money. Joseph Biroc's cinematography captures all of the sweaty, fevered dialogue and implied rape, along with classic use of reaction shots, bullet hits, chase scenes, and the inevitable dance of death. Darby and Wilson play it a little broad, like sexually overwrought but homicidal juveniles, but it is appropriate to the material. The action high point comes with Ma Grissom's standoff at their K.C. safehouse, and the doomed couple's flight from it. Their final scenes are not sweeping or sensational, but stay true to the parody and unromantic tone - a nice contrast to many later films. See more Read all reviews

The Grissom Gang

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