| Vintage Pulp | Jan 23 2022 |
Damn it feels good to be a gangsta.
Above you see a U.S. promo poster for the crime drama I, Mobster, starring Steve Cochran in a rags-to-riches, innocence-to-corruption tale of a neighborhood kid who becomes a top man in the mob. The film was based on a 1951 novel of the same name published anonymously, but later identified as coming from the typewriter of Joseph Hilton Smyth, who also wrote Angels in the Gutter. The early plot driver is the mob's attempt to extort cash payments out of a powerful trade union. The plan is to offer services as “outside labor relations experts.” Cochran, as an ambitious footsoldier, expands the mob's vision, its areas of interest, and its profits. Pretty soon he's riding high, high, high. But it can't last. Of course not.
The film has the usual elements from this sub-genre: the round-the-way girl who offers redemption, the wailing mom who implores her son to go straight, the unimpressed father who eventually disowns him, the mob boss who's worried about his brash number two, and the ticking bomb—i.e. the seeds of destruction planted earlier. Here it's a little boy who knows Cochran killed a man. He grows up and becomes enfolded in the mob too, which places him in perfect position to blackmail Cochran. But Cochran is a tough cookie. It may take more than an ambitious twenty-something to bring him down, and it may be that the true seeds of destruction were planted earlier and elsewhere.
While the plot elements may be typical, the cast isn't. Cochran is a good, intense, underrated screen presence. Robert Strauss is perfect as Cochran's right hand man and steadying influence. The radiant Lili St. Cyr spices up the proceedings midway through with a burlesque routine. And the stunning Lita Milan is excellent as the good girl-turned-mob moll. In addition, the film is solidly directed. You often see I, Mobster, described as an early Roger Corman movie. Does a director's twentieth movie count as early? Corman knows what he's doing here. His road forked into the dark woods of schlock, but helming this production, with a low budget, he managed to squeeze out a solid b-mobster flick. There's nothing fresh in it, but with this cast freshness isn't needed. I, Mobster premiered today in 1959.
Don't play coy, baby. Would you rather be with a gangsta like me or some accountant from fuckin' donkeyville?
That's what I thought.
I MobsterRoger CormanSteve CochranLita MilanRobert StraussCelia LovskyLili St. CyrYvette VickersJeri SouthernJoseph Hilton Smythposter artcinemamafiaburlesque movie review
| Vintage Pulp | Sep 1 2021 |
Wait—you're in the mafia? I thought being a good fella was your explanation for why everyone in Little Italy is so nice to you.
I, Mobster, published in 1951, is credited to anonymous but we learned somewhere that it was written by Joseph Hilton Smyth. We don't know how we found that out—a rumor, a tip, an informant—but we're pretty sure we're right. The art is also by an unknown, by the way. The book details the rise of a petty crook through the ranks of the mafia. Anonymous or not, you can be absolutely sure whoever wrote it came forward at some point, because the book was adapted into a 1958 movie and the author would have wanted to get paid for that. We decided not to buy the book, but the movie stars Steve Cochrane and features Lili St. Cyr, so we'll definitely check that out later.
