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The Rise And Fall Of Legs Diamond
''The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond'' is a 1960 neo-noir crime film directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Ray Danton, Karen Steele and Elaine Stewart. The supporting cast features Warren Oates, Jesse White and Robert Lowery. The picture marked the film debut of Dyan Cannon and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design for Howard Shoup. Plot In the 1920s, ambitious but smalltime thief Jack Diamond and his sickly brother Eddie Diamond move to New York City. Jack meets dance instructor Alice Shiffer, lies to her to date her and to steal a necklace from a jewelry store. After being incarcerated for a time, he works with Alice at her dance school while on probation. He then gets hired as bodyguard of infamous Arnold Rothstein who gives him the nickname Legs. His plan is to supplant Rothstein with the intention of stealing his bootleg, drugs and gambling businesses. After Arnold is murdered, Legs Diamond sells protection. When he travels to Europe with Alice on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Budd Boetticher
Oscar "Budd" Boetticher Jr. ( ; July 29, 1916 – November 29, 2001) was an American film director. He is best remembered for a series of low-budget Westerns he made in the late 1950s starring Randolph Scott. Early life Boetticher was born in Chicago. His mother died in childbirth and his father was killed in an accident shortly afterwards. He was adopted by a wealthy couple Oscar Boetticher Sr. (1867–1953) and Georgia Naas Boetticher (1888–1955) and was raised in Evansville, Indiana, along with his younger brother Henry Edward Boetticher (1924–2004). He attended Culver Military Academy where he became friends with Hal Roach Jr. He was a star athlete at Ohio State University, until an injury ended his sports career. In 1939 he traveled to Mexico, where he learned bullfighting under Don Lorenzo Garza, Fermin Espinoza and Carlos Arruza. Career Early films Boetticher worked as a crew member on ''Of Mice and Men'' (1939) and ''A Chump at Oxford'' (1940). A chance encount ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legs Diamond
Jack "Legs" Diamond (possibly born John Thomas Diamond, though disputed; July 10, 1897 – December 18, 1931), also known as Gentleman Jack, was an Irish American gangster in Philadelphia and New York City during the Prohibition era. A bootlegger and close associate of gambler Arnold Rothstein, Diamond survived a number of attempts on his life between 1916 and 1931, causing him to be known as the " clay pigeon of the underworld". In 1930, Diamond's nemesis Dutch Schultz remarked to his own gang, "Ain't there nobody that can shoot this guy so he don't bounce back?" Early life Diamond was born July 10, 1897, to Sara and John Moran, who emigrated from Ireland in 1891 to Philadelphia, USA. In 1899, Jack's younger brother Eddie Moran was born. Jack and Eddie both struggled through grade school, while Sara suffered from severe arthritis and other health problems. On December 24, 1913, Sara died from complications due to a bacterial infection and high fever. John Diamond, Sr. moved ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as '' The Daily''. Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, it was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The ''Times'' has won 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national " newspaper of record". For print it is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the U.S. The paper is owned by the New York Times Company, which is publicly traded. It has been governed by the Sulzberger family since 1896, through a dual-class share structure after its shares became publicly traded. A. G. Sulzberger, the paper's publisher and the company's chairman, is the fifth generation of the family to head the pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard Thompson (film Critic)
Howard Thompson (October 25, 1919 – March 10, 2002) was an American journalist and film critic whose career of forty-one years was spent at ''The New York Times''. Henry Howard Thompson Jr. was born in Natchez, the seat of Mississippi's Adams County. He began his college studies at Louisiana State University, but left to serve as a paratrooper in the United States Army during World War II. During this period, Thompson was captured and spent six months in a German prisoner of war camp. After demobilisation, he continued his studies at Columbia University. In 1947, he joined ''The New York Times'' as an office boy in the personnel department, and soon moved to the movie section as a clerk to Bosley Crowther, the film critic at the ''Times''. He later advanced to a reporter who frequently interviewed film personalities and finally became a critic in the late 1950s. The byline on reviews during his early years was commonly indicated as "H.H.T." or "HHT". He also served as chairman ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portrait Of A Mobster
''Portrait of a Mobster'' is a 1961 American crime film directed by Joseph Pevney and starring Vic Morrow, Leslie Parrish and Ray Danton repeating his role as Jack Diamond (gangster), 'Legs' Diamond.PORTRAIT OF A MOBSTER, Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 28, Iss. 324, (January 1, 1961): p. 99. Plot Up-and-coming racketeer Dutch Schultz joins the Legs Diamond gang in Prohibition in the United States, Prohibition-era New York City, New York. A bootlegger named Murphy is murdered by Dutch, who falls for the dead man's daughter, Iris. Iris marries her fiancé, Frank Brennan, a police detective. They need money and Frank accepts payoffs from Dutch, who is forming a gang of his own. After getting rid of Legs, Mad Dog Coll and others standing in his way, Dutch again makes a play for Iris, but she learns that he killed her father and begins to drink. Frank vows to reform and win her back. Betraying his pal Bo to the mob, Dutch discovers that a hit has been put out on himself as wel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The George Raft Story
''The George Raft Story'' is a 1961 American biographical film of Hollywood film star George Raft. Ray Danton portrays Raft and the film was directed by Joseph M. Newman. The picture was retitled ''Spin of a Coin'' for release in the United Kingdom, a reference to Raft's character's nickel-flipping trick in '' Scarface'' (1932), the film that launched Raft's career as an actor known for portraying gangsters. The film is a largely fictionalized version of Raft's turbulent life and career. Neville Brand appears briefly as Al Capone, recreating his role from the 1959 television series ''The Untouchables''. Although other characters were fictional, Moxie was based on Raft's long-time friend and associate Mack Gray. Benjamin 'Bugsy' Siegel is a major character. No mention is made in the film of Raft's long-estranged wife Grayce (Mulrooney) or early mob benefactor Owney Madden. George Raft and Mack Gray had played themselves almost two decades earlier in a markedly different but eq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Evans (producer)
Robert Evans (born Robert J. Shapera; June 29, 1930October 26, 2019) was an American film producer, studio executive, and actor, best known for his work on '' Rosemary's Baby'' (1968), '' Love Story'' (1970), ''The Godfather'' (1972), and ''Chinatown'' (1974). Evans began his career in a successful business venture with his brother, selling women's apparel. In 1956, while on a business trip, he was by chance spotted by actress Norma Shearer, who thought he would be right to play the role of her late husband Irving Thalberg in '' Man of a Thousand Faces'' (1957). Thus he began a brief film acting career. In 1962, Evans went into film producing instead, using his accumulated wealth from the clothing business, and began a meteoric rise in the industry. He was made head of Paramount Pictures in 1967. While there, he improved the ailing Paramount's fortunes through a string of commercially and critically acclaimed films. In 1974, he stepped down to produce films on his own. In 1980 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucky Luciano
Charles "Lucky" Luciano (, ; born Salvatore Lucania ; November 24, 1897 – January 26, 1962) was an Italian-born gangster who operated mainly in the United States. Luciano started his criminal career in the Five Points gang and was instrumental in the development of the National Crime Syndicate. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime in the United States for the establishment of The Commission (mafia), The Commission in 1931, after he abolished the capo di tutti capi, boss of bosses title held by Salvatore Maranzano following the Castellammarese War. He was also the first official crime boss, boss of the modern Genovese crime family. In 1936, Luciano was tried and convicted for forced prostitution, compulsory prostitution and running a prostitution racket after years of investigation by District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey. He was sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison, but during World War II an agreement was struck with the Department of the Navy through his J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank De Kova
Frank de Kova (March 17, 1910 – October 15, 1981) was an American character actor in films, stage, and TV. Biography De Kova was born in New York City. He was a teacher at a school in New York before joining a Shakespeare repertory group. He made his Broadway debut in ''Detective Story'', and was discovered by director Elia Kazan. Moving to Hollywood, he appeared in ''Viva Zapata!'' (1952) as the Mexican Colonel, and '' The Big Sky'' (1952) with Kirk Douglas. He played Abiram in ''The Ten Commandments'', appeared in ''Cowboy'' (1958) with Glenn Ford and Jack Lemmon, and in '' The Mechanic'' (1972) with Charles Bronson and Jan-Michael Vincent and the Ralph Bakshi film ''American Pop''. He did much television work, including a role as Mafia hitman Jimmy Napoli in the ABC crime drama, ''The Untouchables'', and an occasional recurring role in ''Gunsmoke'' as "Tobeel", a Kiowa Indian who is a friend of Marshal Matt Dillon. His best-known television role was as "Chief Wild Eagle" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gordon Jones (actor)
Gordon Wynnivo Jones (April 5, 1912 – June 20, 1963) was an American character actor, a member of John Wayne's informal acting company best known for playing Lou Costello's TV nemesis "Mike the Cop" and appearing as The Green Hornet in the first of two movie serials based on that old-time radio program. Career Iowa-born Jones had been a student athlete and star football guard ("Bull" Jones) at University of California, Los Angeles, and had also played a few seasons of professional football. He started out playing small roles in Wesley Ruggles' and Ernest B. Schoedsack's ''The Monkey's Paw'' (1933), his first credited role in Sam Wood's ''Let 'Em Have It'' (1935), and Sidney Lanfield's '' Red Salute'' (1935). By 1937, he had moved on to a contract at RKO Radio Pictures. In 1940, Jones had the title role in ''The Green Hornet'' but did not reprise the role in the sequel. Jones held a reserve commission in the Army and was called into the service after filming his roles as " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mad Dog Coll
Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll (born Uinseann Ó Colla, July 20, 1908 – February 8, 1932) was an Irish-American mob hitman in the 1920s and early 1930s in New York City. Coll gained notoriety for the allegedly accidental killing of a young child during a mob kidnap attempt. Early years Coll was born in Gweedore, an Irish-speaking district, in County Donegal in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland. He was related to the notorious Curran family, and his family emigrated to the U.S. the following year as steerage passengers on board the S/S ''Columbia'', sailing from port of Londonderry to the port of New York, April 3 to 12, 1909. Coll was a distant relative of the former Northern Ireland Assemblywoman Bríd Rodgers. At age 12, Coll was first sent to a reform school. After being expelled from multiple Catholic reform schools, he joined The Gophers street gang. Run-ins with the law were almost inevitable. Vincent soon developed a reputation for being a wild child of the street ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prohibition In The United States
In the United States from 1920 to 1933, a Constitution of the United States, nationwide constitutional law prohibition, prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol industry was curtailed by a succession of state legislatures, and finally ended nationwide under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on January 16, 1919. Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 5, 1933. Led by Pietism, pietistic Protestantism in the United States, Protestants, prohibitionists first attempted to end the trade in alcoholic drinks during the 19th century. They aimed to heal what they saw as an ill society beset by alcohol-related problems such as alcoholism, Domestic violence, family violence, and Saloon bar, saloon-based political corruption. Many communities introduced al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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