Actually didn't have many reasons to see 'The Grissom Gang'. It popped up in my recommended for you section, being on a roll with seeing many films of the genre and loving older films. Did think though that it was an odd recommendation, seeing as it is nothing like any of the other films. My other main reason was Robert Aldrich, who had a dark imagination, who did make some very good films, such as 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane', 'Attack' and from memory 'Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte'.

'The Grissom Gang' really isn't one of Aldrich's best films sadly. Actually for me it's one of his worst and doesn't have enough of his style, so it doesn't really feel like it was directed by him. The film does showcase lead actress Kim Darby, best known to me as the lead actress opposite John Wayne in 'True Grit', very well and she is easily one of the better things about this pretty mediocre efforts that has too many flaws to recommend it. Sorry to anybody that disagrees.

Much of the acting, even with the problematic character writing and script that the actors rise above valiantly, is very well done. Darby was seldom this dynamite and there are standout performances from Scott Wilson and Irene Daily, especially Daily with some bone-chilling moments.

Did feel that there were moments of genuine grit, with some darkly humorous moments. Aldrich's dark imagination sometimes shines and the music is decent enough. The ending also picks up finally but sadly it takes a long time to get there.

However, most of Aldrich's direction feels rushed and indifferent and 'The Grissom Gang' is shot with a cheap made for television look. The villains are pretty cartoonish in writing and are more buffoonish than sinister. It doesn't start off particularly promisingly, quite choppy, and the very leaden middle act feels endless. There could have been a lot more tension and suspense, the dull pacing and muddled tone compromising things.

It doesn't feel particularly focused tonally, never seeming to be properly sure as to whether be comedy or thriller. 'The Grissom Gang' attempts both in less than seamless shifts and does so with only sporadically amusing moments in a mostly turgid script and nowhere near enough thrills.

Summing up, rather lacklustre. 4/10

A few years before Patty Hearst was kidnapped and then joined her kidnappers on their crime spree we had The Grissom Gang. Based on a British film and book the scene shifts from working class Great Britain to the midwest of the Depression.

Kim Darby light years from Mattie Ross in True Grit plays the spoiled debutante daughter of Wesley Addy who gets kidnapped after the first gang that kidnaps her botches a robbery and kills the man with her. Then The Grissom Gang kills the original bunch and takes over. Addy pays the ransom, but his daughter doesn't come home.

The brains behind this crew is Ma Grissom who is played with extreme malevolence by Irene Dailey. She wants her killed, but her lunkhead son Scott Wilson wants her for his very own. He's not real good with the social skills.

At first Darby is playing for time, but eventually she works out a strange relationship with Wilson. She knows he's keeping her alive and for the first time it isn't because of her wealth that he's interested in her. A new experience for her even though she's the object of the affection of a stone cold killer very expert with a knife.

The Grissom Gang is one of the bloodiest films I've ever seen so if your taste runs to violence this is the film for you. It also really captures the essence of Kansas City in the 20s, a very wide open town run by political boss Tom Pendergast.

Scott Wilson turns in the best performance. It's a difficult part because you never forget he's a killer. But you almost feel sorry for him with his lack of social skills and his puppy love crush on Kim Darby. There's also good role for Robert Lansing who plays a private detective who unravels the whole mystery about Kim Darby's whereabouts.

All in all a good gangster film is The Grissom Gang.

The 1948 British film, "No Orchids For Miss Blandish", is sometimes listed on compilations of the worst films ever made, mainly because its content was so violent that it ended up being banned and deeply criticized at the time. By the time of this gritty and ugly remake, so much had changed in the world of cinema that violence was almost expected to bring in the desirable audiences. It is certainly watchable and sometimes even unintentionally funny, but some aspects of it had me rolling my eyes at its absurdities. The film starts with the stalking of socialite Kim Darby and her athlete hero boyfriend, resulting in his unnecessary murder and her kidnapping. The men, mostly all part of the Grissom Gang, who kidnap her don't realize at first who she is, but once they have figured out that she's the daughter of the extremely wealthy and powerful Wesley Addy, they realize that she's worth hanging onto simply for the million dollars they can get for her, a price put on her by their nasty controlling mother (Irene Dailey) who intends to have Darby killed as soon as they get the cash. But one of the brothers (Scott Wise) becomes obsessed with her, deciding that any brother (or mother) who tries to harm her will become his own victim, resulting in an ugly road for everybody in this Barker like family.

I found Kim Darby to be completely miscast as the beauty of Kansas City society who gets headlines in the society page yet would probably never win a beauty pageant unless pop paid the judges to vote for her. However, in the scenes where Wise ogles her and begs for a kiss, she does become very convincing in her fear and disgust. The confrontation between Darby and Dailey after Darby is cruel to Wise shows the versatility of veteran Broadway actress Dailey (the original mother in "The Subject Was Roses") who made only infrequent film appearances but is best known as the lovable but meddlesome Aunt Liz (Matthews) for 20 years on the soap opera "Another World". Dailey is definitely a rival to the infamous Ma Barker, who had recently been seen on screen as played by Shelley Winters, and had earlier been played in a fictional version of that gang's story by Blanche Yurka in "Queen of the Mob".

A separate story has Wise's brother Tony Musante going out of his way to silence all the witnesses and his interactions with dizzy moll Connie Stevens who works as a cabaret singer at the nightclub which Dailey and her brood eventually take over. Some of those sequences where witnesses are dispatched are humorously presented, especially with agent Robert Lansing going out of his way to round up witnesses, including Stevens whom he pretends to be a Brodway producer to in order to trap her into giving out information on the Grissoms. The film goes on for about ten minutes too long after a key part of how the Grissoms go down, but it does give an opportunity to humanize the psychotic Wise who easily could have been written as more one dimensional. Under the direction of Robert Aldrich, this is a unique perspective of an often told storyline, but several aspects raised my eyebrows, especially that mod looking room that Wise creates for Darby in the nightclub which looks like it belonged to some 1960's beatnik.