THE RISE AND FALL OF LEGS DIAMOND

An unsentimental and inaccurate Warner Bros. action-packed biopic on ruthless 20’s gangster Jack “Legs” Diamond, nick-named Legs because he was a dancer. Budd Boetticher directs the crime drama as if it were one of his B-Westerns, and seems to have no other concern than showing that the titular character was a cold-hearted sicko who didn’t care about anyone but himself and would eliminate anybody who stood in his way. Ray Danton brilliantly plays the psychopathic gangster with an unreserved volatility, always coiled like a rattle snake ready to strike. Lucien Ballard provides the vintage glossy black-and-white photography. (Dennis Schwartz)