User reviews

Given its considerable reputation, it seems incredible to me that I've had this film on VHS for over a decade but only now have I gotten round to watching it! Actually, I opted to have a go at it finally after having just watched another James Hadley Chase adaptation - CRIME ON A SUMMER MORNING (1965) - the previous day...but also because, distressingly, many VHS tapes I've had for a very long time are starting to rot on me!!

Made in the wake of the gangster-film revival spawned by the runaway success of BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967), it can also be seen as a companion piece to Roger Corman's BLOODY MAMA (1970). The film was much criticized at the time for its violence - coming in what is perhaps the cinema's most notorious year, with the likes of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, THE DEVILS, DIRTY HARRY, GET CARTER and STRAW DOGS! - but its gallery of grotesques is at least just as disagreeable!! It doesn't really have any sympathetic characters, but "The Grissom Gang" itself is such a lurid menagerie of harridans, dimwits and sleazeballs that one would doubtless need a shower after having spent two hours in this company! For what it's worth, the film is extremely well made (compelling, richly-detailed, exceptionally acted) and even very funny if one is attuned to the director's uniquely absurdist and delirious mind-set.

Still, its general unwholesomeness may well have curtailed Kim Darby's cinematic career - though here she demonstrates remarkable maturity when compared to her fresh-faced sparring with John Wayne in TRUE GRIT (1969). Scott Wilson's role is perhaps the best he ever had (even keeping in mind his impeccable work in both IN COLD BLOOD [1967] and THE NINTH CONFIGURATION [1980]) - though his dumb backwoods hoodlum, alternating between mother-fixation and drooling over Darby, eventually overstays its welcome. Irene Dailey's relentlessly overwrought performance as Ma Grissom (needless to say, the actress' most significant role), then, borders on camp and matches Shelley Winters in BLOODY MAMA. Tony Musante embodies the stylish side of crime with his chic attire and playboy ways, who's bound to clash with Wilson over attractive kidnapped heiress Darby. Also notable in the cast are Connie Stevens as Musante's ill-fated moll, Robert Lansing as the journalist investigating the kidnapping case and Wesley Addy as Darby's contemptuous father (who considers her 'tainted' by the experience and actually doesn't want her back!).

The finale, then, with the majority of the gang decimated at their hide-out - followed by Wilson's come-uppance outside a barn (after having spent the night with Darby for the last time) is appropriately vivid. By the way, the novel on which this is based had been filmed in Britain in 1948 under its original title, "No Orchids For Miss Blandish", but that version is only remembered - if at all - for how bad it actually was!

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.

I especially love the 1970's film making era, and with a seasoned director such as Robert Aldrich managing the cameras, I was sure I would not be disappointed with the Grissom Gang. The opening panoramic scene which takes place at a gas station/general store was vintage 1970's film making style, and I thought the film was off to a great start.

The movie takes place in the 1930's era and stars Kim Darby as Barbara Blandish who plays a rich and spoiled heiress who is kidnapped by a crew of semi smart gangsters who are led by a tough talking Ma Grissom played by Irene Dailey. Ma Grissom's slow witted son Slim Grissom who has never had physical contact of any kind with the opposite sex becomes infatuated with their kidnap victim Barbara. While in captivity Barbara is shown several times screaming her rich pretty little head off, thus the scream queen summary. The dim witted Slim takes a lot of verbal abuse from the other gang members as they like to make fun of his so called friendship with Barbara when in fact they know that after the ransom is paid, they will have to dispose of Barbara as she is the only living witness to their crime.

No plot is complete without including a weasel eyed gang member in the story line and who better to play this part than the venerable character actor Tony Musante who plays Eddie Hagan. Eddie expresses that he is more than up to the task of killing Barbara when the time is right because he knows how much that will just torment Slim who has fallen in love with Barbara.

As the law closes in on the gang, Barbara continues to try and escape and Slim promises to protect his new found love from the other gang members. Tempers flare amongst the gang members, and the audience is anticipating one of those great Bonnie and Clyde shootouts with the law. Director Robert Aldrich includes a number of car chases and shoot outs in the Grissom Gang, the three main characters are exposed to the audience for who they are and who they believe in. I wouldn't want to spoil a good ending so you will just have to watch it. I would not call this a great movie, but it is certainly worth a Sunday matinée watch. I give it a 6 out of 10, and I thank Robert Aldrich for another good film on his extensive resume which includes the classic and hard to find on DVD Choirboys, as well as box office bonanzas The Longest Yard, and the Dirty Dozen.

The Grissom Gang should have been a great film. WIth its vicious comic sense, hard-boiled crime story and Gothic overtones, and of course its episodes of wild violence, this would have made a wonderful 80 minute B-movie. Unfortunately, at 125 minutes, it's way overlong. The middle seems to go on and on, during which not much happens beyond the ersatz courting of the kidnap victim by her psycho-hick kidnapper. Within any one scene, the pacing is rather good, creating a tension that leads one on for at least one viewing; but the pacing scene-to-scene is atrocious, and there are a lot of scenes that should have been cut or reduced to mere snippets. The role of the private detective should have been broader, but he doesn't really figure into the story until the final third and by then there's no real reason to get interested in his point of view. The kidnap victim's changes of heart are not well handled, partly because the role is given to Kim Darby, an unattractive actress of limited range. The acting throughout is intentionally over the top, rather as we saw from the AIP gangster films of the same era (eg., St. Valentine's Day Massacre and Bloody Mama), but those films used the broad performances to quicken the pace. Here the saggy pacing allows the camp of the performances to appear unintentional and thus flawed. Aldritch, taking his cue from the imprisonment of the kidnap victim, has given the film a sense of stuffy claustrophobia - most of the film seems to take place in small rooms. If the film were shorter and the drama heightened by more focused performances, this could have been effective, but as it is, one rushes to the window gasping for air after the movie's over. Finally, one has to note the confusing soundtrack which, though original, manages to sound cut-and-paste.

Aldritch can certainly take credit for the best of the film, but he has to take blame for the worst of it as well. He seems to be trying to make James Hadley Chase into another William Faulkner, and I'm afraid that can't be done. Aldritch needed to let Chase be Chase and make a tight slam-bang actioner; if he wanted to do Faulkner's "Sanctuary," he should have bought the rights to that novel instead.

If a movie deserves the definition of hard-boiled, this is "Grissom Gang". The characters seem to know just a way to face any problem, either major or minor: kill, kill, kill. The setting in the rural, poor Midwest in the years of Depression is both evocative and grinding: it gives the audience a feeling of bleakness and unavoidable violence. The story is carefully constructed, exciting, full of suspense. The characters are very well shaped, much care is given to details. The direction by Aldrich is superb: the action scenes are beautifully filmed, the timing is admirable. In the development of the plot we don't find those failures of strain, digressions and intervals of bore which were so common in the movies of those years, under pretension of style. All the actors' performances are outstanding. Scott Wilson draws, with masterly acting, the extraordinary character of Slim Grissom. At first, he seems just a half-witted hooligan, but we quickly realize that he is the toughest of them all, looking at other characters' behavior: they are all scared of him, even his gang mates. Actually, the smart gangster Tony Musante seems to take fun in teasing the stupid Slim: but it is clear that this is by no means a good idea. Wilson's acting gives likelihood to Grissom's possessive, infantile, somewhat touching love for Miss Blandish (Kim Darby). He states that, to save her, he is ready to kill his own mother: we have already learned to never underestimate his words. Kim Darby deserves a special mention, in the role of the spoiled girl who learns to survive at all costs, sexual abuse included. She is great here, she was extraordinary in "True Grit": I wonder why she didn't become a major Hollywood star. Despite some minor faults, "Grissom Gang" is excellent, by far better, in my opinion, of other celebrated movies of the same rural-America-gangster genre, such as Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde", Altman's "Thieves like us", Corman's "Bloody Mama".

Robert Aldrich's lurid film has a lot going for it and a lot not going for it. On the plus side there is a dynamite performance by Kim Darby as a kidnap victim who may or may not be starting to enjoy her grim predicament. On the minus side, the gang of kidnappers, a Ma Barker-type and her motley brood, simply is not threatening ENOUGH to make you believe Darby is in a lot of danger. I couldn't help wondering why she didn't just up and leave. Another deficit is the TV-movie feel of the whole thing -- this is definitely NOT Aldrich's most stylish film. Irene Dailey is fine as the mother, but it would have been more fun had the role been played by Cloris Leachman or Shelley Winters. Featuring Scott Wilson, Tony Musante, Robert Lansing and, in a brief but foul-mouthed cameo, Connie Stevens!

A disappointing adaptation of a James Chase novel (which I have read, incidentally). It's a cheap, mostly badly cast production, with an incredibly choppy beginning, and full of poorly-drawn characters that don't make much of an impression on the viewer. The one important exception is the character of Slim Grissom; neurotic, explosively unpredictable and complicated, this guy functions like a human-size time-bomb. Scott Wilson's convincing, excellent performance in the role elevates this movie, which, however, still should have been much better. (**)

The Grissom Gang is the best film based on a James Hadley Chase novel hands down! Been awhile since I saw it but it's as great as when I saw it the first time. It was a surprise when I realized that Slim was played by Maggie's dad from The Walking Dead (Scott Wilson). He is such a great actor!

The word subtle would not come to mind while describing "The Grissom Gang". What would come to mind is the phrase "over the top". The movie seems excessive in both it's violence and length. Shoot first, and never consider any consequences, is the gang's mode of operation. Almost everything seems to revolve around "Ma Grissom", a frightful Mother, played to bone chilling perfection by Irene Dailey. Occasional dark humor breaks the violence, but ultimately this is more a character study of a dysfunctional family, and none of the characters including the kidnapped heiress and her monstrous Father, are remotely likable. - MERK

Robert Aldrich's brutal, quasi-black comedy "The Grissom Gang", a reworking of the 1948 British film "No Orchids For Miss Blandish", has 1920s heiress Kim Darby kidnapped by a pack of clumsy thieves; soon, that gang is dispatched and poor Kim is then transferred into the clutches of another crooked bunch--third-rate gangster brothers with sweaty, pasty faces and a mother who looks like Buddy Ebsen in drag. At first, Darby (not very plucky, and not very smart) attempts to escape this drooling brood, but they're onto her. Eventually she just gives up trying, and therein lies the trouble with the story. Are we in the audience supposed to sympathize with her? Is her growing concern for the family half-wit supposed to be heartwarming? These are disgusting, cretinous characters, and I wanted to see as little of them as possible. But since the side-stories (the progress of the cops on the case and another one involving floozy-singer Connie Stevens) are rather dull, the director has no choice but to keep foisting those sweaty faces on us. Pretty soon, nervous Darby starts sweating too, although her scene up in the hayloft is sensitively performed and Aldrich's climactic moments are thought-provoking, if disorganized. ** from ****

Man, is this an early 70's movie or what?? Made around the time realistic brutality and violence were embraced, this film makes sure you embrace it too. The camera stays on the murder victims for a long period of time and makes sure the blood is red, REALLY red. Machine gun riddled bodies litter this fun mess of a movie. At the height of Kim Darby's fame, she gives it her all, desperately trying to make ridiculously written scenes work with Scott Wilson, who chews up the garishly decorated scenery. (Wilson's work with Robert Blake in IN Cold Blood still ranks as some of the finest in American film). The actress playing Ma is so over-the-top you gotta love it. It lookslike she was directed with Think Bette Davis!! She snarls, whoops, shouts, I even think they give her a moustache. And boy do they sweat in this movie. The lighting is designed to bring it out and everybody sweats. The cops sweat, the gangsters sweat, the stoolies sweat, even Connie Stevens sweats!

I fell In love with this film first time i watched it. Made in 70s but supposedly set in the 30s its fascinating to watch. There isn't a dull moment and the acting all round is top notch especially Scott Wilson with his dark side but then broken as he's fallen straight in love with their ransom victim.. I have to agree she may not really have been the prettiest choice for the character and her looks get real bad as that hair gets fuzzy but she really does give a all out performance especially with the ending so acting wise she was right for the role. The rest of the gag all play their parts well. Tony has that attractive but sleazy quality and Ma is surprisingly quite a hard nut. Can only imagine life back then What gets me though is it looks like the gang already had plenty. Nice home decent food on table and booze when they want so they didn't really need this heist. The set pieces are great but show how relentless people were back then but also that the country was so much more beautiful and natural. The most evil character turns out to be Barbara's dad. A good film and cast should have won awards in my tip 3 gangster fis I've not seen the original British version yet I don't think or miggtve part seen it but I've never got bored everytime I've watched this on repeat.

Nice DVD box artwork, yes? And I think Aldrich has an intriguing personal story. I have a good amount of respect for Aldrich's Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, and I think Kiss Me Deadly is more intriguing then good. The Big Knife however is dreadful. So Aldrich has a spotty record.

So how's The Grissom Gang? Feeble, amateurish, plodding, clichéd. The un-cast-able talents of Kim Darby are seen here. She's kidnapped before the credits (with a cheesy overdesigned typeface) are even over, and then the movie enters a holding pattern, before coming to a complete standstill. Some people hit the '70s and thrived. Others hit the '70s and it was all over.

I picked this up this for $1.98 based on my esteem for Aldrich. There's still no way around it- it's terrible.

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 better Patty Hearst movie than the ones actually made about Patty Hearst. not quite up there with the likes of Bonnie and Clyde and Thieves Like Us, but definitely worth seeing as an example of the 1970's ambivalence about anti-social characters and crime. the reviews make quite a big deal about the violence but you will hardly notice it--a great deal of shooting, some of that orange glop they used in the 1970s, but hardly emotionally wrenching like, say, The Wild Bunch or Texas Chainsaw Massacre...great performance by Scott Wilson who shows up on TV a lot these days.

Spartacus Super Bowl compares The Grissom Gang to an Oliver Stone film without the quality of writing or cinematic craft. Hyped-up, morally ambivalent people in action without contemplation.

Mickey and Mallory would have felt right at home in that psychedelic love-nest up over the downtown club, though.

This little gem of a film was treated as exploitation trash, but a fascinating kidnapping tale with unrequited love and dysfunctional family relations. Scott Wilson (so brilliant in In Cold Blood) is incredible as Slim, the lonely offbeat member of the gang who is somewhat understood (but very edgy). Throw in Kim Darby, Tony Musante, Irene Dailey (more demented than she was in Five Easy Pieces), and Joey Faye as Woppy, how wrong can you go?

There's a good sense of time period. This film is nothing compared to Bonnie and Clyde, but closer to Thieves Like Us. Connie Stevens is an added attraction. Give these folks a chance. Rated 7 out of 10.

Faithfully adapted from the James Hadley Chase's novel, except concerning the very end, this movie from director Bob Aldrich is a film where you deal, besides Kim Darby, mainly with scoundrels, gangsters, villains, or disillusioned, hopeless, cynical characters; as in most James Hadley Chases' stories. Don't search for any good, positive character here. The only thing is greed, except the love interest of Scott Wilson's character for the beautiful hostage. As in the Chase's novel, and this love interest is nearly strange, quirky, compared to the greedy, ruthless, violent atmosphere of this movie. Kim Darby is not at her best, unlike Tony Musante, fairly convincing in a gangster role. Some moving, gripping scenes though, between the mad killer and the kidnapped girl.

The Grissom Gang is the story of a criminal hillbilly family during the 1920's that kidnap the daughter of a millionaire and hold her for ransom. Unfortunately, what follows is one of the dullest gangster movies I have ever seen. It seems that Robert Aldrich tried to add some humor to the story which is also unfunny. None of the actors stand out as particularly good with the exception of Aldrich favorite Wesley Addy who I thought was quite good. The story is uninteresting and there is next to no action until the end at which point I was mostly just waiting to see the credits and be done. Aldrich is a fine director, but this is just not one worth watching. * out of ****