J.D., der Killer

1960

The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond is a 1960 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.

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 a vacation, he sees in the newspaper that the New York underworld has changed with the National Prohibition Act. Legs returns to America and confronts the syndicate, demanding a cut from their operations. He kicks Alice out of his life and turns to Monica, who betrays him. Hit men enter his hotel room and shoot him dead. In the final scene, as his corpse is being removed on a stretcher, Alice says he was loved by many but that he loved nobody.

Frank de Kova's role is only listed as "The Chairman" of the new crime syndicate. He was portraying Lucky Luciano, but as Luciano was alive at the time, it was decided not to name him specifically.

The lead role was first offered to Robert Evans. When he turned it down Warner Bros. Television contract star Ray Danton took the lead. Evans also had turned down the lead for The George Raft Story that Danton also played.[1]

Danton reprised his role as Legs Diamond in Portrait of a Mobster (1961).

Boetticher said the only actors he truly hated in his life were Gilbert Roland and Ray Danton. He says he wanted to make a film like The Triumph of the Will ("the greatest picture I ever saw") "about one of the most despicable men of all time, Adolf Hitler. So I want to make a picture about a miserable, no good son-of-a-bitch that when you walk out of the theater, you say, "God, wasn't he great!" And then you take two steps, and you say, "wait a minute, he was a miserable son-of-a-bitch!"[2]

He researched the film, found out all Diamond had done "and when I went back to Warner's and told them everything I'd learned, they wouldn't let me make the picture! So we had to clean it up a bit. We had twenty-four days on that; it was a good picture. "[2]

From Howard Thompson of The New York Times:

After he saw the film, guitarist Hank Marvin was inspired to give the name of the film to his The Rise and Fall of Flingel Bunt.[4]

In 2008, the American Film Institute nominated this film for its Top 10 Gangster Films list.[5]

The film was adapted as a musical titled Legs Diamond that debuted on Broadway at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on December 26, 1988, and it closed on February 19, 1989 after 64 performances and 72 previews.[6]

Quelle: Wikipedia(englisch)
Kinostart:03.02.1960 in New York City
15.05.1960 in Japan
29.06.1960 in Argentinien
28.07.1960 in Mexiko
29.07.1960 in Dänemark
12.10.1960 in Frankreich
24.11.1960 in Deutschland
10.03.1961 in Finnland
12.02.1962 in Uruguay
15.03.1965 in Spanien
weitere Titel:
La Chute d'un caïd
The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond sh ast cy
Jack Diamond gangster
鑽石腳之起落zh-hant
钻石脚之起落zh-cn zh-hans
暗黒街の帝王レッグス・ダイヤモンド
金鑽盟zh
J.D., der Killer
Genre:Kriminalfilm, Filmbiografie, Film noir
Herstellungsland:Vereinigte Staaten
Originalsprache:Englisch
Farbe:Schwarzweiß
IMDB: 1321
Verleih:Warner Bros. Entertainment
Regie:Budd Boetticher
Kamera:Lucien Ballard
Schnitt:Folmar Blangsted
Musik:Leonard Rosenman
Produzent:Milton Sperling
Darsteller:Ray Danton
Karen Steele
Elaine Stewart
Frank De Kova
Gordon Jones
Jesse White
Judson Pratt
Robert Lowery
Simon Oakland
Warren Oates
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Rezensionen:

1961
Academy Awards
Oscar
Best Costume Design, Black-and-White
Nominiert
Datenstand: 07.11.2023 21:49:49Uhr