Al Capone (1959) on Netflix
Approved19591h 44mBiographyCrimeDrama
Chicago, 1919: Al Capone takes work as a bodyguard for the racketeer Johnny Torrio. A year later, Prohibition sets Torrio and other gangsters competing over bootleg liquor and beer.
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- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.7/102,176 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Al Capone, a small-time hood, arrives in Chicago in 1919 to serve as bodyguard to the racketeer Johnny Torrio. Through Torrio he meets Big Jim Colosimo, Torrio's top man in the First Ward, who runs its business and politics and secretly takes Torrio's money. A year later Prohibition becomes the law of the land, and profits from bootleg liquor and beer put Torrio and gangsters such as Dean O'Banion, George "Bugs" Moran and Earl "Hymie" Weiss in competition with one another. Colosimo, too old and too comfortable in his existing rackets for the new liquor trade, wants no part of it.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Al Capone (1959)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Al Capone's sister sued the filmmakers for $10 million, saying they had not secured her permission and had invaded her privacy. The judge ruled in the filmmakers' favor, adding that he found the picture "crude, worthless trash."
- Rod Steiger reportedly refused the producers' first offer to play Al Capone, feeling the screenplay romanticized Capone and criminality, and claimed he turned the role down three times. He agreed only after the producers agreed to rewrite the script.
- Films based on the lives of real-life gangsters had been banned under the Production Code, but the ban was lifted in the late 1950s, leading to films such as Baby Face Nelson (1957).
