GANGSTER NO. 1

By: Abbie Bernstein
Review Date: Friday, June 21, 2002

GANGSTER NO. 1 is a British crime film with a full-tilt attitude, excellent performances, intriguing psychological insights and a pretty tight plot that sometimes trips over its own stylishness. On the whole, fans of the genre will find it bracing.

Malcolm McDowell stars as the unnamed Gangster, who has been on top of his corner of the London crime scene for the last 30 years, ever since Freddie Mays (David Thewlis) was put away for murder. However, Freddie is finally being set free, causing the Gangster to reflect on his rise and Freddie's fall. As a young man (played by Paul Bettany), our humble narrator hero-worshipped Freddie, who seemed all things classy and powerful to a lad just learning the ropes. A natural cunning, enthusiasm and willingness to do anything impress Freddie, who elevates his new hire within the organization. The young gangster's adoration of his boss may be more than strictly professional certainly jealousy comes into the picture when Freddie becomes involved with nightclub hostess Karen (Saffron Burrows). The gangster sees a way to exploit Freddie's rivalry with other crime bosses to his own advantage, getting back at Freddie for perceived slights and dodging painful feelings all in one go.

Adapted from a stage play by Louis Mellis and David Scinto, GANGSTER NO. 1 in some ways reflects its theatrical origins while in others refutes them entirely. Director Paul McGuigan and screenwriter Johnny Ferguson have opened up the action less in moving scenes from location to location as they unfold this is done, but it's not the focus than in using the camera to intensify incidents in ways simply not possible on stage, where point of view remains a fixed size. When the Gangster as a young man goes wild during a torture/murder session, he is in our face, terrifying and pitiable yet quiet in a way that's only possible when a camera is involved.

Although Bettany has the lion's share of screen time as the young Gangster, McDowell's sneering narration makes his presence felt throughout, reminding us of the old monster's soul already lurking behind the young man's hurt and ambition. The two actors are an astonishingly good match for one another, with Bettany convincing us he's the real youthful version of the older man we see a tough job, given McDowell's real, indelible onscreen presence over the past three-and-a-half decades.



This actually creates one of GANGSTER's more noticeable distractions. Having McDowell be the one to provide the character's insinuating comments to the audience, appealing for sympathy even as he unfolds his brutal tale, invites us to recall similar narration in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. This is fair enough McDowell is perfect for the role and the style and intended effect require precisely this kind of character overview but a sequence in which young Gangster gleefully batters a man in his apartment while soothing old music is crooned on the stereo and use of long-nosed half-masks elsewhere kick the comparison into overdrive. Unless GANGSTER is intended as specific commentary on CLOCKWORK which seems unlikely, as the newer film seems largely sure of its own identity reminding us on occasion so pointedly of a particular cinematic predecessor and that our narrator isn't really the character but is instead an actor with a long career behind him serves mainly to temporarily remove us from the drama at hand.

This seems especially odd as the themes in GANGSTER are largely different than those in CLOCKWORK. This isn't a movie about the disintegration of the social order overall, but more about the fit of a certain kind of personality to the criminal lifestyle THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY seen from a different viewpoint. McGuigan and Ferguson largely hold our attention with well-applied tension and a swift pace. Thewlis is charismatic, scary and tender as Freddie we see both how he commands fear and why his underling suspects that he's really vulnerable.

The final confrontation seems to linger a little longer than necessary we get the point before the film finishes underscoring it but for the most part, this is punchy, effective film noir, elevated by some outstanding acting from the three leads.

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