Mania Grade: B
Disc Grade: B+
Reviewed Format: DVD
Rated: R
Stars: Malcolm McDowell, David Thewlis, Paul Bettany, Saffron Burrows
Writer: Johnny Ferguson
Director: Paul McGuigan
Distributor: MGM Home Entertainment
Original Year of Release: 2000
Retail Price: $31.99
Extras: widescreen anamorphic and fullscreen; Dolby Digital 5.1; featurette; deleted scene; commentary; trailers

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GANGSTER NO. 1

Though his performance in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE will give him immortality, Malcolm McDowell has subsequently suffered a rash of uninspired typecasting that has left the once promising actor a shell of what could have been. Long gone are the days of ...IF, O LUCKY MAN and even TIME AFTER TIME, and instead we're given STAR TREK: GENERATIONS (hey, it's an odd numbered one), TANK GIRL (OK, so this film has its supporters, all five of them) and MOON 44 - all featuring a creaky, by the numbers McDowell that seems to scream "just give me my paycheck droogie." Well, just as the sewer water of this second career in toilet bowl films seemed ready to drown our poor hero, along comes GANGSTER NO. 1, which is hands down the best movie McDowell's been in over the last twenty years. Not that that's heavy praise.

GANGSTER NO. 1 begins with our nameless Gangster (McDowell) recalling the events that put him into prominence, with a primary focus on one Freddie Mays (David Thewlis). Mays used to be the top dog and back in 1968 he brought our young nameless Gangster (Paul Bettany) into his fold. This was to prove a very unfortunate decision on Mr. Mays' part, as our Gangster is a ruthless power seeker with only too greedy eyes on Mr. Mays' spot.

GANGSTER NO. 1 is a lopsided affair. The first two thirds, which focus on the Gangster's rise to power, is an electric experience with an exhilarating performance by Mr. Bettany, given a hearty dose of nitrous from McDowell's voiceover narration. The final third introduces us to the Gangster's guilt and insecurity, which comes as rather a shock after the bravado-laced back story. Here the film meanders about for a half an hour with McDowell unable to match Mr. Bettany's height. During McDowell's interactions with characters we've met in the back story, all played by the same actors except the Gangster, it becomes rather painfully apparent that Mr. McDowell is a good six to eight inches shorter then Mr. Bettany. Of course we could pretend that this is simply symbolic of the Gangster's withered soul, but really, couldn't they have given Mr. McDowell lifts? Of interest to those who care about such things, Mr. Bettany doesn't so much resemble a young Malcolm McDowell as much as a young David Warner, who is tall by the way; since these two thespians have become practically interchangeable since they appeared together in TIME AFTER TIME one wonders why Mr. Warner wasn't called in instead. (I'll answer my own pondering: because then all the CLOCKWORK ORANGE allusions wouldn't make any sense here.)

Visually the film drops out in the final third with all the retro '60s experimental film techniques suddenly disappearing so that the film can gain a made-for-TV sheen.

The film as a whole suffers from a sense that director Paul McGuigan isn't quite sure how to handle the material. For example, at one point McDowell directly addresses the audience, but then never repeats this playful behavior; then there's also the aforementioned stylistic shift between the era of the young Gangster and the old. What one gets is a movie that really doesn't know how it wants to dress and its outfit's components are best viewed on their own individual merit rather than by taking in the ensemble as a whole - but there is a nasty playfulness about the style to make one want to take multiple glances.

Released on DVD by MGM, GANGSTER NO. 1 gets a nice transfer with good sound along with a few nifty perks.

First up the disc contains a making-of featurette that is basically an ad. Next are the theatrical and TV trailers. The TV trailer sports the poster artwork for the U.S. release of the film some two years after its British debut that made McDowell look like Anthony Hopkins - sneaky. Rounding out the perks is a commentary track by director McGuigan and you can really tell that he belongs to the cult of McDowell fans. (Which should be growing by three with the upcoming release of I SPY.)