A Test of Walter Matthau's Early Star Power -- Could He Survive This?

Given how totally amateur the production is with regard to "Gangster Story" -- the dubbed dialogue track, the insipid "canned music" that sounds like something between Leave it to Beaver and an industrial school film...one wonders: WHY did Walter Matthau want to direct this? It seems to have been a labor of love.

In 1959, Matthau was a not leading man yet -- and he wasn't really even a "major" character guy(that would come with Lonely are the Brave in 1962, followed by Charade and a few others before The Fortune Cookie made him a star in 1966.)

But Matthau WAS a known actor...he'd been in major films like A Face in the Crowd and Bigger than Life..he clearly had the goods of presence and style.

So its a mystery? Why risk it all to direct something as crummy as Gangster Story?

I can't answer that, but I can say this: as an ACTOR , Matthau survives the movie. His trademark wry delivery is there -- never funnier than when he convinces a couple of real cops to stand still and let him rob a bank(he says he's rehearsing a movie). The dialogue isn't terrible, just "basic." And Matthau sells it seriously. He acts as if he is in a movie that cost a few million dollars to make -- not a few thousand dollars.

Best , maybe are his scenes of flirtation -- and then love -- with the woman who would become his final wife to the end of his life: Carol...uh...Matthau? She was, we see, a pretty woman with a fine figure and she was a serviceable actress who sounded just a bit better because she was paired with Matthau for dramatic scenes and love scenes. Maybe Matthau made this film as a love letter to his wife-to-be.

It has been said that movie acting is the one profession where one's "entry level" jobs are on film and can come back to haunt you. Steve McQueen in "The Blob." Robert Vaughn in "I Was a Teenage Caveman."

Well, for Walter Matthau, it looks like Gangster Story -- made at least five years into his career -- is that movie. Its his entry level job as a director, and Matthau the director let Matthau the actor down.

Still...Matthau the actor is good in this, survived it, and went straight on to stardom.