1959's "The Purple Gang" was an Allied Artists take on a real life gang of juvenile mobsters terrorizing the Detroit underworld of the 20s and early 30s. Largely a work of fiction with plenty of stock footage narrated by Barry Sullivan's Police Lt. Harley to allow for some authenticity but so far as gangster pictures go this one is pretty routine. The one standout is former child actor Robert Blake as Purple Gang leader 'Honey Boy' Willard, heading straight for the big time with a protection racket aimed at Canadian bootlegging, then a shakedown of local laundry businesses which forces the Mafia to show its hand in the fray. Even women aren't safe from their brutality, from Harley's pregnant wife (Elaine Edwards) to the attractive social worker (Jody Lawrance) whose psychobabble was previously a thorn in Harley's side, later executed between the eyes by a would be rapist who knows she can finger every culprit. There's nothing new to distinguish it from previous, better known efforts, only Blake's claustrophobic sociopath to help it stand out at all, 8 years before his more chilling turn in Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood."
Review of The Purple Gang
