Product Details

• Actors: Steve Cochran, Lita Milan, Robert Strauss, Celia Lovsky, Lili St. Cyr
• Directors: Roger Corman
• Writers: Joseph Hilton Smyth, Steve Fisher
• Producers: Roger Corman, Edward L. Alperson, Gene Corman
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Vci/Ffi
• VHS Release Date: September 8, 1998
• Run Time: 81 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305067562
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #430,808 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "He's been having you tailed, blueprinting every move you've made...he's ordered you rubbed out.", January 14, 2006

By 

cookieman108 "cookieman108®" (Inside the jar...) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gangsters Guns & Floozies Crime Collection: I, Mobster (DVD)

From Sony's Gangsters Guns & Floozies Crime Collection come comes an interesting, albeit overly moralistic, look at the life and times of `the world's most notorious crime boss' in the film I, Mobster (1958), based on a novel by Joseph Hilton Smyth, adapted for the screen by Steve Fisher ("Peter Gunn", "Cannon", "Barnaby Jones"), and co-producer and directed by Roger Corman (It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Machine-Gun Kelly). The film stars Steve Cochran (The Damned Don't Cry, The Big Operator), along with Lita Milan (The Violent Men), and Robert Strauss, probably best known (to me, at least) for his memorable role in the film Stalag 17 (1953), as the character Stanislas 'Animal' Kasava. Also appearing is Celia Lovsky (Man of a Thousand Faces), Corman regular John Brinkley (Teenage Doll, War of the Satellites), and veteran actor of over 200 films Grant Withers (The Fighting Kentuckian, Hoodlum Empire), in his last feature.

The movie opens as we see a character named Joe Sante (Cochran) being grilled by some senate committee members about racketeering, which then transitions into a flashback where we see Joe's humble goomba beginnings in organized crime, as a young lad running bookie collections. Little Joey's got quite the attitude, and vows to his mother, played by Lovsky, someday he'll be a big shot. Eventually Joe lands a job delivering drugs, working under a local boss named Frankie (Strauss), and develops a fixation on a girl from the neighborhood named Teresa (Milan), but things go sour as Joe gets pinched and sent to the can for a year. Upon his release, he makes another vow to his mother how he'll never go to jail again. The syndicate, impressed with Joe's ability to keep his mouth shut and serve his time, rather than turn a dime for a lesser sentence, gives him a contract assignment to rub a mug out, along with a bit more responsibility. Joe's ambition drives him forward, as he develops his own crew (Frankie has now become Joe's right hand man), along with muscling in on lucrative union operations as a freelance labor relations expert, despite protests from his family and friends, particularly his mother and Teresa, to get out of the life, and go straight. Not only do their pleas fall upon deaf ears, but Joe actually brings on Teresa's younger brother Ernie (Brinkley) into the fold (along with goodie goodie Teresa herself), as he needed work due to the fact that he and Teresa's mother has since taken ill. Ernie, lacking a certain amount of self disciple, soon develops some bad habits (including a smack monkey), and Joe learns he's shirking his responsibilities towards his family and cuts him off, but Ernie, knowing what he knows, first tries blackmail, and then finally force...as you might expect, things do not end well for young Ernest. Anyway, as Joe's powerbase grows, his former boss (Withers), now partner, thinks he's getting too big for his britches, and puts a contract out, of which Joe learns about before its carried out, and reacts accordingly, eventually becoming the number one man...getting to the top is one thing, but staying there is something different, and in the end, the realization begins to set in that all that he's gained doesn't quite make up for all he's given up...

This is a pretty decent mob movie, overall. I really liked Steve Cochran in the lead role, as he was generally calm, cool, and collected, never going overboard, as his character seemed to understand the necessity of having a strong presence, but also keeping a modest profile as to fly under the authoritarian radar. As far as the rest of the performers, I thought they all did well enough given the material, which decent, although a bit preachy at times. This aspect is pushed continually throughout the film, and then laid on very thick near the end as Joe's sweet, kindly mother, who at first seemed to turn a blind eye towards her son's criminal proclivities, finally comes to terms with what he is, and what he's become...her various moralistic monologues were increasingly difficult to take as the story worn on, and quite frankly, I often found myself wishing someone would have bumped the old bag off, perhaps catching a little collateral damage in the form of a stray bullet...I thought Lita Milan, playing the female lead, did very well, helped a bit by the fact she was very easy on the old peepers...an interesting fact about her...soon after this film, she gave up her acting career and married the son of a Dominican Republic dictator, but I digress...besides the sappy moral overtones inherent within the story, the other aspect I found difficult to accept was Teresa's change of heart towards Joe shortly after Joe iced her younger brother Ernie, right in front of her. I suppose her transformation from goodie two shoes to crime boss moll possible, but it just seemed unlikely given her closeness to her brother...and the fact Joe was the one who plugged him. The story moves along at a good clip, in a straightforward and efficient manner, wasting little of its hour and twenty minute running time, often glossing over Joe's actual activities, focusing rather on his relationships within his family and within his business acquaintances. It wasn't as gritty as I had hoped, but overall, it entertained, and worthy viewing for someone interested in the genre.

Sony provides a decent, fullscreen (1.33:1) picture here, but during the opening we see the film was originally presented in CinemaScope, and this is made entirely obvious early on as a number of the opening credits are cut off. Subsequently, the pan and scan effort given to the rest of the film is painfully apparent as this release features some really awkward, stilted panning throughout. Not only that, but who ever wrote the synopsis blurb on the back of the DVD case really screwed up, as mentioned by another reviewer. The main character is listed as Steve Fisher, who wasn't a character but the writer who adapted the original story for the screen. Apparently attention to detail or quality was not a big concern for Sony here, nor was presenting this film as it was originally meant to be seen. If Sony can't be bothered to provide a decent release, why should I be bothered to purchase said release? Sure the price is nice, but I would have been willing to shell out a bit more for a more aesthetically pleasing product true to its original format. The audio, presented in Dolby Digital mono, comes across cleanly. As far as extras, there are none, which didn't surprise me, given the lack of overall effort in the actual release.

Cookieman108

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pushing the envelope of "B-ness", February 18, 2000

By 

A viewer from Summit, NJ (Summit, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Mobster [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Roger Corman pushes the envelope of "B-ness" with this B-movie detailing the rise and fall of a small-time gangster (played by Steve Cochran, contender in the Elvis-lookalike contest and winner of the hair-grease semifinals). The casting is riotous, with his supposedly Italian immigrant parents played by two oldsters who speak with Austrian-German accents, and a girfriend who speaks with an Italian accent and has a WASP name. Robert Strauss, famous Jewish comedian, plays a vicious Italian gangster with about as much credibility as did Eli Wallach in "Godfather 3." Nonetheless, "I, Mobster" is enjoyable in broad, B-ways that only Corman can bring off.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Cheaply made movie, and even cheaper DVD., June 24, 2006

By 

J. Friedman "Noir Fan" (Tustin, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gangsters Guns & Floozies Crime Collection: I, Mobster (DVD)

This film is worth viewing for two reasons - Steve Cochran and Robert Strauss. They are both as good as it gets. But you would have to be as big a fan of Steve Cochran as I to make this product worth even its extremely low price.

The film is choppy with lines and distortions in some places. The story doesn't hold together very well, and, as pointed out by another reviewer, the obviously Italian Lita Milan plays a character named "Teresa Porter," and Austrian born and accented Celia Lovsky plays Cochran's long suffering Italian mother. The DVD is so cheap that they couldn't even get the character's name right on the back cover. Cochran plays Joe Sante, but, on the DVD case, his character is referred to as "Steve Fisher," who was actually the writer of the film. And there are no features whatsoever - the only two options are "watch the movie" and "scene selections."

The film jumps from a child playing the part of 11-year old Joe to a 40-year old Cochran playing Joe at age 20 and beyond with not so much as an attempt to make him look older as the story progresses.

One bonus however, is the appearance of John Dennis (Sgt. Ike Galovitch in "From Here to Eternity") in a minor role as one of Murder Incorporated's thugs.

If Steve Cochran is one of your favorite performers, you should purchase this product only because, unfortunately, very little of his work is available on DVD.

If you're not, take a pass on this cheapie.