The Silver Screen Oasis

Nice mob film.

Nice mob film.

From a Las Vegas point of view, really bad historically speaking.

But if I am able to get around that (and it takes some doing), I do like Bill Graham and Ben Kingsley.

But the whole Las Vegas part of the story really grates on me.

I really like Joe Montegna as George Raft. I thought that was splendid casting, because I can accept him as an imitation tough guy and not a real hood.

Harvey Keitel was very good as Mickey Cohen.

I fell in love with Annette Benning with this movie.

Does it seem that apart from "Wag the Dog," Barry Levinson never made another good movie after this one?

Gus Greenbaum, a Chicago mobster, who appears late in the film, was a friend of Goldwater. Gus was murdered by the Chicago outfit. ru

Cohen was born in Chicago & raised money for Nixon - 1946 & 1950.

Gus was killed because his addiction to heroin was so great that he began skimming from the skim while the boss at the Riviera.

The mob would put up with his womanizing and even his drug hit but not skimming from them.

Both Gus and his wife were murdered in their Phoenix home where they were spending the holidays.

Lzcutter wrote:Gus was killed because his addiction to heroin was so great that he began skimming from the skim while the boss at the Riviera.

The mob would put up with his womanizing and even his drug hit but not skimming from them.

Both Gus and his wife were murdered in their Phoenix home where they were spending the holidays.

Both had thier throats slit !

Mickey Cohen made great "use" (along w/ Howard Hughes) of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, from the Truman thru the Kennedy administrations, as opposed to the "downtown" hoods who were competitively "in bed" with the LAPD.
There are of course many sources for this information, but I believe the most entertaining are the James Ellroy novels, like The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, White Jazz & American Tabloid.

Klon,

For those who are interested in the life and times of Mickey Cohen and interested in the post-war history of Los Angeles, LA Noir by John Buntin is a must read.

Both had thier throats slit !

Yes, they did. Seems the mob wanted to send a message.

As I said, they put up with a lot from Greenbaum, but stealing from the mob, even if you are one of their own, was not tolerated.