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Verne Miller

1988, Movie, R, 95 mins

starstarstarstar
Directed by Rod Hewitt, this wretched excuse for a gangster film purports to be a factual biography of real-life gangster Verne Miller, a former South Dakota sheriff-turned-outlaw of the mid-1920s. Played in a stoic manner by Scott Glenn, Miller is a dispassionate murderer but a sexual magnet when it comes to women. Miller offers his services to Chicago's infamous Al Capone (Thomas G. Waites). After performing a series of important hits, he is made head of the Kansas City organization. Eventually, Miller gets too big for his britches and against Capone's orders launches a move to rescue captured Capone henchman Frank "Baldy" Nash (Sonny Carl Davis). Rarely has a picture as visually attractive as this one (good costumes, sets, and photography) been so incompetently scripted and directed. Hewitt even bungles the shootouts, which are poorly staged and fairly tedious. Only the Kansas City massacre sequence has any drama and suspense, but it is a fleetingly successful moment in a film filled with incompetence. leave a comment
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