John Ericson has the title role in this minuscule budget independent film about Pretty Boy Floyd one of the legendary public enemies of the 30s. Ericson might well have been a good fit for the part had this been done at a major studio, but this film had more errors than facts about its subject.
The saddest commentary on this film was its elimination of the man who led the hunt against Floyd, FBI agent Melvin Purvis who later got his due in other films about the notorious outlaw. Purvis died in 1960, some saw an accidental shooting, some say a suicide. But he was persona non grata to J. Edgar Hoover who resented the publicity that Purvis got for bringing down people like Dillinger, Floyd, and Machine Gun Kelly.
In this film Floyd starts out like Jesse James, a folk hero to the poor Oklahoma farmers from whence he came. But in the end when fame and notoriety came he lost his prestige with them.
Floyd at the time was accused of participation in the Kansas City Massacre, but he denied it and there's evidence enough to show he probably wasn't there. This film has him as one of the hoods who killed 4 FBI agents and led to the arming of those agents.
Peter Falk has a small part in this film and he's always noticeable and good. Also here making a screen debut is Al 'Grandpa Munster' Lewis. He's in the sequence involving the Kansas City Massacre and the telling of that is completely incoherent.
Not the best version of Charles Arthur Floyd's saga.
The saddest commentary on this film was its elimination of the man who led the hunt against Floyd, FBI agent Melvin Purvis who later got his due in other films about the notorious outlaw. Purvis died in 1960, some saw an accidental shooting, some say a suicide. But he was persona non grata to J. Edgar Hoover who resented the publicity that Purvis got for bringing down people like Dillinger, Floyd, and Machine Gun Kelly.
In this film Floyd starts out like Jesse James, a folk hero to the poor Oklahoma farmers from whence he came. But in the end when fame and notoriety came he lost his prestige with them.
Floyd at the time was accused of participation in the Kansas City Massacre, but he denied it and there's evidence enough to show he probably wasn't there. This film has him as one of the hoods who killed 4 FBI agents and led to the arming of those agents.
Peter Falk has a small part in this film and he's always noticeable and good. Also here making a screen debut is Al 'Grandpa Munster' Lewis. He's in the sequence involving the Kansas City Massacre and the telling of that is completely incoherent.
Not the best version of Charles Arthur Floyd's saga.
