{"id":2914,"date":"2007-04-04T11:17:41","date_gmt":"2007-04-04T18:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=2914"},"modified":"2020-12-02T14:38:41","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T21:38:41","slug":"baby-face-nelson-1957","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=2914","title":{"rendered":"Baby Face Nelson (1957)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;The prison authorities and parole board were confident they had succeeded with Lester N. Gillis &#8212; soon to be better known as <em>Baby Face Nelson<\/em>.&#8221; <\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Poster-236x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"236\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-30940\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Poster-236x300.jpg 236w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Poster-100x128.jpg 100w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Poster.jpg 535w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 236px) 100vw, 236px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nFamed Depression-era gangster &#8220;Baby Face Nelson&#8221; (Mickey Rooney) robs and kills while accompanied by his beautiful moll (Carolyn Jones).\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Biopics<\/li>\n<li>Carolyn Jones Films<\/li>\n<li>Don Siegel Films<\/li>\n<li>Elisha Cook Jr. Films<\/li>\n<li>Fugitives<\/li>\n<li>Gangsters<\/li>\n<li>Mickey Rooney Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Baby Face Nelson<\/em> received negative reviews upon its release, but has since been lauded by critics as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/baby-face-nelson\">a &#8220;vigorous crime thriller&#8221; with &#8220;anarchic energy&#8221;<\/a>. On the whole, however, it remains a minor disappointment. While director Don Siegel handles the multiple action scenes well, they&#8217;re not particularly unique; and while Mickey Rooney does a fine job as Nelson, not nearly enough time is spent establishing the root of his character&#8217;s neuroses. In one nicely-done scene, Baby Face refrains from killing a bank manager simply because he&#8217;s just as short as him, offering an intriguing hint of the &#8220;little guy complex&#8221; which may have driven Nelson&#8217;s actions; unfortunately, this is never addressed again. <\/p>\n<p>Carolyn Jones &#8212; Morticia on &#8220;The Addams Family&#8221; television show &#8212; emerges as the true find of the film: from the moment we see her pixie face on-screen (she reminds me of Bruce Willis&#8217;s lover &#8212; played by Maria de Medeiros &#8212; in <em>Pulp Fiction<\/em>), we realize how lucky Nelson was to have such a loyal and sexy moll by his side. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Jones2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Jones2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1655\" height=\"1027\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-55966\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Jones2.png 1655w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Jones2-300x186.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Jones2-1024x635.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Jones2-128x79.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Jones2-768x477.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Jones2-1536x953.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Jones2-435x270.png 435w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1655px) 100vw, 1655px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, she&#8217;s an entirely fictional character. For a better gangster biopic made in the 1950s but taking place in the 1930s, see Dorothy Provine in <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=2080\"><em>The Bonnie Parker Story<\/em> (1958)<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Carolyn Jones as Nelson&#8217;s loyal moll<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Jones.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Jones.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1631\" height=\"1005\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-55963\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Jones.png 1631w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Jones-300x185.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Jones-1024x631.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Jones-128x79.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Jones-768x473.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Jones-1536x946.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Jones-438x270.png 438w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1631px) 100vw, 1631px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Mickey Rooney as the psychopathic Baby Face<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Rooney.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Rooney.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1667\" height=\"1005\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-55964\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Rooney.png 1667w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Rooney-300x181.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Rooney-1024x617.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Rooney-128x77.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Rooney-768x463.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Rooney-1536x926.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Baby-Face-Nelson-Rooney-448x270.png 448w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1667px) 100vw, 1667px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo. While it&#8217;s listed as a cult film in the back of Peary&#8217;s book &#8212; and has quite a few followers clamoring for its release onto DVD &#8212; I think it&#8217;s ultimately only must-see viewing for fans of gangster flicks, Don Siegel, and\/or Mickey Rooney. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt0050155\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/movies2.nytimes.com\/mem\/movies\/review.html?_r=1&#038;title1=&#038;title2=Baby%20Face%20Nelson&#038;revi\">NY Times Original Review (scroll down)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeout.com\/film\/67228.html\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The prison authorities and parole board were confident they had succeeded with Lester N. Gillis &#8212; soon to be better known as Baby Face Nelson.&#8221; Synopsis: Famed Depression-era gangster &#8220;Baby Face Nelson&#8221; (Mickey Rooney) robs and kills while accompanied by his beautiful moll (Carolyn Jones). Genres: Biopics Carolyn Jones Films Don Siegel Films Elisha Cook Jr. Films Fugitives Gangsters Mickey Rooney Films Review: Baby Face Nelson received negative reviews upon its release, but has since been lauded by critics as&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=2914\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2914"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55967,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914\/revisions\/55967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}