`Harlem 1934. In a world impoverished by the great depression, the single largest business in Harlem is an illegal lottery known as the `numbers'. For many, a winning numbers slip is the only chance to put food on the table. The undisputed leader of the Harlem numbers is Madame Queen, who has run this multi-million dollar business quietly and peacefully for over a decade. Notorious gangster Dutch Schultz has defied the wishes of his partner, crime chief Charles `Lucky' Luciano and decided it's time to share in the profits. There is only one obstacle in Dutch Schultz's path of destruction. His name is Ellsworth `Bumpy' Johnson.'
That's the legend that comes on screen before the film starts, it basically tells you everything you need to know about the plot. Essentially it's an old fashioned gang war style film - it even has the spinning newspaper headlines and the background shots of people firing machine guns! The story holds no surprises and it's nothing new, however it is entertaining enough stuff if a little too long for it's own good.
The way it is put together is very workman-like way. It has all the old tricks that other gangster films do and it doesn't do anything new. As such the cast don't do anything special either. Fishburne is nowhere near his best, he could have done this in his sleep. Similarly Garcia doesn't do anything special. Roth however hams it up wildly with his American accent thick as ever. The support cast stick to their stereotypes well - Williams plays the beautiful `virgin' type sucked into the gangster world, and various henchmen do their thing well. The cast does have some terrible performances - many of the black gangsters in fact are quite bad. The worst by far is the actress who played Madame Queen. She isn't convincing for one second, her accent is ridiculous and her performance is bad ham in every scene.
Overall it's entertaining, although could have easily been 30 minutes shorter. However it's nothing special and nothing new. Given the cast involved I was really disappointed with the end result and expected better.
