SunnyHello Nice effects though.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Lechuguilla Semi-factual, this film skims through the life of gangster Baby Face Nelson (Mickey Rooney), from the time he emerges from prison on parole, in 1933, through various subsequent hold-ups with his gang members. They're constantly on the run and being chased by G-men, right up to the end.The plot trends superficial. And though Nelson and his girlfriend, Sue (Carolyn Jones), are clearly characterized, members of his infamous gang are hardly more than stick figures in the background, despite a great supporting cast.If this was supposed to have been a biography, a narrator describing the places, times, and key people would have helped to put the story in perspective and aided in the flow of events. As is, the film seems like just one more fictional gangster film, lacking in true-life credibility. And so I don't really see the film's point. On the other hand, it's possible, even likely, that filmmakers in the 1950s were prohibited from telling a true-life story in a believable way.B&W cinematography gives the film a noir feel, with high-contrast lighting. Too much makeup, combined with the lighting, makes Carolyn Jones' face look slightly bizarre. I never did see Baby Face Nelson. All I saw was Mickey Rooney trying to act the role. Aside from his miscasting, the cast is great. Acting overall is fine, and Carolyn Jones' performance is quite good. The mostly jazz score is okay but a bit overbearing at times.This might have been a better film if 1950s Hollywood had not taken such a straitjacket approach to crime story telling, and if the production had had a bigger budget. The main problem here is a generic script that treats the lead character as just another gangster, his gang as stereotyped sidekicks, and events as contrived. The film downplays Nelson's historical reality. There are some very good films about real-life gangsters. "Baby Face Nelson" isn't one of them.

ChuckTurner Don Siegel's BABY FACE NELSON is one of the harshest, most ferocious of movies; its conclusion one of the bleakest ever filmed. Siegel hit this same note of bitter cynicism again later in his career with DIRTY HARRY; but because BABY FACE NELSON offers no redemption for its protagonist, it is the more direct and powerful film. The central performance by Mickey Rooney ranks with Cagney's Cody Jarrett in Walsh's WHITE HEAT, in its absolute lack of sentimentality, utterly uninterested in ingratiation. One of the most chilling moments is when Nelson abruptly sets free a hostage instead of killing him: Rooney offers no clue as to why. There is no reason why: it is a whim as little understood by Nelson as by the viewer. An independent production originally released through United Artists, it has not been seen theatrically for several decades, and seems never to have been issued on DVD. Long overdue for rediscovery, BABY FACE NELSON should take its place alongside Siegel's better known pictures THE LINE UP and HELL IS FOR HEROES as a dark and chilling masterpiece.

Igenlode Wordsmith I found this film most effective when it was able to give its protagonist 'room to be bad' -- as a depiction of a psychopath on the brink, it holds considerable power (the scene where Sue begs her lover to tell her that he wouldn't have shot two boys who almost discover his presence carries a real impact... because both we, and she, know the true answer). At the beginning, where it appears to be trying to make Baby-Face Nelson out as a standard-issue hero fresh out of jail and trying to go straight, it's rather more generic and rather harder to credit.The interaction between Nelson and Dillinger, with the latter as the 'brains' of the outfit frustrated by the other man's trigger-happy tendencies, is well shown, and this section felt all too short. But the second half of the film, with the outlaws on the run -- and yet more twists to the tale than we expect -- is an undoubted success, and if only the film had achieved this level throughout I would have rated it easily 8/10, maybe 9.Short, baby-faced Mickey Rooney is physically ideal for the role and displays considerable acting chops into the bargain. One of the most striking scenes is where the Baby-Face against all precedent actually spares the life of a bank manager (played by the diminutive George E. Stone) who is as short as he is; it seems almost unfair that this uncharacteristic act of mercy is repaid by the man going straight to the police. But it's not an gesture that Nelson is likely to repeat. When the alcoholic, orotund Doc Saunders (Sir Cedric Hardwicke, deploying his classical training) demonstrates an unseemly interest in Sue, we can anticipate from the start what the ultimate result is bound to be; the only question is how long.And yet the film does achieve the vital but tenuous task of getting the viewer to identify with its out-of-control protagonist, despite his actions, with the result that it manages to sustain the tension: we actually care what happens to him. (It is this, of course, that makes those scenes where he manages to refrain from killing into such powerful ones: we know the knife-edge on which he is balanced.) The final death scene, where the Baby-Face expires conveniently across a moralising grave-stone, undermined somewhat the effectiveness of what had gone before -- if only they could have resisted the requirement to make such a heavy point -- but what remains is at least two-thirds of a very good little picture. Rooney is a revelation and the script holds some very dark corners, along with moments of adrenalin-boosting relief.

bevep Baby Face Nelson with Mickey Rooney is entertaining but not very factual.Keeping in mind that Hollywood was in a "crime doesn't pay" mode in the 50's ... many exciting moments in Baby Face Nelson's criminal career were either white-washed or eliminated completely, leaving no direction in the story & not much for Mickey Rooney to work with.This is surprising if you look back to the Cagney films of the 1930's(Roaring Twenties/Public Enemy) where the hero (or villain, depending on your point of view) was applauded by the public ... & sometimes even triumphed over the good guys. On the plus side: Mickey Rooney did do an outstanding job (he even looked somewhat like Baby Face)The moral: great for fans of Mickey Rooney ... not so great for fans of Baby Face Nelson.