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The Outfit plots the world of gangsters in the backdrop of the 1930s with Prohibition. With Legs Diamond (Mosby) and Dutch Schultz (Henriksen) at loggerheads, the two number ones keep trying to outdo each other. Their organized criminal acts of bootlegging needs to be controlled at all cost till Lucky Luciano (Drago) can relinquish the ‘US Steel’ quote in its entirety: ‘become as big as US Steel’. Anticipating the hostilities that are near between these two public enemies, G -Man Bone Conn (Ingvordsen) sets off a mob war. Even ops such as Bone Conn can take some liberties with the moniker rogue; his Fugitive Marhsal boss Kove demands results. With Hoover all but smiling over his shoulders, Bone Conn will find himself sitting in a world of trouble. Trouble that follows is an even worse kind, because these are some of the most well known feared mobsters from history. Wearing the monopoly suit on THE OUTFIT isn’t the best idea quite honestly.
Ignoring the negative reviews this film invites one to give, all the three actors that play the roles of Henriksen, Kove, and Drago have somehow made it big. Would say this is a lesser known movie, which is very surprisingly unique amongst the thousands of movies that get displayed these days. The Outfit, a DTV product, has visibly drawn from Bugsy (1991), Mobsters (1991), and The Untouchables (1987) where Drago also performed but this movie had the smallest budget of them all which makes The Outfit entertaining and still worthy.
Ingvordsen and Kaman, the creators of Comrades In Arms (1992), take it a step further and have successfully completed – or at the very least attempted -crafting a period piece for the Direct-To-Video industry on a shoestring budget. Ingvordsen once more takes the lead as the hero/badass named Bone (which he did in Comrades), and Kaman the one who filmed the movie does a pretty decent job at playing around with a few lenses and grain that adds to the time period sense. Kaman usually does a pretty good job when he isn’t behind the wheel as a director. Drago was a brilliant selection for the role of Lucky Luciano. Drago has made a name for himself as a career villain so why not give him a shot as a real gangster?
Also, there is the currency that Ingvordsen and Kaman could take advantage of Drago’s role as Frank Nitti in The Untouchables. Fan favorite Henriksen completely transforms himself as Schultz and goes all out.It’s just great to witness him in the role come alive, become furious, and be powerful and commanding in that character. In his comparatively minor role, Kove is also winning as the FBI head honcho.
The strong cast, as well as Mosby as Diamond and Washburn with Ingvordsen as Bone, are certainly an advantage that moves this movie into the victory category.
It’s clear that some attention was given to the plot, and there is an attempt to include some authentic and real-life incidents, and the writing reflects that. But also they did not go cheap on the Tommy guns. It’s really a welcome combination of strong writing and action movie violence, and they would have done it, if they had greater budget, 16 years before doing Public Enemies (2009).
Some of their flaws include: it seems that the film does not represent complete concentration especially during the short scene of Punchfighting (yes, if you didn’t know, there was some rapid Punchfighting it did exist in the 30’s), and some of the secondary actor’s performances here and there among the non-principals and some directors involved appeared weak, which, for some DTV products, is normal. But honestly, that is all we can contribute as the negative aspect of this film. We commend them for their effort in crafting a historically based period drama on a low budget.
If you are interested in a little different but still with some recognizable molds, have a look at The Outfit.
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