rodrig58 Cheesy? Well, I like cheese, very much! It's obvious that the budget of the film was very limited. Even so modestly, it is worth seeing. There are many elements here for the later masterpiece, "Charley Varrick"(1973). Let's consider this "Gangster Story" like a big rehearsal for that. For Matthau. The scenarios are very similar only that "Gangster Story" is much simpler. But very cool idea with the film in the film, as a motivation to rob the bank. "Charley Varrick" benefits from an even smarter scenario, much bigger budget and much better actors. Anyway, Matthau is very good in both of these and, as director of "Gangster Story," he does a pretty good job. One thing I want to add, I would have liked to have in my real life, a wife like Carol Logan, the Librarian, played by Carol Grace, Walter Matthau's real-life wife.

bkoganbing Gangster Story has the distinction of being the first film Walter Matthau ever starred in and the only film he ever directed. And for him personally he wedded his leading lady Carol Grace aka Carol Marcus. She became the second Mrs. Matthau.It has a lot of similarities to one of Matthau's better serious roles Charley Varrick which was directed by Don Siegel after Matthau became a star. Unfortunately this one was shot on a dental floss budget and Matthau the actor did not get any great performances out of his cast.Matthau plays a bank robber who has just escaped police custody and goes right to work and pulls off a nice bank robbery which comes to the attention of a local crime boss. He gets Matthau in his organization and they pull a big score, but the getaway was a bloody mess.Matthau also has taken up with a local librarian who is intrigued by him even before she learns he's a professional criminal. The chance to leave her humdrum life as a librarian to become possibly Bonnie Parker is also intriguing, but up to a point.As for the ending, no surprises but it doesn't end like Charley Varrick. Think of the film Heat from Robert DeNiro's point of view.The only other person in the cast of note is Garry Walberg who plays one Matthau's henchmen from the big score who proves to be a loyal friend.The whole affair in noir black and white looks like it was shot with a Kodak home movie camera. Matthau makes it interesting, but Ed Wood had bigger budgets.

Clay Loomis This crap sandwich reminded me more of Red Zone Cuba than anything else. Washed out B&W film stock, stilted dialog that was badly looped/dubbed in the studio. You name the mistake and this film has it. The henchman's name is actually "Adolph".There is just too much wrong with this to name it all. The horrible public domain musical score is positively Corman-esque. And if your dialog is this awful, why not just record it while filming and get it over with? Don't go to the studio and loop it badly as well. It leaves the viewed pictures disconnected from the words heard. Not that it matters too much here.Matthau just thought he'd try his hand at directing. It was a serious mistake he never repeated. And we are all thankful for that. You'd have to be a big time Matthau fan to give this claptrap even a moment of your time. I know I'm sorry I did.

Michael_Elliott Gangster Story (1958) * (out of 4) Walter Matthau directed this film, his only stint in the director's chair. Matthau plays a hardened bank robber/cop killer who tries to hide in a small town but mafia dudes come chasing him. The plot of this film really makes no sense and the performances are all rather bad. This is an ultra low budget film that seems to have been filmed without sound and then later dubbed in. I'd recommend everyone watch this film at least once to see the dumbest bank heist in the history of film.Thankfully Walter went back to acting.