This article possibly contains original research. 20th Century Fox to realize what he described 1st valentine’s day “the most accurate, authentic gangster film ever. A young Bruce Dern plays one of the victims of the massacre, and Jack Nicholson has a bit part as a gangster.
An organized crime war breaks out between two rival gangs in Chicago during the Roaring Twenties. With an elaborate plan to eliminate Moran and his gang once and for all in motion, Capone retreats to his winter home in Miami to establish an alibi while his henchmen, two of whom are dressed as police officers, stage a fake police raid in a northside garage on February 14, 1929, where they ambush and execute five members of Moran’s gang, including Peter Gusenberg. Orson Welles was Cormans original choice to play Capone, but Twentieth Century Fox vetoed the deal, fearing that Welles was “undirectable. Roger Corman said he wanted produce a film about the “gangsterism” that “played a significant role in the development of American culture” but “I wanted to do it honestly, and not in the usual romanticized man-against-the-system. Corman was drawn to the idea of making a film about the St. Corman said that the massacre was the day that ” changed the whole public face of gangsterism – public outcry broke Capone’s stranglehold on society.
The massacre had been the focus of a Playhouse 90 episode, Seven Against the Wall, broadcast in December 1958 and written by Harold Browne, who had researched the period and the event extensively. Corman hired Browne to write the script for the film. Corman had recently endured an unhappy experience working for Columbia, but still wanted to try working at a major studio. In February 1966, he signed on to make the film from Brown’s script with Richard Zanuck at 20th Century Fox.
Corman made the film following the great success of The Wild Angels. It was the most expensive film that Corman had made. Corman said, “There comes a time when the public conscience needs jolting and in St. Valentine’s Day Massacre this is our intention. It is also certain that the movie will make money – crime is always box office.