Bugsy, Dutch & Al: The Gangsters

An occasionally interesting documentary produced, no doubt, to cash in on the notoriety of Barry Levinson's Oscar-nominated Bugsy, this three-part profile of Al Capone, Dutch Schultz, and Bugsy Siegal is comprised of old newsreel footage and voiceover narration. Capone's meteoric rise to crimelord of Chicago is fleshed out with a few interesting asides (his opening of a soup kitchen to feed the unemployed during the depression, for instance). The brief life and violent death of Dutch Schultz (chronicled in the recent Billy Bathgate) is only touched on, rather the majority of the Schultz segment deals with Prohibition. Finally, the section on Bugsy Siegal focuses on Siegal's Las Vegas dream--and therefore contains a totally unnecessary couple of minutes of footage shot on the Strip. Not a necessary purchase. (Available from most distributors.)