Machine Gun Kelly is a 1958 Film Noir directed by Roger Corman and starring Charles Bronson. American International Pictures released it as a double feature with The Bonnie Parker Story. It was very, very loosely based off the life of the eponymous gangster
.
It chronicles George "Machine Gun" Kelly's rise to becoming public enemy #1, with the aid of his mistress and partner Flo Becker (Susan Cabot). Eventually, however, their ambitions lead to their inevitable downfall.
Machine Gun Kelly contains examples of:
- Boisterous Weakling: Kelly is all bravado and sadism when he's up against a weaker opponent, but he's a coward when faced with someone whose a real threat to him.
- Combat Sadomasochist: Flo deliberately provokes Kelly into beating her because she takes pleasure in it.
- Dirty Coward: Kelly is a coward petrified of death unless he has his signature sub-machine gun in his hands.
- Villain Protagonist: Kelly and Flo are a duo of sadistic, hateful gangsters.