Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

You would think that it might be difficult to make a dull movie about the "roaring" twenties. This movie succeeds in spades. The lead actor (TV"s The Fugitive) is as stiff and flat as any ever seen on the big screen. Most of the performance involves staring down and looking up once in awhile with a half smile.In fact only big little Mickey Rooney shows any life and thus through contrast steals the shallow show where the most exciting scene involves the transportation of a racehorse. Of all the The Untouchables rip-offs of that era this is the worst. There is very little violence, except a punch thrown now and then, and very little else worth watching in this slow as sludge, talky, unconvincing Biography. What we are left with is a TV looking widescreen film that has nothing in its scope. This movie is so bad that maybe we should turn our binoculars around just to get a laugh.

the verdict on this picture seems to be that it's a fizzle because of Janssen's performance as Rothstein, the most interior portrayal of an organized crime figure this side of John Garfield in Abe Polonsky's magnificent FORCE OF EVIL. Well, Janssen's no Garfield and KING OF THE ROARING TWENTIES is no FORCE OF EVIL, but this Allied Artist's spin-off of the popular "Untouchables" series with Robert Stack deserves a few more props from the peeps at the IMDb website than it has already gotten. It's not quite as droll as Boetticher's very similar looking RISE AND FALL OF LEGS DIAMOND (which came out at about the same time) but the director, Joseph M Newman, is an underrated dude who, (like Joseph H. Lewis), is long overdue for cultish discovery. The scene in this picture where Mickey Rooney pleads to his childhood buddy, Rothstein, for his life is proof alone of how good he was with actors. Newman worked extensively in television, especially on the ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS series. One episode in particular, titled SEE THE MONKEY DANCE starring Efrem Zimbalist and Roddy McDowell is a marvelous example of what can be done within the imperatives of a weekly commercial format. His work deserves a little more recognition than it's been given thus far.

Sometimes actors do quite well on the small television screen. With their features filling 225 square inches, every blink, every jactitation, every fleeting suggestion of a smile registers like an earthquake. Then, when the actor appears in feature films, lamentably, we get to see that there isn't that much behind the momentary disarrangement. That's what seems to have happened to David Janssen. Not that he may have been anything other than a nice guy in real life, but that he had only two or three notes on his instrument."King of the Roaring Twenties" has a script by a Hollywood craftsman but it's as dull as some bent piece of old pewter found in a dark attic corner, and much of the responsibility is Janssen's. After all, Arnold Rothstein was a monumental figure in the world of gambling and organized crime. He was the Louis B. Mayer of the syndicate, larger than life. Michael Lerner turned him into an unforgettable figure in "Eight Men Out." And what do we get from David Janssen. A kind of nice, polite, quiet guy who has a habit of looking up shyly from his lowered head, whose voice hardly rises above a tranquil and reasoned moderato. He gets no help from the director, Joseph M. Newman. A viewer feels that if Janssen could do it, he'd actually erase himself from the screen, leaving a small hole behind. The other actors all walk through their parts except for the thumotic Mickey Rooney.The story, anyway, borrows from all the other stories of the rise and fall of gangster figures. The protagonist must sacrifice his old childhood friend on the altar of his megalomania; the young cop who warned him early in his career must go on to plague him as an adult; and, if possible, the guy must be assassinated, and preferably in some public place.As irritating as anything else is the kind of attention paid to wardrobe and the musical score. This is the early years of the 20th century -- Rothstein was at his peak in 1916 and died in 1928 -- yet the characters wear modern suits, except, in a nod to period fashion, the suits generally have vests and the hats sometimes bear a family resemblance to a derby.Franz Waxman must have been asleep at the switch when he wrote the music. It's all undemanding modernistic jazz, with not a tango or a Charleston in a cartload.What a terrible bore.

I am hardly a fan of national film critics, but they are right on the money with this one - it stinks. One major objection is having David Janssen playing the gangster Arnold Rothstein. What kind of casting is that? He couldn't be less credible in that role. Other cast members don't fit in here, either. The whole thing is a mess. The first half hour of this movie doesn't exactly grab your attention, but when the romance sets in, it really puts you to sleep....and really never recovers. "King of the Roaring Twenties" sounds like an interesting, exciting gangster film but is just the opposite. Don't waste your time.