MovieChat Forums > The George Raft Story (1961) Discussion > Entertaining movie. Terrible biography

Entertaining movie. Terrible biography


George disassociated himself from this so-called story of his life. Following the publication of a series of articles that appeared in The Saturday Evening Post under the heading "Out of My Past", the film rights to George's fascinating life and career were acquired by Allied Artists after interest waned by Paramount and Twentieth Century-Fox. Raft at first was excited by the project and even suggested that Tony Curtis would be good in the lead. But George quickly became disillusioned after he leafed through the various shooting scripts that were presented to him. There was virtually no truth to the story they told. Most of the characters were fictional. The two women portrayed as Raft's love interests in the movie had no real-life counterparts. No mention was made of either George's long-estranged wife Grayce or New York mob boss Owney Madden, who had played such an important part in Raft's early years, and in fact had a hand in Raft's early screen success. The closest the film comes to presenting real people is Frank Gorshin's Moxie (modeled on Raft's close friend Mack Gray) and Brad Dexter's Benny ("Bugsy" Siegel). And, as I point out in my upcoming biography of George Raft, the one relatively accurate scene in the movie is George's meeting with Al Capone after the Chicago release of "Scarface".

The film ends on a high note, but in fact, Raft's movie career went nowhere following the release of the super-hit "Some Like It Hot". He had only two respectable film parts in the next twenty years ("Jet Over the Atlantic" and "The Upper Hand"); the rest of his film work came from bits, cameos, TV and commercials.

So -- enjoy "The George Raft Story" for the entertainment that it is. Just don't expect to uncover the real story behind this most fascinating man.

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I concur! Very entertaining, with Ray Danton playing the leading part very well (as scripted). Jayne Mansfield is still one of the most beautiful ever, does not disappoint! Story timelines, dialogue, era music, and story itself are not up to par.

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Jayne Mansfield how sad she looks like a female impersonator ,her once great figure was just a memory by this time in her life and the 1960s wig is over the top.If you want see Jayne at her best see in "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter" not here in this 1960s type bio .George Raft deserved better writers ,and Jayne better scripts.

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ancyvanm: It was not just Jayne Mansfield's bad wig. Costuming for the entire picture looked bad. Not unusual for pictures made at that time. Not only for Allied Artists but the Majors as well. No attention to correct details at all.

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