Film

The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond

A brisk 1960 noir about the real gangster Jack 'Legs' Diamond, charting his rise from petty thief to bootleg kingpin in Prohibition-era New York. Ray Danton delivers a cold, compelling performance as a man who understands that the fastest way up is stealing from the people above you. It's taut, cynical, and moves like a bullet.

TMDb rating3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy gangster pictures built on a cold, calculating protagonist who climbs by studying the men above him, with the rackets and rivalries of Prohibition-era New York doing much of the work.

Skip it if you want a brisk, modern crime film; this is a 1960 black-and-white-era studio piece with stagey pacing and a plainspoken, sometimes creaky style that may test your patience.

What it asks of you: Around an hour and forty minutes, it moves at a measured pace and asks you to follow the business of ambition and scheming rather than chase big set pieces.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Godfather1972

The definitive portrait of organized crime as a business, with similar themes of ambition, loyalty, and the cost of power. Coppola's epic scope versus Diamond's lean precision—both utterly compelling on their own terms.

But Nearly three and a half hours, and demands patience with long scenes of conversation and philosophy over action. Not for people who want their crime stories to move fast.

The Godfather poster

Scarface1983

Brian De Palma's cocaine-era remake of the 1932 Scarface shows the same trajectory: outsider claws his way to the top through ambition and violence, then watches it collapse. Al Pacino embodies that ruthless hunger Danton captures.

But Relentlessly bleak, gratuitously violent, and designed to be unwatchable in places. Some find it exploitative rather than cautionary.

Scarface poster

The Killing1956

Kubrick's racetrack heist film has the same economy and ice-cold plotting. A tight ensemble of criminals executing a plan with perfect precision, then watching it unravel. Nasty, smart, economical.

But The narrative structure jumps around in time, which some find confusing rather than clever. Also quite bleak—no one wins here either.

The Killing poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Public Enemy1931

Direct lineage—The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond remakes this same story with a real gangster, but Cagney's performance and trajectory show the archetype Danton inherited.

James Cagney's Tom Powers is Legs Diamond's spiritual grandfather: a young man from nothing who rises through Prohibition violence, charming and vicious by turns. This is where the template came from, and Cagney's performance still crackles with danger.

But Pre-Code Hollywood means morality is messy and the pacing is theatrical rather than cinematic. Also in black-and-white, which puts some viewers off immediately.

The Public Enemy poster
More like this (8)

Once Upon a Time in America1984

Sergio Leone's epic examines organized crime across decades through the eyes of men who start hungry and end hollow. Danton's coldness finds its match in Robert De Niro's fatalism. A masterpiece about friendship and power.

But Nearly four hours in the director's cut, deliberately paced, and deliberately ambiguous. It asks more than it answers, which some find frustrating.

Once Upon a Time in America poster

Miller's Crossing1990

The Coen Brothers' Prohibition gangster film is a stylized waltz through betrayal and loyalty. Like Diamond, it's about men playing chess with each other's lives, but with a dark wit and architectural precision to every scene.

But Dense dialogue, deeply stylized, and more concerned with moral geometry than plot momentum. Easy to feel you're missing something.

Miller's Crossing poster

The Long Good Friday1980

Bob Hoskins as a London crime boss watching his empire collapse in a single day. The same desperation and pride as Diamond—a man who thought he had the game figured out, watching it spin away from him.

But Deliberately claustrophobic and depressing. Hoskins' performance is ferocious but not warm, and the ending offers no comfort.

The Long Good Friday poster

The Asphalt Jungle1950

The template for the heist caper, and a clear ancestor to Diamond's plotting. Huston's film shows criminals as working professionals—no glamour, just craft, loyalty, and the odds stacked against you.

But Slow by modern standards, and the portrayal of women is deeply dated. Some may find the pace glacial.

The Asphalt Jungle poster

In a Lonely Place1950

Bogart as a violent, charming man nobody quite trusts, destroying everything he touches. Ray's direction and Bogart's performance capture something of Danton's cold charisma—the allure of a man you should run from.

But A noir about paranoia and masculine toxicity; it's suffocating by design. Not cathartic. Not fun.

In a Lonely Place poster

Kiss of Death1947

A postwar noir about an informant caught between the mob and the cops, with Richard Widmark's debut as a psychotic thug. Similar moral quicksand—every choice leads somewhere worse.

But Dated in places and the morality feels muddled. Also quite violent for 1947, which some may find gratuitous.

Kiss of Death poster

GoodFellas1990

Both chart real gangsters rising through organized crime, but where Diamond is ice, Goodfellas is fever. Different temperatures, same trajectory.

Scorsese's kinetic, narrated rise-and-fall of Henry Hill covers similar ground but with a junkie's frenzy instead of a sociopath's cold calculation. If you loved how Diamond charts a man's climb and corruption, this is the maximalist version.

But Extremely violent, drug-addled, and stylistically busy—it's almost the opposite of Diamond's lean precision. Some find it exhausting rather than exhilarating.

GoodFellas poster

Brick2006

Not a gangster film, but the same structural engine: ambitious young man navigating hierarchies, betrayal, and the price of understanding the game too well. Proves the skeleton beneath Diamond transcends genre.

Rian Johnson's high school noir transplants 1940s crime plotting into a modern setting. The same architecture of betrayal and power plays, the same cold intelligence driving the plot. A wildcard that proves the machinery works anywhere.

But The conceit is clever rather than moving—it can feel like an exercise. Also the dialogue is deliberately artificial, which grates on some viewers.

Brick poster

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Recommended by

Evel Knievel