King of the Roaring 20s: Suite (1961)

Movements
The Interrupted Romance
Down and Out
Double Cross
The Last Deal
Goodbye, Papa

Note
Screenwriter Jo Swerling’s first association with crime boss Arnold Rothstein came in 1950, when he and Abe Burrows wrote the character Nathan Detroit into Broadway’s Guys and Dolls. (Damon Runyon, from whose stories the musical was adapted, had based Detroit on the legendary racketeer). A decade later, Swerling offered a much different take on Rothstein when he wrote the screenplay (his last) for King of the Roaring 20s一The Story of Arnold Rothstein. Based on a 1959 biography The Big Bankroll, the film details Rothstein’s rise from his troubled youth to his powerful position as a kingpin of the Jewish mafia in New York and his murder at age 46. (In the film, he is shot during a poker game while holding the hand he had always dreamed of – a royal flush). David Jansen (in his pre-Fugitive days) brought a degree of human fragility to the role with his low-key portrayal, while Dianne Foster played his long-suffering wife, Carolyn, who ultimately despairs and leaves him. Mickey Rooney appeared as Rothstein’s boyhood friend and erstwhile partner, Johnny Burke, whom Rothstein eventually betrays. Several well-known character actors brought additional depth to the film, including Dan O’Herlihy, Jack Carson, Keenan Wynn and William Demarest.

King of the Roaring 20s was Franz Waxman’s “festival film” for 1960. The largest expense mounting his Los Angeles Music Festival (1947-1966) concerts each year was the pay-roll for the orchestra (and often a chorus). To cover stipends for participating musicians, Waxman used earnings with what his family called “festival pictures” each year. Waxman would donate his salary from one film score or television series (such as The Twilight Zone) to the Los Angeles Orchestral Society, which he had established to present the annual event.

 - Frank K. DeWald