The Outfit (3 Stars)

It's 1956. Leonard Burling is an English tailor in Chicago. At least, everyone calls him a tailor. He insists that he's a cutter. He says that anyone can be a tailor, but a cutter is someone who needs years of training. For me as a layman, it seems like the difference is that a cutter designs outfits, whereas a tailor sews them. This would mean that a cutter is also a tailor, but a tailor isn't necessarily a cutter.

It must be unusual to see a refined English gentleman in Chicago, because everyone calls him English. Leonard's first customer when he arrived in Chicago a few years ago was Roy Boyle, the head of the Irish mob, so he's had a close connection with the mob ever since. After all, mobsters always wear the finest suits. The mob has a drop box in his back room, in which they store money and exchange messages.

One night Roy Boyle's son bursts into the shop with a gunshot wound. He's been in an altercation with a rival gang. Leonard is asked to look after a box with something that the other gang wants.

The film is a slow burner, building up to a violent climax. It suffers from the modern trend of having too many plot twists in the final scenes. Why is this necessary? Have directors forgotten how to make predictable gangster films?

Success Rate:  - 1.3

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