User Reviews

Successful movies that are trendy create a lot of knock-offs or similarly themed films of various qualities, and this TV movie on the life of Pretty Boy Floyd is one of the better ones that came out of the success of 1967's "Bonnie and Clyde". There had already been a resurgence of crime biographies after the success of "The Untouchables" on TV, but most of those films from the late 50's and early 60's don't seem to fit in the period in which they were set and as a result do not look good when viewed today. At least this TV movie made an attempt to look like it was set in the late 20's and early 30's, and Martin Sheen is perfectly cast as one of several men named as Public Enemy Number One.

This film starts off with supposed surviving relatives of the real Pretty Boy Floyd being interviewed, all claiming what a good man he was, his mother saying that he just got into things that he shouldn't have. It then goes back into time where we see his struggling family (led by mother Ellen Corby, then popular as Grandma Walton), and his quickie marriage to Kim Darby. Charles Floyd (said to have been actually known as Charlie, his actual gravestone shown) has difficult times and thus turns to a life of crime.

Michael Parks and Steven Keats are other members of the Floyd gang (with Parks as his brother) and "The Godfather's" Abe Vigoda a powerful crimelord, something he did several times as a testament to "The Godfather". It's difficult to bring the full truth into biographies, but when they at least tend to get the period detail right, you can forgive historical flaws that have been documented.

Sheen does add a bit of humanity to his bank robber, having a sense of guilt after he commits a heinous crime, and showing great sympathy to the clerks who work in the banks. At one point, he shows regret for having to kill three officers who were after him, so it's nice to see that side of someone even if their amoral character was obviously heading for a violent end. The attention to detail may not have passed over into the exact use of important facts of his real life, but at least you feel like you're getting at least a smidgen of the truth. Lots of familiar character actors pop up in smaller roles, most memorably Amzie Strickland and Ann Doran.