The George Raft Story (1961)

An ambitious nightclub dancer (Ray Danton) becomes involved with bootleggers and the mob but when the heat gets turned on, he goes off to Hollywood where he becomes a big Movie Star. A highly fictionalized accounting of the actor George Raft, who became a star in Howard Hawks' SCARFACE. Riddled with cliches, half truths and exaggerations to beef up the story, I suppose one could say that the film has taken artistic license with facts but there's nothing artistic about this potboiler. Danton, who never became a Star in his career, doesn't have it in him to show us what made Raft a star. He's just not individual enough and lacks Raft's genuine screen presence. The film is almost a musical with all the musical numbers thrown in. Julie London as one of Danton's early conquests gets to sing a song as does Barbara Nichols (dubbed) as Texas Guinan and Barrie Chase gets to dance the bolero with Danton. After chronicling Raft's personal and professional ups and downs, the film ends with Raft's "comeback" in Billy Wilder's SOME LIKE IT HOT. Directed by Joseph M. Newman. The large cast includes Jayne Mansfield (apparently playing Raft's NIGHT AFTER NIGHT co-star Mae West), Frank Gorshin, Margo Moore, Wally Brown, Herschel Bernardi, Jack Albertson, Brad Dexter, Robert Strauss, Argentina Brunetti and Neville Brand as Al Capone.