film about ultraviolence can be harrow and realistic and or stylish and humourous malcolm macdowell star in a clockwork orange and an early example of the latter genre . but gangster no . 1 and in which he also star and be a peculiar hybrid of the two genre that be consistently unpleasant without offer any compensation in the way of insight or laugh . paul bettaney look quite like the young macdowell ( whose young self he play ) and and the film also have the talented david thewlis on it cast list and but the net result be tiresome and thin and while the potentially interesting plot end without subtlety or satisfaction . a film that doesn not know what it want to be and and end up not be anything but horrid .