[4] It stars Ben Gazzara in the title role, along with Harry Guardino, Susan Blakely, John Cassavetes, and Sylvester Stallone in an early film appearance.

Corman had previously directed The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967), which also had a screenplay written by Howard Browne and starred Jason Robards as Capone.

Among other embellishments, the film makes no mention of Capone’s wife and daughter, while giving him a (fictional) love interest in Susan Blakely’s Iris Crawford.

The story is of the rise and fall of Chicago mob boss Al Capone and the control he exhibited over the city during Prohibition, all the way through to his conviction, imprisonment, and final years.

It is revealed that the fur thieves worked for Johnny and Yale, and because Capone has impressed them with his cunning and brutality, they invite him to join the Five Points Gang.

A year later, on September 23, 1919, Johnny talks with his boss "Big" Jim Colosimo about Prohibition – a new law banning the sale of alcohol.

The next morning, as Colosimo enters a restaurant to use the phone, Capone sneaks in and quietly shoots the boss dead in the back of the neck.

On June 7, 1920, in Joliet, Illinois, during a pickup of beer for bootlegger Edward "Spike" O'Donnell, mobsters led by brothers Frank and Peter Gusenberg – enforcers working for Dion O'Banion – intercept the deal, gun down the participants, and steal it for themselves.

On September 5, 1923, as Capone and Johnny prepare to shift their base of operations to Cicero, Spike O'Donnell is gunned down by O'Banion's men in a turf war.

Capone replies that if he does so, his lawyers will reveal the extent to which Chicago authorities have worked with the Outfit; a humiliated Crowe drops the charges.

Joe Aiello, a bootlegger who refuses to deal with Capone and blames him for his brother's death, meets with Bugs Moran, Weiss' successor.

Newly elected Mayor Anton Cermak and the city council, wanting to improve Chicago's image and put a stop to gang violence, insist that he end his feud with Moran at any cost even if it means losing territory and money.

On June 16, 1931, after a lengthy process, Capone is finally found guilty not of murder, bootlegging, or any other serious crimes, but of multiple counts of federal tax evasion.

Screenwriter Howard Browne had written about Al Capone a number of times previously, including "Seven Against the Wall" for Playhouse 90 in 1958, and the film, The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967).

[9] In an interview in 2020 Carver related how Gazzara, possibly under the influence of alcohol, set off a series of explosions and bullet hits too early: "Ben was the key in starting this off by pulling the trigger of a submachine gun.

"[12] Sight and Sound said "Roger Corman unprofitably goes back over ground he has more succinctly and wittily explored before, simply to fill in some gaps in the Capone biography (how he began as a street hoodlum; how he ended as a syphilitic madman).

In the Chicago Sun-Times, film critic Roger Ebert gave the film only one star (out of four), summing up:During the chase scenes, the cars keep chasing each other around the same corners, because there are only about four corners in the whole City, and native Chicagoans will be amazed to see the lushly wooded California hills rising at the end of Wabash Ave. Ben Gazzara, as Capone, talks in a shrill shout that makes us want to turn the treble down, and he’s surrounded by a supporting cast that looks almost as embarrassed as he does.

The acting isn’t really the point, though, because the movie has been so chopped into neatly dated segments that no development of character and personality is really possible.