Director Jonny Caplan’s documentary is probably one of the most outstanding and entertaining crime documentaries of the year. Despite its short run time, he manages to unfold the story of a real underdog hero and anti-establishment mobster whose entire life was spent virtually kicking societal status quos in the ass. “Last Man Standing” is a True Crime Feature Documentary on the life of Myron Sugerman, son of Barney Sugerman, a partner of leading US mobster Meyer Lansky.
A member of the Jewish Mob who worked alongside the Italian Mob. A.K.A the ‘Slot King’, was a Lead financier to famed Austrian Nazi Hunter, Simon Wiesenthal, together they hunted Nazis in 80 countries, including locating psychotic Nazi Scientist Dr Josef Mengele. Whether or not you consider Myron Sugerman an empathetic figure of history, there’s no doubting that he’s a charismatic figure.
At his age it’s shocking how much he’s able to talk about his life and command the attention. Meanwhile director Jonny Caplan intersplices a lot of the accounts from Sugerman with pictures of him and his family with very influential historical figures. Having had its world premiere at the Miami Jewish Film Festival, I could have listened to Myron Sugarman talk about his life and regail us with accounts of his criminal exploits for hours.
Director Caplan is so very aware of this fact, never breaking the film’s momentum with clunky exposition or saccharine narration. Be sure to look out for “Last Man Standing” when it appears in local festivals. It’s a surefire gem, especially for fans of out of the ordinary true crime stories.