The Last Don (1997, TV mini-series)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld


‘Power Isn’t Everything… It’s The Only Thing’

Directed by:
Graeme Clifford

Written by:
Mario Puzo (novel)
Joyce Eliason (Teleplay)

Cast:
Danny Aiello (Don Domenico Clericuzio), Joe Mantegna (Pippi De Lena), Jason Gedrick (Crucifixio ‘Cross’ De Lena), Daryl Hannah (Athena Aquitane), Penelope Ann Miller (Nalene De Lena), Rory Cochrane (Dante Santadio), Kirstie Alley (Rose Marie Clericuzio), David Marciano (Georgio Clericuzio), Christopher Meloni (Boz Skannet), Seymour Cassel (Alfred Gronevelt)

Don Domenico Clericuzio is a man that demands respect. His daughter Rose Marie has started a love affair with Jimmy Santadio. The Santadios are the sworn enemies of the Clericuzios and both families are against the affair. But the youngest son of the Don, Silvio, sticks his neck out to help the young love couple but gets shot to death by two Santadio brothers.

At Silvio’s funeral, Jimmy Santadio shows up and asks Don Clericuzio for Rose Marie’s hand. The Don agrees but tells them no family will be present at the wedding. Only Pippi De Lena, a loyal family soldier, will be there. But the Don is lying. After the wedding at the Santadio Mansion, the Clericuzio brothers storm in and kill Don Santadio and all of his sons. Pippi strangles Jimmy Santadio to death personally. He does choose to spare the life of Rose Marie.

After this tragic history, Pippi moves to Vegas to take over the Santadios’ business there. He marries the dancer Nalene and they have a son; Crucifixio. Rose Marie was already pregnant by Jimmy Santadio and at about the same time as Nalene, she gives birth to her son Dante. Now, with this new blood in the family, the evil from the past will have to be set straight. And the war between the Clericuzios and the Santadios is not over yet.

This enjoyable Mario Puzo pulp starts as the Sicilian version of Romeo and Juliet. All the typical mob story elements are there; family disputes, assassinations, illegal gambling and some romantic plotlines. It even contains a Hollywood side-plot in which Hollywood is compared to the Mafia. The cast of this Mini Series does fairly well. Danny Aiello, though no Marlon Brando, gives a convincing performance as the powerful Don Clericuzio who is as cunning as he is ruthless.

The other cast members also give solid performances, most notably Joe Mantegna as Pippi De Lena and Rory Cochrane as Dante Santadio. Also interesting is the performance of Kirstie Alley as Don Clericuzio’s daughter Rose Marie who has gone insane after her newlywed husband got murdered by her own family. The budget for this Mini Series must have been quite tight but it still has plenty of production value to offer. Those who like Mario Puzo stories will definitely enjoy this. Followed by The Last Don II.

Rating:

Quote:
PIPPI DE LENA: “This will be a confirmation which means the body will be found. A communion is when the body disappears.”

Trivia:
In the book the killing of the Santadio family is told towards the end, while the mini-series is told chronologically and therefore this crucial scene is shown in the beginning.

High Sierra (1941)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld


´The blazing mountain manhunt for Killer Mad-Dog Earle!´

Directed by:
Raoul Walsh

Written by:
W.R. Burnett (screenplay and novel)
John Huston (screenplay)

Cast:
Ida Lupino (Marie Garson), Humphrey Bogart (Roy Earle), Alan Curtis (Babe Kozak), Arthur Kennedy (Red Hattery), Joan Leslie (Velma), Henry Hull (‘Doc’ Banton), Henry Travers (Pa), Jerome Cowan (Healy), Minna Gombell (Mrs. Baughmam), Barton MacLane (Jake Kranmer)

The famous bank robber Roy Earle (Humphrey Bogart), who was supposed to be in jail for life, is pardoned. He immediately joins a group of desperados who plan to rob a hotel. Along the way, he meets two women who will both play an important role in Earle’s remaining time on earth.

1941 was the year Bogart made his breakthrough as a Hollywood legend. It was the last time he got second billing. In the same year, he made The Maltese Falcon, directed by John Huston, who also wrote the screenplay for High Sierra. Both are early film noirs. High Sierra is based on a novel by W.R. Burnett, who also wrote the gangster films Little Caesar and Scarface.

Raoul Walsh directed another classic about the era of gangsters three years earlier: The Roaring Twenties. It was an influential genre picture. With High Sierra, he achieves the same. It has speed, excitement, and, in Bogart, a great leading man. The camerawork is also very advanced.

The ending at Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the USA, is a classic gangster moment. Walsh would direct his ultimate gangster film in 1949: White Heat.

Rating:

Quote:
DR. PARKER: “Remember what Johnny Dillinger said about guys like you and him? He said you were just rushing towards death.”

Trivia:
Bogart’s part was originally intended for Paul Muni (the original Scarface in 1932), who turned it down because he didn’t like the script.

A Brooklyn State of Mind (1997)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld


‘Family First, Friends Second, The Mob Above All’

Directed by:
Frank Rainone

Written by:
Frank Rainone
Frederick J. Stroppel

Cast:
Vincent Spano (Al Stanco), Maria Grazia Cucinotta (Gabriela), Danny Aiello (Danny Parente), Abe Vigoda (Uncle Guy), Ricky Aiello (Nicky Vetrino), Tony Danza (Louie Crisci), Jennifer Esposito (Donna Delgrosso), Morgana King (Aunt Rose), Janice Steinmetz (Angie Stanco), Vincent Pastore (Vinnie ‘D’)

Childhood friends Al Stanco and Nicky Vetrino get sucked into the dark world of their mafia friend Danny Parente (Danny Aiello) while a young Sicilian girl, who rents a room from Al’s aunt, is making a movie about Brooklyn. She brings back old memories and some of the things she uncovers brings certain people in awkward positions. A time of new alliances has come to the neighborhood.

The good thing about A Brooklyn State of Mind is the way it creates a neighborhood feel. Brooklyn is shot and treated as a living and breathing character which gives you the feeling that you are really there. It is a nice place, a family place, but it isn’t all good. The real Brooklyn is also violent and corrupt. The mob is a destructive force, that much becomes clear.

A Brooklyn State of Mind had the potential to be a nice little movie, but doesn’t quite make it. The casting of Vincent Spano as leading man and Ricky Aiello is obviously a mistake. They come across as unnatural in a film that feels quite real. This authentic feel is also disturbed by the plot, which becomes very soapish towards the end. Danny Aiello makes up for this partly with his adequate role as the main villain.

Rating:

Quote:
DANNY PARENTE: “If you don’t want to be eaten, don’t swim with the big fish.”

Trivia:
Features two actors from The Godfather. Morgana King (Aunt Rose) who played Mama Corleone and Abe Vigoda (Uncle Guy) who played Sal Tessio.

Plan 9 from Outer Space

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Edward D. Wood Jr.
Written by: Edward D. Wood Jr., Alex Gordon
Cast: Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Duke Moore, Tom Keene

Year / Country: 1959, USA
Running Time: 78 mins.

According to Tim Burton’s biography Ed Wood, this is Edward D. Wood Jr.’s favourite movie. It is easy to see why. It is his most epic film if you will, containing all the elements that made his movies so bad in spades; the minimalist sets; the casting of non-talents or over the hill B-stars; the archive footage and the hilarious action.

The story revolves around a hostile alien race that wants to resurrect an army of the dead to march on the capitals of the world, hence the original title Grave Robbers from Outer Space. So far, the aliens only managed to create three zombies, but that doesn’t bother them.

Fans of Ed Wood’s movies will have a riot with Plan 9 guaranteed. This is the movie that set his name in stone as the world’s worst filmmaker. All of Ed Wood’s favourite cast members are present; Vampira, Chriswell, Tor Johnson and Bela Lugosi. For Lugosi, this is his final film. For the first two scenes that is. After his death, he was replaced by Wood’s chiropractor, who holds a cape before his face the whole film. Hilarious.

There are many, many more extremely funny things in Plan 9. The airplane cabin; the army footage that doesn’t match at all with the rest of the film; the flying saucers that are obviously hubcaps; the sudden transitions from night to day in the same scene, etcetera, etcetera.

The beauty of it is that Wood was being serious. There is actually a message in this film about human stupidity for messing with nuclear power. Maybe this is not the most convincing work that tries to bring that message across, but Wood deserves respect for trying. And his tombstone credit sequence IS excellent filmmaking.

Rating:

Biography: Edward D. Wood Jr. (1924, New York – 1978, Hollywood) is widely considered as the world’s worst filmmaker. His low-budget movies, usually mergers of science-fiction and horror, are mostly complete disasters in terms of production values and continuity. In 1994, Edward D. Wood Jr. became the subject of an amazing biopic directed by Tim Burton called Ed Wood.

Filmography: The Sun Was Setting (1951, TV short), Trick Shooting with Kenne Duncan (1953, short), Glen or Glenda (1953), Crossroad Avenger: The Adventures of the Tuscon Kid (1953, TV short), Boots (1953, short), Jail Bait (1954), Bride of the Monster (1955), The Night the Banshee Cried (1957, short), Final Curtain (1957, short), Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959), Night of the Ghouls (1959), The Sinister Urge (1960), Take It Out in Trade (1970), The Young Marrieds (1971), Necromania: A Tale of Weird Love (1971)