I love an old fashioned Mafia film filled with
betrayals, ambition and bloodshed. Almost Shakespearean. This has plenty
of all of that. Coming a year after The Godfather, it was clearly produced
with the intent of jumping on the popularity of that film. True, it lacks
the depth and settles for a lot of killing, but is still quite satisfying.
It has a terrific cast of character actors but they are headed by the great
Anthony Quinn. Quinn gives a terrific performance here going from a commanding
presence to a broken man. Some other favorites are Frederick Forrest coming
across as a young Marlon Brando, Robert Forster, Charles Cioffi, Joe Santos,
Abe Vigoda, Sid Haig, Vic Tayback and Al Lettieri. Directed by Richard Fleischer,
who had his share of bombs and hits.
This is pure Mafia porn. Not a cop to be
seen. What starts off as a happy Mafia family of three Dons sharing the city
comes apart. Due to some degree to two women. One a siren, the other Lady
MacBeth. It begins with three friends (Forrest, Lettieri and Forster) doing
a drug deal. It goes sideways when another party invites themselves in. It
is quickly established that Forrest has the brains, his brother played by
Lettieri the gunsel and Forster the ambition. Somebody in the family betrayed
them.
But first Forster learns that his father,
the Don of one of the three families died from a heart attack and the Council
meets to divide his territory up. Forster is considered too young to take
his father's place. Instead, it goes 50-50 to Quinn's family and to Cioffe,
but Quinn adopts Forster as his heir. All is agreed upon. The family is at
peace. Not for long.
Lady MacBeth, the wife of Cioffe, wants
him to own the city. Do that by destroying Quinn from within. Forster has
a girl he is in love with. But not knowing this, Quinn takes her as his mistress.
Set up by Cioffe. Everyone has to start taking sides and the war is on. Forrest
plays the Pacino role in this; wants to get out but loyalty and friendship
pulls him in. There are a lot of characters to keep track of and a lot of
hits to subtract them off the roster. Nearly two hours long but quickly paced.
