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Show jfhvor not captured f V- of-?,' x' convict he mistakes for a paid assassin, Valachi breaks down and confesses all to FBI agent Ryan (Gerald O'Loughlin). What follows is not only a chronicle of Valachi's crimes, but a simplified history of the last 40 years of the Cosa Nostra. Inducted into the Maranzano family as a driver for one of the LieuteNants, Valachi participates in the New Youk Italian gang wars of the early 30's, and becomes Maranzano's driver after peace is restored and the famous Five Families are set up. Valachi marries i ! .itome of the spirit of has made this Ian and Elizabeth "describing the title 7The Rise and Fall from their book hope was at a the credibility of the C an Success Story was L The saga of the all-American kid from filing his way in the ;;ugh initiative, guts, and J daughter seemed a l and people were on y iwarner Brothers, with ? f Jimmy Cagney and 5G Robinson, to give a isttothe old story, i one step further Lars later, when an tical attitude toward 'siness prevailed, . The Vtook the story one step C We now saw the gangster !ian of the Board, as head f corporate entity. Now, l.TSthe adage that imitation is ;tf the sincerest form of ,( but also the most -i, we have "The Valachi , the story of a modern-day ; Alger. -led to a federal penitentiary i early '60's, Joe Valachi, by Charles Bronson, is :i lor death, though he :knowwhy, by his boss and mate, Vito Genovese (Lino t After killing an innocent the daughter of a family lieutenant, aided by Genovese and "Lucky" Luciano, who overthrows Maranzano and rules the mob until Luciano is deported and Genovese is forced to flee. Now a family man with wife and son, he establishes a legitimate business front during the 40's and 50's, but disillusionment begins under the reign of Alber Anastasia, and increases after his best friend (Walter Chiari) is killed for fooling with the boss's girl. Federal pressure increases after the raid on the famous Appalachia meeting, and soon Valachi and boss Genovese, newly returned to the States, are framed by a colleague for drug trafficking. Pushed for 30 ' years by forces he cannot see, condemned for unknown reasons, Valachi reveals the history and traditions of the Mafia to headline-hunting headline-hunting senators. He has a price on his head of $100,000, and is doomed to spend the rest of his life in solitary, but as Ryan puts it, "At least you won't go in blind." Inside look This is presented as an inside look at the Cosa Nostra, and there are a few insights into tradition and philosophy, done with flair and deftness. Valachi is initiated into the family, merging his blood with that of his capo and holding a burning piece of paper in his hands to pledge that he should burn in the fires is he betrays the secret. Bad points The movie unfortunately has a goodly share of bad points. The killings are nothing more than sporadic bursts of rattling machine guns, spatter of blood, and flopping, flop-ping, tossing bodies. The only trace of creativity is in the clumsy symbolism of the killing of Maranzano, an intense admirer of Julius Caesar, who is betrayed by his chief lieutenant and knifed by Luciano's assassins. The acting is at the best average, and at the worst, ludicrous. The casting of Joe Valachi suffers from the lack of an unknown face, for one cannot believe Charles Bronson. At his oldest, he looks as if he could still ship out with the Magnificent Seven or the Dirty Dozen at a moment's notice. Only Lino Ventura as Vito Genovese stands out. Stoic, sometimes paternal, quietly tight-lipped in his lechery and brutality, he is in his own way as good a gangland czar as Marlon Brando's Don Vito Corleone. Wrong atmosphere But the chief fault with the film is that ifs atmosphere is wrong. Terence Young directed the film in Rome under the production of Dino de Laurentitis. By necessity, the film must be closed in, if an American atmosphere can be maintained at all, or even attempted. at-tempted. But the main premise of the gangster genre is that it is a perversion of an idea that is distinctly American, and the product of a pessimism stemming from the same source. A gangster film cannot succeed if it does not capture the American flavor, and there is little doubt that "The Valachi Papers" has not been able tn do this. |