|
Fall of the Monetti clan, a change of management in the New World. The dark, empty mansion comes to life with a Verdi aria out of the phonograph, the camera pans from the late patriarch's oil portrait to climb a staircase and trigger the flashback with reference to Key Largo, Edward G. Robinson in a bathtub. "This is 1932, New York, the jungle," where the immigrant barber has built a bank. Four sons gathered around the mountain of spaghetti, the oldest (Luther Adler) is a pushed-around clerk waiting for the time to turn. Pugilist (Paul Valentine) and bon vivant (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) figure in the Lear transposition, the lawyer (Richard Conte) is split between docile Italian bride (Debra Paget) and independent American client (Susan Hayward). "Always looking for a new way to get hurt by a man. Get smart, there hasn't been a new man since Adam." Joseph L. Mankiewicz's noir family opera, "lots of atmosphere, full of characters." From Palermo to the Lower East Side, the autocrat on trial and the prodigal vendetta, a matter of bookkeeping to bring down the house. The smooth operator can't figure out the thorny dame full of "complications," they spar and romp in her apartment and he's left at the restaurant, waiting for her call. (A scan of the establishment sees a burly cigar-chomper and a doleful lass at a nearby table, a characteristic Mankiewicz detail.) "Money is a great cleanser," cf. Capra's American Madness. Mama (Esther Minciotti) weeps at the legacy, "four men full of hate," the escape is a trip to San Francisco. The story receives a Western retelling (Broken Lance) and a gangland clarification (The Godfather). With Hope Emerson, Diana Douglas, and Tito Vuolo. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |