Now the top ten gangster films.
10. The Long Good Friday. A great gangster flick starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Miren. Bob is a Cockney crime lord who has troubles when an American Mafia Don comes to make a deal and various complications ensue. A great scene where he has a bunch of his rivals hanging from meat hooks as he questions them.
9. Capone starring Ben Gazzara as Al Capone. A laugh riot. The slutmeister Susan Blakely as a whore. Harry Gaudino as Johnnie Torrio. And Sly Stallone as Frank Niti. The best scene, a syphilitic Capone fishing in a swimming pool. So bad it's great.
8. The Harder They Fall. Generally classified as a boxing movie, I call it a gangster movie as it shows how Frankie Carbo and the mob controlled the fight game. An Argentinian strong man is set up for a fall as it fictionalizes the career of Primo Carnera. Humphrey Bogart in his final movie role. It shows how the Mob ran the fight game. And I always love a movie that shows how corrupt newspaperman are in real life. Bogey is kinda sad cause you can see he is sick. But he still puts in a great performance.
7. Goodfellas. I kind of think that this movie is overrated. Well i think Scorcese is overrated. Over the top acting as usual from Joe Pesci. Over done voice overs. And Dr Melfi is skinny but still annoying as the wife. Still on the list but not one of my faves.
6. The Roaring Twenties. A James Cagney classic based on some of the Irish bootleggers of the twenties. You know, like Joe Kennedy. A little dated but still a classic. I would include Public Enemy for which it is often confused. With Bogart as a supporting character. What more could you want.
5. Dillinger with Warren Oates in the Title role. A great low budget film about the bank robbers. Cameos by Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson. Lots of action and great shoot outs. You need to acknowledge the great bank robbers of the depression era and I think Bonnie and Clyde is really overrated.
4. White Heat with James Cagney at his crazy best. On top of the gas tank in the final shoot out screaming "Top of the World, Ma!" The best shoot em up gangster film of all time execpt for one other.
3. The Godfather Part One. A great film with all the classic moments we know so well. Tom Hagen. Tessio. Clemenza. Fredo. Sonny. Michael. The Don. Need I say anything more.
2. Scarface. The greatest and most violent shoot em up gangster film of all time. From the boatlift scenes to the final shootout, it shows what narco crime is all about. Sin and degredation. Lots of classic lines. An over the top Pacino is just right in this crazy but brilliant film.
1. Godfather Two. Better than one. The scenes with Deniro as the young Don are among the best ever filmed about the immigrant experiance The scense at Ellis Island. The scenes in Cuba with Hyman Roth. All I can say is;
Michael Corleone: I don't feel I have to wipe everybody out, Tom. Just my enemies.
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8 comments:
Blakely and Stallone teamed up for Over The Top, too. The only movie about professional arm wrestling that I know.
I've seen only White Heat and the two Godfather movies, believe it or not. Never could get into the gangster thing.
You need to check out the Long Good Friday. And Scarface of course. I can't believe you haven't seen Scarface. It's become a cultural phenoman as rappers love it and love to quote from it in their songs and videos. The Harder They Fall is a cool rainy Sunday afternoon old fashioned film to watch when the game is rained out.
I know about "Long, Good Friday". That was the film that George Harrison produced after "Life of Brian", one of the films that was said to have revitalized the Brit film industry.
And, yeah, I've been listening to people quote Scarface since it came out. It's just hard for me to muster up the interest in watching gangster flicks.
Well Scarface is an acquired taste. It is brutal but is DePalmas best film. It's all over the place but it has a raw power that is impressive.
Save it for the day after a Merchant-Ivory Film festival. Sort of a palate cleanser. Hee hee.
I think Helen Mirren along with Ellen Barkin are the two hottest actresses in the world today. I don't care how old she is, she's smoking and gives a great performance in the Long Good Friday.
Helen Mirren was such a hottie in Excalibur. She's a saucy wench, even today.
Two good scenery-chewing Capones:
Robards in "St. Valentines Day Massacre" (an Irish-American Capone)
Steiger in "Al Capone" (a Jewish American Capone)
By comparison Bobby D.'s Capone is comatose.
The best Al Capone I ever saw was in the second TV series called the Untouchables. A great character actor named William Douglas plays Capone and they are very faithful to the actual events. Strangely enough the guy who plays Eliot Ness is a dead ringer in voice and mannerisms for Jimmie Stewart. That was a great lost TV series that would be great to catch on Sleuth TV when they replay it.
But I love the Jason Robards Capone. Can you imagine him and Lauren Bacall fighting and throwing things at each other and then having hot make up sex. Cool.
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