BY FRED BLOSSER
“The
Don Is Dead,†a 1973 crime drama directed by Richard Fleischer, is available on
Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics. Unassuming but sharply executed, it may offer a bracing slice of
old-school pizza for viewers who were disappointed by David Chase’s “The Many
Saints of Newark†earlier this year. In
Fleischer’s film, an unexpected heart attack claims Don Paolo Regalbuto, one of
three powerful crime bosses in an unnamed American city. Since organized crime abhors a vacuum even
more than nature does, the “national commission†of bosses quickly meets to
decide the fate of the Regalbuto crime Family. No one ever uses the word “Mafia,†but wink-wink, you know whose these
guys are anyway. One of the three bosses
with whom Don Paolo shared control over their city, Don Jimmy, is away in
prison and represented at the emergency summit by his consigliere, Luigi
Orlando (Charles Cioffi). Luigi suggests
that Don Paolo’s only son and heir apparent, Frank (Robert Forster), is too
inexperienced to be crowned as the new boss of the Regalbuto empire, not to
mention too impulsively hot-headed. Instead, why not dissolve Don Paolo’s organization and divide the assets
between Don Jimmy and the other boss in the triumvirate, Don Angelo? Luigi will be glad to manage Don Jimmy’s
interests in his enforced absence. When
Frank resists the notion of stepping down, the seasoned Don Angelo (Anthony
Quinn) ventures a middle ground that everyone agrees to. The Regalbuto assets will be divided
evenly. Angelo will get half and Don
Jimmy will get the other half as an absentee owner with Luigi as his caretaker. In the meantime, without any offspring of his
own, Angelo will take Frank under his wing as his surrogate son. Don Paolo’s enforcers, the Fargo brothers, will be on call whenever either of the
two gangs needs their services. When
Angelo dies, Frank will inherit his entire organization.
Like
many compromises, the plan is reasonable in theory but shaky in practice. Frank wants to continue his lucrative
sideline in narcotics. No, Don Angelo
objects -- too risky, too dirty. Still,
he agrees to let the younger man travel to Italy to close one final
transaction. The younger and smarter of
the two Fargo brothers, Tony (Frederic Forrest) is determined to get out of the
rackets, but Frank resists, as does Tony’s older brother Vince (Al Lettieri). They need Tony’s wise counsel to keep them on
track. In the meantime, with his boss
Don Jimmy behind bars, the devious Luigi Orlando turns the instability to his
own advantage. When he and his equally
grasping wife Marie see Frank having lunch with an attractive blonde, Luigi
sends Marie over to chat her up after Frank leaves. Learning that the young woman, Ruby Bridges,
is an aspiring singer and songwriter, Luigi devises a plan more J.R. Ewing than
Al Capone, but equally effective. While
Frank is away, Luigi secretly introduces Ruby to Don Angelo. Not aware that Frank has a prior claim, the
older man falls for her. Her one song
that we hear briefly on a demo tape (actually composed by Carol and Jerry
Goldsmith) isn’t likely to excite today’s Adele or Cardi B fans, but Angelo
likes it and he’s impressed by Ruby’s sincerity. In turn, she feels that Frank deserted her by
flying off to Italy, and Angelo promises to use his high-level connections in
the music business to further her career. It doesn’t hurt either that Ruby is played by Angel Tompkins. That name may not mean much to anyone under
50 today, but it revives fond memories for all us guys who saw the blonde
actress in the sleazy 1974 drive-in movie “The Teacher†in our hormonal early
20s. Angelo installs Ruby in a luxurious
apartment as his mistress, as Frank learns when he returns from Italy and
receives an anonymous tip from Luigi. The short-tempered younger gangster reacts violently, Don Angelo retaliates,
and war breaks out with Frank and the Fargo brothers on one side, Angelo on the
other, and Luigi gleefully stirring things up behind the scenes.
Any
Mafia movie, even “The Godfather†which “The Don Is Dead†dutifully emulates on
a smaller scale, stands or falls on two factors. One, does it deliver the expected quota of
double-crosses, machine-gun volleys, shotgun blasts, and loud explosions? Fleischer’s unpretentious drama, with
screenplay credited to veteran pulp writer Marvin H. Albert, based on his
novel, performs as well in this respect as most pictures in its genre, if not
better. There’s even one of the
action-movie staples so beloved by the late Roger Ebert, the runaway car that
crashes into a produce stand, scattering fruits and vegetables everywhere. Fleischer and Albert add a second crash for
good measure, followed by a scene where a character, fatally shot, falls onto a
mountain of empty crates, toppling it. On the second criterion -- are the actors believably cast and do they
perform capably?-- the picture scores high points too. Cioffi, Forrest, Forster, Lettieri, and Quinn
are all first-rate. This is one of those
rare films where Quinn is nearly, if not completely, upstaged in macho presence
by his co-stars. Another graduate of
“The Godfather,†Abe Vigoda, is listed prominently in the credits, but he only
appears briefly early on, as one of the big bosses who decide the fate of Don
Paolo’s empire. For veteran TV fans,
there are plenty of other welcome players in the supporting cast too, notably
Frank De Kova, J. Duke Russo, Joe Santos, and Vic Tayback. Viewers who muse, “I know the face, but who
is that guy?†may spend as much time trying to ID the actors as following the
plot.
The
Kino Lorber Blu-ray includes the theatrical trailer and an excellent audio
commentary by film historian Sergio Mims.
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Fred Blosser is the author of "Sons of Ringo: The Great Spaghetti Western Heroes". Click here to order from Amazon)