Je vous salue, mafia!

One of the most refreshing movie experiences I have had in recent years. This tale of two hitmen on a journey from New York to France to rub out a potential Grand Jury squealer is an absolute delight. So unpretentious and yet so involving as it moves along with a good rhythm and a cute jazz soundtrack. Klugman and Silva are fine in the awkwardness of their difficult killer team relationship. And Eddie Constantine as interesting and reliable as ever.

An interesting French Eurocrime movie following the fortunes of Henry Silva and Jack Klugman playing a pair of mafia hitmen hunting for their latest target; the problem is that he's an old buddy of Klugman's. This reminded me of PULP FICTION in the way it depicts the friendship between the assassins and charts their meals and misadventures along the way, although it looks a lot different, shot in the French 'New Wave' style. The ending's a memorable one.

At the time in Paris, Eddie Constantine was much bigger than Jack Klugman. I haven't seen the film since its release, but I recall it as a fast-paced hard-bitten policier. My Dad was in there as the Mafia boss Hyman, and he calmly dispatched his enemies with one word from the putting green. Great fun.

Some folks might watch "Hail, Mafia" and assume this is just a typical French gangster film. However, French film noir was quite different. This film, instead is much like if you started with French film noir and blended it with the New Wave...creating an odd sort of hybrid.

Like many productions of the era, although it's not an American film is stars American actors. This is because in post-war Europe (particularly Italy), folks thought having American stars in their movies would make them more marketable and even B-list actors like Henry Silva and Jack Klugman would make the pictures very international.

The plot to this story is very simple. Two gangsters have been contracted to kill a third gangster. But before they ultimately kill the guy, there is a build-up--with angry Phil (Klugman) and more business-like and cold Schaft (Silva). It's all accompanied by a lot of jazz music and is almost good...almost. The problem for me is twofold. First, there just isn't much in the way of plot. Second, this is a clearly a case of style over substance. Not a terrible film...but there are so many better French gangster films...such as any of the pictures of Jean-Pierre Melville.

Eddie is not the main actor in this film, although it is all about him. The mafia in New York sees him as a threat to their existence, and two professional killers are sent out to kill him off in the south of France, Marseilles and Camargue. The language here is English, Eddie is better and more at home in French films, and the two American killers are also not quite at ease in France, always denigratingly comparing it with California. The action is very slow to begin with, allowing the jazz music to dominate the greater part of the film, but eventually it towers into something of a very interesting drama, as the two killers are very different and there for very different motives, leading to arguments and some serious questioning. The audience is in for some interesting surprises.

The drama somewhat overshadows the interesting story, there is also the case of Eddie's lady, who can't understand Eddie's actions while he can't explain them to her, for reasons that will appear perhaps too late. It's a tense very noir drama, you have to wait for something to happen in this dark thriller, which actually is very plain, but it's the complications that make it interesting.