Sindacato assassini

During the very late 50s and early 60s, Hollywood made a bunch of real life crime biographies. I am pretty sure this was due to the success of "The Untouchables" on television and, like "The Untouchables", these movies kind of stuck to the facts....sometimes. Well, at least the names were right. But they were very entertaining.

The movie is about a group dubbed 'Murder Inc.". It was a clever creation of the mob...a contract killing organization that could not be connected easily to any of the murders since they simply were doing it for the cash. The film is about some of their activities but is mostly concerned with the government's efforts to prosecute them.

Although this story gives Stuart Whitman and Mai Britt top billing, their parts are really underdeveloped and you never get to know who these people were--especially Whitman's character, Joey Collins. There really is no star in this film...but a few of the hoods come off much better. Folks loved Peter Falk as Abe Reles, one of the most feared hitmen of all time....and he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for this. David Stewart was also excellent as the gang leader, Lepke.

A few times during the film, the filmmakers pulled their punches--especially concerning Reles. Although it did show him making a few hits using an ice pick, apparently this monster was known for stabbing his victims in the brain with the ice pick. Nice guy, huh?! This didn't bother me too much, as it was perhaps too ghoulish for 1960 audiences. What bothered me more was how the hairstyles (particularly Mai Britt's) were purely 1960...not late 1930s like they should have been.

So is it any good? Yes...it's very watchable but also a tad superficial and I felt after seeing it that there was so much more to the story...which there was. Worth your time...not great but quite good.

Those who comment that Peter Falk elevated this movie to a very interesting one are right on the money. Falk, in his first role on screen, definitely plays the most interesting character. Of course, anyone who is a deranged killer is likely to be the focus of viewers' attention. However, the actor still has to be convincing and Falk does a fine job here as "Abe Reles."

He's convincing!

What made this film fun for me was not only Falk, but seeing a few other faces I haven't seen in years, such as May Britt, Henry Morgan and Stuart Whitman. Having watched a few "Night Stalker" TV episodes, I was still very familiar with Simon Oakland. The above actors were all very good in here, as was the rest of the cast, except maybe David Stewart as head crime boss "Lepke." He was too bland for his role.

We even get a song from a young Sarah Vaughan and a comedy routine from Morey Amsterdam!

Falk is the undisputed star of the film but second-place, to me, went to Morgan, who was quietly fascinating as the cop "Turkus."

Another nice thing was the DVD which gives us the original widescreen transfer of the film. There aren't many black-and-white CinemaScope pictures available for us movie fans to see, so it was pleasure to view this.

How much truth there is in this "true story" with "real people" is a question best left to historians of organized crime. The subplot of Stuart Whitman ("Joey") and May Britt ("Eadie") as a loving couple caught up in nasty doings certainly seems like the stuff of fiction. In any case, this is a low-budget "B" picture with limited resources for portraying the 1930s setting and documenting the historical events with authentic detail.

The one extraordinary element in the movie is the performance by Peter Falk as a contract killer. He is not only completely believable in the role but downright original, giving us a character who is merciless and vicious yet quick to take offense if anyone finds this objectionable. He can sound plaintively sincere even as we quickly come to see that he is incapable of sincerity. He has a host of minor quirks and tics that are fun to watch.

Face it, evil can be fascinating and even attractive, in a disturbing way. Another example in this movie is the portrayal of crime kingpin Louis "Lepke" Bucholter by David J. Stewart. While certainly not achieving the high level of Falk's performance, Stewart shows real style as the milk-drinking mobster.

There is one other bonus in this film: Sarah Vaughan, looking young and pretty, sings a nice song with that inimitable voice.

10 years before Peter Falk racked up a trunk-load of Emmy's and many more nominations for his his work as Columbo, he had two roles that would stand out in the film world. One was Pocketful of Miracles in 1961, and the other was this film the year before.

His performance as the contract killer Abe 'Kid Twist' Reles is the best thing about the true-life mob story. While most of the other characters just seem to float through the movie, he was intense ans you could see the promise that would lie ahead for him.

Stuart Whitman, who would get his only Oscar nomination a year later, was also good as Joey, who got caught up in the rackets. May Britt, who would leave the movies to marry Sammy Davis, Jr., was also very good as Joey's wife.

The movie seems more like a documentary when it is not focused on these three characters. As an added bonus, you get to see the legendary Sarah Vaughan in the movie.

While Murder, Inc. mainly revolves around the capture of gangster Lepke, the most compelling character is hit man Abe Reles, excellently played by Peter Falk in one of his earliest movie roles. He got an Oscar nomination as a result. Those who know him mostly as the calm Lt. Columbo will be very surprised by the intense rage Mr. Falk puts in his performance especially during his "take" speech he gives to a married couple who have no choice but to accept his offer of an apartment he gives them. Also noteworthy are Vincent Gardenia as his lawyer (loved his "I'd rather you were dead" aside before Reles-having overheard him-asked, "What did you mean by that?" "It was just a figure of speech,"comes the reply), May Britt as wife in aforementioned couple, Sarah Vaughan as a nightclub singer (in a musical interlude), and Morey Amsterdam as a comic who meets a tragic end in the beginning. Based on a true story but with, as always, some dramatization involved. One of the two directors was Stuart "Cool Hand Luke" Rosenberg. Well worth seeing for gangster movie fans.