Another lengthy journey into the world of the Mafia here, and you've got to wonder why they even bother getting out of bed in the morning. Someone's just going to shoot them anyway.
In Palermo, Agnostina Belli is worried about her husband going out in the middle of the night. Her husband, Stefano, is an old school Sicilian so he tells her to shut up and mind her own business, shortly before being gunned down in a field by a very aggressive John Saxon.
Saxon plays a guy called Gaspare, a very ambitious Mafioso who is rising up the ranks and is seeking to secure Stefano's land for building. Ownership of the land has now gone to Agnostina and now she has some very sinister people vying for her attention. Meanwhile, the film goes a bit Godfather when we meet Stefano's father Arthur Kennedy, who plays by the old rules and cannot put a hit on Stefano as he works for Arthur's also-old-school Capo, Don...I can't remember his name. This guy is very ill and Saxon knows fine well he's in a position to take over the whole operation.
We also meet all of Arthur's sons and the sons of his Counsellor, one of which falls in love and knocks up Agnostina, which complicates things further. Luckily for the viewer, this vast cast of mobsters starts to get whittled down as they all go from shouting insults at each other to blowing each others brains out, drowning each other, or randomly getting stabbed by a beggar. This isn't a comedy.
This is Vittoria Schiraldi's only film and it looks like he's got quite a bit to say about the Mafia, including how they are all bound by honour, something not adhered to by the younger members of the Mob. The straight man in all this is Arthur's son Massimo, who wants nothing to do with the Mafia and is quick to point out that good Mafia, bad Mafia, both are still criminals and killers.
I think there might be some sort of comment in there about the way women are treated by the Mafia too. Agnostina's husband makes a show of 'who wears the trousers' and although she fares a bit better with the next guy, he still wants to bail the moment he discovers she's pregnant. Apart from a few hookers here and there, we are pretty much informed that we are in the world of men.
As usual, we have that great Italian Cinematography to fall back on too, plus appropriately sad music to add to the 'no wonder people immigrated to America' vibe of the film.
