Gone with the Pope

Being a major fan of Duke Mitchell's film Massacre Mafia Style, I couldn't wait to see Gone With the Pope, and I was not disappointed. Seeing the pristine, restored print in a theater was great fun, and Bob Murawski, who won the Academy Award for editing The Hurt Locker, did a great job resurrecting Duke Mitchell's lost masterpiece. Bringing Gone With the Pope to the world has been a passion of Bob's and it shows. Grindhouse Releasing has done some amazing re-releases, especially Cannibal Holocaust, I Drink Your Blood, and now Gone With the Pope is the next hit on their roll.

If you're unfamiliar with the work of Duke Mitchell, just wait until you see Massacre Mafia Style, which Grindhouse will also have on DVD soon, and if Gone With the Pope comes to your neck of the woods, be in, don't be in the way.

In the 1950s, Martin & Lewis were the hottest comedy team on the planet. Not surprisingly, their success encouraged likealikes...such as Mitchell & Petrillo. This pair was clearly a knockoff version of the famous team, with Mitchell impersonating Dean Martin, and when they managed to get a film contract, it was for a horrible cheapie called "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla". Amazingly, it's worse than it sounds and Mitchell & Petrillo (especially Petrillo) were simply awful.

I had no idea that Duke Mitchell managed to make a few films after his Lugosi debacle. I learned of this movie, "Gone With the Pope" when I was recently visiting Hollywood...where I saw a poster for this film in a retro theater. And, when I realized it was the same Duke Mitchell, I knew I had to find it. Fortunately, it's currently available on several channels on the Amazon Fire...and that's how I saw the movie.

The story behind this ultra-cheap film is a lot like what you'd expect from an Ed Wood movie. Mitchell scraped together a miniscule amount for a movie ($25-35,000 according to IMDB) and made it piecemeal over a couple years. Then, it appears he ran out of money and died a few years later. When cleaning out his things following his death, this very incomplete film was found in boxes....and someone decided to finish and release the movie...about three decades after Mitchell's death. Talk about a strange pedigree!

Paul (Duke Mitchell) was just released from prison and he isn't exactly repentant and ready to live the straight and narrow. After murdering a room full of mobsters, he comes up with a bizarro idea. He wants to kidnap the Pope and then charge every Catholic person $1 to get him back!

Much of the film was filmed using Mitchell's friends and associates. They clearly were NOT professional actors. You can tell this by the acting as well as the budget for the film. As far as the story goes, apparently there was no script. It is gritty and filled with expletives, racist comments and nudity you might not expect from a 1970s picture (that's when it was filmed).

Now I am NOT saying the movie is completely terrible. It has a few redeeming qualities and at least manages to be better than "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla"! On the plus side, there is a gritty realism about it and you get a chance to see 1970s Vegas and Rome. Also, for better or worse, the story IS original! On the negative side, the film looks cheap...really cheap. It also appears in places to just meander without any apparent thought to a plot. Overall, a bad film but not a terrible one...and mostly of interest to the curious.

By the way, at one point the gang is talking about getting a Citroën Maserati. This is referring to the Citroën SM...a Citroën with a Maserati engine...hence the name.

Saw a midnight screening of Gone with the Pope at the New Beverly. They usually screen it once a month and I hope it's a mainstay there for a long time. It is a BLAST! It's not Goodfellas so leave your cynicism at home. Gone with the Pope is grindhouse/independent filmmaking at it's best. It's a gritty, don't give a toss mobster masterpiece that is hilarious on so many levels. Loaded with unforgettable scenes and quotable lines that I'll leave up to you to go out and experience for yourself. You can see how much love and effort went into making this film outweighing any of it's imperfections. Big thanks to Bob Murawski and Sage Stallone for tracking down this gem and getting it out to the masses.

Gone with the Pope (2010)

** (out of 4)

Wiseguy Paul (Duke Mitchell) agrees to kill seven people so that his friends can live a better life with the money once they're released from prison. Once out, Paul and his friends take a cruise around the world when he gets an idea to kidnap the Pope and request a dollar from every Catholic in the world for his return.

GONE WITH THE POPE was produced, written and directed by Mitchell but the film was never complete and after Mitchell's death in 1981, the film pretty much remained unseen until the folks at Grindhouse Releasing discovered a print and took the next fifteen years trying to piece it together. It's clear that there's stuff missing but I'm not sure if this is due to a few reels being missing or the fact that it seems Mitchell was just filming stuff for the sake of filming and in the end none of it added up to much. This film is no where near as entertaining as MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE but fans of the (now) cult filmmaker will still want to check it out.

If you're expecting the over-the-top craziness of MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE then you're probably going to be disappointed. This movie here is pretty laid back in its approach and there's really nothing too crazy outside the entire kidnapping of the Pope storyline. Even that there is somewhat deceptive considering that plot point only takes about thirty-minutes worth of running time if that. There are a few Mafia hits throughout the picture that contain some blood but nothing too graphic. There's some bizarre humor scattered throughout aimed at women, which is certainly something you'd only see from a movie in the 1970s. This includes a black woman who gets some racist jokes thrown her way and then there's a really bizarre sequence dealing with an obese woman.

The film certainly isn't what you'd call well-made but there's no doubt Mitchell had something that is..... Well, I'm not sure what it is but there's no doubt that his two films as writer-director have given him some fame that sadly he never saw in his lifetime. GONE WITH THE POPE is going to be hated by most people and you know who you are. Fans of cult movies will find some mild entertainment here thanks mainly to Mitchell. Even his performance as his plays this tough guy is charming to say the least. This certainly isn't a masterpiece but it's got a certain Mitchell charm. Not to mention, the actor manages to turn in a good performance and especially during a more dramatic moment where he breaks down speaking with the Pope.

Duke Mitchell spent most of his life in nightclubs. As a Singer and an Actor, Duke struggled to showcase his talent. Throughout the movie, it's hard to decipher between Duke Mitchell and the character Paul for whom he portrays. Both men are victims of the life they chose. Each is fighting to survive and are living on the run. Duke would die from lung cancer at the age of 55. Its hard not to remind yourself while watching the movie as Duke smokes countless amounts of cigarettes. Duke's character deals with being a prisoner, having a burden and feeling cheated. He is angry and manipulates many of his close friends. Wanted to be loved, the only real woman in his life is distant and a minor character. The so called "leader of the band" or head gang member, Duke always tries to stay in charge and be one step ahead of everyone else. You could say that Duke lived like this for most of his life. The ending is very powerful as well as unexpected. You need to ask yourself if Duke is running away or running after something. The ending show's his true fear and that he has been running his entire life. He is angry at America, his friends, and even his Faith. For the low budget / grind house picture that it is, Gone with the Pope meant much more to Duke Mitchell then you think. Having accomplished what it did not set out to do, the movie showcases timeless images of Los Angeles and Las Vegas from the 1970's. The wardrobe alone makes this movie worth watching. For an entertaining movie, any grind house fan will not be disappointed. Then again, for a deep hidden message, Duke's final message to the audience is one that many might not be able to witness.