The Valachi Papers (1972)

Director:

Terence Young

Writers:

Massimo De Rita (dialogue)
Stephen Geller (writer)

Release Date:

6 January 1972 (France)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

The syndicate. Genovese. Anastasia. Luciano. Masseria. Lucchese. Maranzano. The way they lived - The way they died.

Plot:

When Joe Valachi (Charles Bronson) has a price put on his head by Don Vito Genovese (Lino Ventura),...

Plot Keywords:

Prison | Switchblade | Mafia | Castration | Lesbian

Cast

Charles Bronson	...	Joe Valachi
Lino Ventura	...	Vito Genovese
Jill Ireland	...	Maria Reina Valachi
Walter Chiari	...	Gap
Joseph Wiseman	...	Salvatore Maranzano
Gerald S. O'Loughlin	...	Ryan (as Gerald O'Loughlin)
Amedeo Nazzari	...	Gaetano Reina
Fausto Tozzi	...	Albert Anastasia
Pupella Maggio	...	Letizia Reina
Angelo Infanti	...	Lucky Luciano
Guido Leontini	...	Tony Bender
María Baxa	...	Donna
Mario Pilar	...	Salierno
Franco Borelli	...	Buster
Alessandro Sperli	...	Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria

Also Known As:

Carteggio Valachi (Italy)
Cosa Nostra
Joe Valachi - I segreti di Cosa Nostra (Italy)
Le dossier Valachi (France)

Runtime:

France:110 min | USA:125 min

Country:

France | Italy

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:18 (re-rating) (1992) | UK:X (original rating) | Singapore:NC-16 | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1988) | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1972) | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1998) | Iceland:16 | France:-12 | West Germany:18 (nf) | Norway:18 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG | USA:R (original rating)

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

De Laurentiis Intermarco S.p.A.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: During the chase scene which takes place during the 1920s in New York, a car goes into the river and in the background the twin towers of the World Trade Center under construction can be clearly seen.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Ruth Gordon/Chuck Berry (#2.12)" (1977)

Best Polish mafia film I've seen

I give this a 7 stars because it was made the same year as Godfather I, so it didn't benefit from all the film-industry wisdom that followed that production. Rather, this is a character study of one mafioso, which is a separate issue from the operatic, all-systems-GO no-holds-barred approach Coppola was able to employ in The Godfather. it's a smaller film, and should be compared to, say, Mobsters (1991), which deals with the same period and some of the same characters as V.P. Charles Bronson's Valachi is adequate. He's a workaday, uneducated, down- home mob guy, and Bronson plays him as if he were Polish, with a job that he goes to every day, where everyone talks Italian. Because it is through his eyes that we see his world, some of the other characters become more vivid, e.g., Joseph Wiseman as Salvatore Maranzano. When I compare the casting of the incomparable Joseph Wiseman in this role as opposed to, say, Michael Gambon in the same role in Mobsters, or Anthony Quinn as an equally old-school rival in the same film, I wonder: None of these actors are Italian -American or even simply Italian; why do some of them work, and the others don't? Granted that Wiseman, Quinn and Gambon are all consummate professionals and true craftsmen as actors, if anyone mentions Salvatore Maranzano and the Castellammarese gang war of 1929, the face that will come to my mind is that of Joseph Wiseman. He and Charles Bronson make this film worth seeing.