A New York City narcotics detective reluctantly agrees to cooperate with a special commission investigating police corruption. However, he soon discovers that he's in over his head, and nobody can be trusted.
A young district attorney seeking to prove a case against a corrupt police detective encounters a former lover and her new protector, a crime boss who refuses to help him in this gritty ... See full summary »
At the end of a long and hot summer day, members of one family gather in a large house. Everyone has something painful and offensive to say, and their silence is even worse.
Director:
Sidney Lumet
Stars:
Katharine Hepburn,
Ralph Richardson,
Jason Robards
After Duke Anderson is released from prison after ten years for taking the rap for a scion of a Mafia family, he cashes in a debt of honor with the mob to bankroll a caper.
New York City cop Daniel Ciello is involved in some questionable police practices. He is approached by internal affairs and in exchange for him potentially being let off the hook, he is instructed to begin to expose the inner workings of police corruption. Danny agrees as long as he does not have to turn in his partners but he soon learns that he cannot trust anyone and he must decide whose side he is on and who is on his.Written by
Josh Pasnak <chainsaw@intouch.bc.ca>
Brian De Palma and David Rabe had spent a year and a half developing the script for this Prince of the City with no production movement, De Palma and Rabe decided to put the development of the script indefinitely. David Rabe was hired by Universal Studios to to write Scarface and Brian De Palma was offered to direct, David Rabe and De Palma were excited to work together again. AL Pacino read the script and was unhappy with the script, Pacino told the producers and studio how unhappy he was and of course the studio would side with their movie star. So David Rabe quit and De Palma quit with him. De Palma and David Rabe went back and revived Prince of the City. Sidney Lumet took over Scarface as director with Oliver Stone as screenwriter and together spent a year developing the Scarface script together. Universal Studios and Lumet ultimately parted ways over creative difference. Lumet had read the script that De Palma and Rabe had wrote for Prince of the City, he expressed his interest in directing and the studio fired De Palma and Rabe and gave the film to Lumet, Lumet ultimately stole the film from De Palma and reaped the fruits of his labour. Lumet hired his own writer rewrote the script and made the film. The twist is Universal Studios came back to De Palma and asked him to direct Scarface again and De Palma reaped the fruits of Lumet labour! See more »
Goofs
Near the start of the film when Dan is pushing his brother Ronnie around, there's a large crack on the wall (probably from a previous shot). After he pushes Ronnie near the wall, another large crack appears but Ronnie is never shown hitting the wall. See more »
Quotes
Carla Ciello:
Always when I hear you, or Gus, or Joe, any of the guys, you always say nothing's worse than to be a r...
Daniel Ciello:
A rat. A rat is when they catch you and make you inform. Nobody caught me. This is my setup, this is my action. And I'm never gonna hurt my partners.
See more »
Alternate Versions
The film originally premiered on TV in a version broadcast over 4 hours (running no longer than 196 minutes), including previously unseen material which had been cut from the 167-minute theatrical release. Among the restored scenes is one that makes more sense of the DiBenadetto Case (the character Ciello's first rat-job). See more »
The best of the Lumet NY cop pictures. PRINCE OF THE CITY has an excellent script by Jay Presson Allen and a fine cast lead by Treat Williams and the best of NY's local actors. Danny Ciello, a NYC narcotics cop, deals with the conflict between his "moral compass" and the realities of drug law enforcement. The film is about Ciello clearing his conscience and suffering the consequences of seeing his police colleagues burned in the process. Supporting perfs are superb with special notice to Jerry Orbach as Ciello's partner and Lane Smith as the FBI agent that befriends Ciello's confused wife. Haunting score by Paul Chihara adds the finishing touch to this fine film about "doing the right thing" even when the consequences are so high.
Hope this film is soon released on DVD for everyone to enjoy...
8 of 11 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this
The best of the Lumet NY cop pictures. PRINCE OF THE CITY has an excellent script by Jay Presson Allen and a fine cast lead by Treat Williams and the best of NY's local actors. Danny Ciello, a NYC narcotics cop, deals with the conflict between his "moral compass" and the realities of drug law enforcement. The film is about Ciello clearing his conscience and suffering the consequences of seeing his police colleagues burned in the process. Supporting perfs are superb with special notice to Jerry Orbach as Ciello's partner and Lane Smith as the FBI agent that befriends Ciello's confused wife. Haunting score by Paul Chihara adds the finishing touch to this fine film about "doing the right thing" even when the consequences are so high.
Hope this film is soon released on DVD for everyone to enjoy...