Themes: Crime Gone Awry, Bank Robbery, Inner City Blues
Main Cast: Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke, Daryl Hannah, Geraldine Page, Kenneth McMillan
Release Year: 1984
Country: US
Run Time: 122 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Set on the streets of New York's Little Italy, this dramatic series of character studies chronicles the lives and relationships between a disparate pair of Italian American cousins. Both of them want to leave the poverty of ghetto life, but each takes a dramatically different route when one of them joins the mob and the other accidentally impregnates his girlfriend. When the young gangster gets into deep trouble, the other must reevaluate his goals and his true feelings about his family. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Review
Mickey Rourke and Eric Roberts play two Italian cousins, Charlie and Paulie, who run afoul of both the police and local mob boss Burt Young in their New York neighborhood when a safe-cracking scheme backfires. Charlie, much like Harvey Keitel's character of the same name in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets, is a dapper hanger-on at the edge of gangsterdom, while Paulie, much like the Robert DeNiro character in the same film, is a moronic, womanizing loser for whom his inexplicably devoted cousin must account in the end. Thin at best, the plot comes second to the study of character; unfortunately, the characterization is uniformly two-dimensional. The filmmakers seem more interested in ethnic stereotypes than a story. Incidentally, Italians are identified by their gold chains, poor table manners and wild gesticulations, while Irishmen are characterized as cheap conniving boozers, and WASPs can be picked out by their taste for canned soup and soft white bread. The atmospheric soundtrack (including several appropriate tracks by Frank Sinatra is helpful but not enough to carry this fatally flawed film. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
Tony Musante - Pete; Burt Young - Bed Bug Eddie; M. Emmet Walsh - Burns; Jack Kehoe - Bunky Ritter; Val Avery - Nunzi; Joe Grifasi - Jimmy; Tony di Benedetto - Ronnie; Ronald Maccone - Nicky; Betty Miller - Nora; Paul Austin - Toll Booth Attendant; John Bentley - Summons Man; Philip Bosco - Paulie's Father; Marty Brill - Mel; James Bulleit - Cashier; Thomas A. Carlin - Walsh; Clem Caserta - Eating Man at Sal's; Rik Colitti - Barber; William Duell - Toll Booth Attendant; John Finn - Ginty; Paul Herman - Stickball Player; Anna Levine - Waitress at Country Inn; Tony Lip - Frankie; Gerry Murphy - Garber; Ed O'Ross - Bartender at Sal's; Jacques Sandulescu - Chef; Jose Santana - Bus Boy; Ed Setrakian - Inspector; Leonard Termo - Fat Waldo; Frank Vincent - 1st Crew Chief; Kevin Breslin - Tommy Botondo; Claude Vincent - Bartender at Limehouse; Henry Yuk - Assistant Cook; Peter Conti - Waiter at Sal's; Linda Ipanema - Cooky
Credit
Benjamin Rosenberg - Associate Producer, Joseph M. Caracciolo, Jr. - Associate Producer, Timothy R. Sexton - Consultant/advisor, Joseph G. Aulisi - Costume Designer, Stuart Rosenberg - Director, Robert Brown - Editor, Dave Grusin - Composer (Music Score), Frank Sinatra - Songwriter, Paul Sylbert - Production Designer, John Bailey - Cinematographer, Gene Kirkwood - Producer, Howard W. Koch - Producer, James J. Sabat - Sound/Sound Designer, Billy Anagnos - Stunts, Vincent Patrick - Screenwriter, George De Titta, Jr. - Leadman, Vincent Patrick - Book Author
