The Valachi Papers

The Valachi Papers is a 1972 crime movie starring Charles Bronson, Lino Ventura and directed by Terence Young.

Adapted from the book by Peter Maas, it tells the true story of Joseph Valachi, who was the first Mafia informant in the early 1960s. The film was produced in Italy, with many scenes dubbed into English.

Plot

The movie begins in Atlanta federal penitentiary, where an aging prisoner named Joseph Valachi (Charles Bronson) is imprisoned for smuggling heroin. The boss of his crime family, Vito Genovese (Lino Ventura), is imprisoned there as well. Genovese is certain that Valachi is an informant, and gives him the "kiss of death." Valachi kisses him back.

Valachi mistakenly kills a fellow prisoner who he wrongly thinks is a mob assassin. Told of the mistake by federal agents, Valachi becomes an informant, the first in the history of the Mafia. He tells his life story in flashback.

The movie traces Valachi from a young punk to a gangster associating with bosses like Salvatore Maranzano (Joseph Wiseman). Maranzano tells a mourner at a funeral, "I cannot bring back the dead. I can only kill the living." Valachi marries a boss's daughter, played by Bronson's real-life wife Jill Ireland.

Valachi's rise in the Mafia is hampered by his poor relations with his capo, Tony Bender (Guido Leontini). Bender is portrayed castrating a mobster for having relations with another mobster's wife. Valachi shoots the man to put him out of his misery.

The mayhem and murder continue to the present, with Valachi shown testifying before a Senate committee. He is upset with having to testify and attempts suicide, but in the end outlives Genovese, who dies in prison.

Production and editing

Poorly supervised production and editing of the released version shows a 1930's night street scene, in which numerous 1960's model cars are parked and go by. This appears 27 minutes into the film. There is also a scene where Valachi, eluding police pursuit, drives a car into the Hudson River just north of the Brooklyn Bridge, wherein the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center are clearly visible against the dawn sky. This despite the fact that the Towers were only recently completed when the film was released in 1972, and the scene depicted happened in the early 1930's.

Fact versus fiction

The film departed from the true story of Joseph Valachi, as recounted in the Peter Maas book, in a number of ways.

Though using real names and depicting real events, the book also contained numerous events that were fictionalized. Among them was the castration scene and the "I can only kill the living" Maranzano comment, which was widely ridiculed by critics.

Popular Culture References

In the 1970s television sitcom Maude, Season 1, Episode 21 (The Perfect Couple), Walter tells Maude that he loves her more today than he did yesterday. Maude's response is, "Oh, darling. Oh, Walter. You're so sweet and poetic. If Shakespeare had known you, he never would have written 'Romeo and Juliet.' He would have written 'The Valachi Papers'!"

In season 5, episode 11 of HBO series The Sopranos entitled "The Test Dream," Tony Soprano holds a copy of the novel the movie is based upon during a complicated dream sequence. He is speaking with a corrupt police officer at a urinal who questions his resolve in taking action. He holds up a copy of the book and replies, "I've done my homework."

External links

• The Valachi Papers at the Internet Movie Database

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