Truth be told, this new breed of cops and politicians is the problem. At least, that’s how Frank Costello, current boss of the Luciano family, sees it.
When Frank and Vito Genovese grew up as teen pals in East Harlem, for instance, things were straightforward. The prohibition-choked masses wanted a connection for illegal booze, and the boys simply helped supply it.
Back then, all they had to do was grease the palms of a few “friendly” cops and politicians—you know, the ones who liked booze just fine—and everybody got their slice.
These days, though, things are all twisted and messy. The politicians try to make some splashy headlines for themselves, so, they push the cops. The cops actually uphold the laws, and the mobsters get pinched.
Lucky Luciano was sent away for a prostitution charge, for instance. (Not so lucky there.) Vito had to skip the country on a murder rap. And despite all the upheaval, the authorities still had their hands out for some kickback cheddar.
Wanna talk about the real crooks?
Anyway, by the mid 1950s, things were back to being fairly copesetic for the Luciano family. And that was mostly because of Frank. He worked based on his old business philosophy: Keep things low key and keep everybody happy.
So, Frank got the family to pull back on the prostitution. He steered clear of any drug sales. He kept money flowing to the right “charities,” the proper pockets. And in the course of it all, he became the “gentleman” mobster. In fact, the public started seeing him as more of a celebrity and faithful husband than a hard guy connected to crime.
Frank had a system. And it worked.
But then Vito came back to town after some 15 years away. Naturally, he wanted his slice. In fact, since Vito gave over all of his interests to Frank all those years ago, he felt the lion’s share of the pie should be coming his way now. And he wasn’t the least bit interested in steering clear of the lucrative drug market or being a money line to the cops.
“I take out! I don’t put in,” Vito always said when the guys were teens. And that’s his problematic perspective to this day. In response, Frank tries to warn him about possible problems, he tries to figure out how to keep everybody happy and calm.
Calm, however, ain’t Vito’s MO. And he’s not averse to making that plain to anybody who’s slow on the uptake.
Frank gets Vito’s special delivery message when Vincent “the Chin” Gigante walks up and puts a 32 slug in his head one night. Fortunately for Frank, the bullet miraculously bounces at an angle off his skull, and he lives.
Now, however, comes the hard part.
Frank has to figure out how to navigate the power struggle, how to placate Vito and how to stay alive while doing it.
And wouldn’t you know it, there ain’t a single crooked cop or dishonest politician to be found when a guy really needs one.
This is a film about Mob guys attempting to circumvent the law while angrily trying to kill one another. So, the biggest positive of this gangster movie is the fact that Frank does everything in his power to keep Vito from causing a bloodbath. And you could say that Frank and his wife Bobbie are a dedicated husband and wife.
It’s mentioned several times that Bobbie Costello is Jewish. Vito uses that declaration as a derisive accusation implying that she has softened Frank, making him more diplomatic and “business” focused.
After Vito returns to the States, he spots a woman who suits his fancy. And we see him flirt with and woo her. The two become romantic and eventually marry.
This woman, Anna, also owns an after-hours club that Vito labels as a “lesbian” club. We see a number of same sex couples there (both men and women) and a cross-dressing entertainer performing on stage.
Frank and Bobbie talk and smoke in bed (both dressed in night clothes).
When it comes to the mob settings of this film, particularly when Vito Genovese is involved, there is an ongoing sense of threat and deadliness in the story mix. There are some decidedly bloody moments here as well.
Frank gets shot in the head at close range, for instance. The bullet smashes a mirrored wall in the hotel elevator and his blood spews on the glass. His wife Bobbie later wipes the gore away with her handkerchief.
A guy is beaten to death on a rooftop by two large men. And an innocent man accidentally walks in on the beating. We then glimpse a bird’s-eye shot the next morning of the two dead bodies lying in pools of blood.
Another person is assassinated in a barbershop. His body is riddled with a dozen or more bloody holes. The movie also shows us the black-and-white, real-world police photo of the gory killing. Similarly, several real-world snapshots depict gory gangland killings. One of the worst of those shows a man who fell from a second or third story height and landed on his face, crushing his head. There’s also a picture of a man poisoned by arsenic.
A crime reporter is attacked and hit in the face with a container of sulfuric acid. He screams and clutches his face. We’re told that he was blinded by the assault.
The ever-jealous Vito sends men to kill a bartender in his wife’s club. They riddle his body with Tommy gun fire, smashing bottles and spewing blood. One of Frank’s most loyal soldiers wants to kill Vito for attacking Frank. But he’s talked out of that murderous intent.
Mob members recklessly flee in cars when the police show up at a meeting.
F-words dominate the dialogue with some 70 utterances, followed by a handful of uses each of the s-word, “b–ch,” “d–n” and “a–.” Crude references are made to male genitalia and “whores.” And God’s and Jesus’ names are abused a total of a dozen times (God is combined with “d–n” three times).
People smoke cigarettes and drink hard liquor throughout this film. Sometimes that puffing and cocktail-sipping may be in typical social settings, such as during a meal or while watching TV; other times, people toss back drinks in bars and clubs. In all settings, though, the smoking and drinking is depicted as a consistent part of life.
Vito breaks Frank’s rules and starts selling illicit drugs on the street, we hear. That said, we don’t see anyone actually using those drugs.
Among other things, Vito skims money from his wife’s club. This drives their already stumbling marriage into divorce court, where they say terrible things about each other. After their very public fight, Frank ends up on the cover of a magazine as a connected Mob boss. Bobbie declares, “She’s a moron, he’s a maniac and now you’re on the cover as a gangster!”
Director Barry Levinson does yeoman’s work shaping this slice of Mafia history into a compelling film. His use of real-world film clips and photos, and composer David Fleming’s tense underscore, all work together seamlessly to give this movie a solid crime world texture and feel.
In fact, the supporting cast appears directly plucked out of some old crime reporter’s headlines. And actor Robert De Niro flexs his gangster acting muscles to portray the two central Mob characters.
It’s on that front, however, that the dramatic side of things limps a bit. De Niro can surely play a thicky accented, crime boss with the best of ‘em. But despite prosthetic makeup applications and slight vocal tweaks, your movie viewer’s brain constantly reminds you that those two ancient-looking mobsters are definitely the same ancient actor.
All of that aesthetic commentary aside, however, it’s The Alto Knights foul content that’ll be the most concerning for many viewers.
When the doorman ushers you into Levinson’s realistic underworld of after-hours lesbian joints; cig-puffing and booze-swilling thug collectives; and bloody barbershop assassinations, you’re in for a toxic two-hour steep.
The language is raw, and the violence (including those grisly real-world victim photos) is palpable. So, if all of that raises concerns, you might want to take De Niro’s mob vernacular to heart and: Don’t get ya-self into a pickle.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
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