Crazy Joe **** (1974, Peter Boyle, Paula Prentiss, Fred Williamson, Charles Cioffi, Rip Torn, Eli Wallach, Luther Adler, Fausto Tozzi) – Classic Movie Review 12,191

Director Carlo Lizzani’s 1974 crime thriller film Crazy Joe is an effective, strongly cast Italian gangster movie about real-life hot-tempered New York mafia boss ‘Crazy Joe’ Gallo, played by Peter Boyle.

Crazy Joe is a very tough-nosed gangster thriller in The Godfather vein, spurred by exciting handling, masterly cinematography (by Aldo Tonti) and riveting performances by Boyle and Rip Torn as his brother Richie.

A pre-Happy Days Henry Winkler is glimpsed as a hood called Mannie.

The main cast are Peter Boyle, Paula Prentiss, Fred Williamson, Charles Cioffi, Rip Torn, Eli Wallach, Luther Adler, Fausto Tozzi, Franco Lantieri, Louis Guss, Carmine Caridi, Henry Winkler, Hervé Villechaize, and Sam Coppola.

The screenplay by Lewis John Carlino is based on a series of articles on mafia wars by journalist Nicholas Gage, a reporter for The New York Times.

The Italian-American co-production is produced by Dino De Laurentiis.

Filming began on 25 June 1973, entirely on location in New York City.

It is a fictionalised retelling of the murder of Joseph ‘Crazy Joe’ Gallo, a mobster gunned down on 7 April 1972 at a restaurant in Manhattan’s Little Italy. At about 4:30 am, Gallo was shot dead at Umbertos Clam House while celebrating his 43rd birthday.

Crazy Joe was distributed theatrically in Italy by Cineriz on 8 February 1974. The film opened in New York on 15 February 1974, distributed by Columbia Pictures in the US.

It is not to be confused with the 1970 drama film Joe, which also stars Peter Boyle, and Susan Sarandon in her film debut.

Joseph ‘Crazy Joe’ Gallo (7 April 1929 – 7 April 1972) was an Italian-American mobster of the Colombo crime family of New York City.

The cast are Peter Boyle as Joe Gallo, Paula Prentiss as Anne, Fred Williamson as Willy Bates, Eli Wallach as Don Vittorio Giovanni, Rip Torn as Richie Gallo, Charles Cioffi as Joe Coletti, Luther Adler as Danny Falco, Carmine Caridi as Jelly, Henry Winkler as Mannie, Sam Coppola as Chick, Franco Lantieri as Nunzio, Louis Guss as Magliocco, Fausto Tozzi as Frank, Guido Leontini as Angelo, Mario Erpichini as Danny, Michael V Gazzo as Sal, Adam Wade as J D,  Hervé Villechaize as Samson, Gabriele Torrei as Cheech, Peter Savage as DeMarco, Tony Lip as Andy, and Jay Rasumny as Clyde Barrow.

Lizzani said Gallo’s character was ‘typical of the ’68 movements. Gallo was a young Mafioso who gathered the young against the old, just as it happened in China in the name of Mao and in the rest of the world as well. What’s more – a sacrilegious thing in the Mafia – he made a pact with the Black Panthers, an interracial alliance! I could choose ten other different stories, I could do whatever I wanted and I had the money to do it, but for these reasons I chose to do Crazy Joe. It was a parable that symbolised a season of our contemporary society.’

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,191

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