Prince of the City **** (1981, Treat Williams, Jerry Orbach, Bob Balaban, Lindsay Crouse, James Tolkan) – Classic Movie Review 12,067

Sidney Lumet’s 1981 neo-noir crime drama film Prince of the City is an intense, intelligent and extraordinary police epic. Treat Williams gets one of his best roles as Detective Daniel Ciello, the drugs cop who shops his corrupt buddies. 

Director Sidney Lumet’s 1981 American neo-noir crime drama film Prince of the City is an intense, intelligent and extraordinary police epic. It stars Treat Williams, along with a large, distinguished character actor cast headed by Jerry Orbach, Bob Balaban, James Tolkan and Lindsay Crouse.

Director Lumet is back on the New York beat with another violent and foul-mouthed documentary-style exposé of police corruption. Treat Williams gets one of his best roles as Detective Daniel Ciello, the drugs cop who shops his corrupt buddies, and there is incisive playing from Jerry Orbach as Detective Gus Levy, one of his colleagues, Lindsay Crouse as his wife Carla Ciello and James Tolkan as the prosecutor, Assistant US Attorney George Polito.

Prince of the City is a high-impact film with a sit-up-and-watch tale, though it is not easy on the sensibilities. Its full-on, fully-dimensional spirit comes out of Lumet seeking to rectify the two-dimensional way he felt he treated cops in his 1973 film Serpico.

Beware the off-putting length of 167 minutes and also the TV version with absurdly dubbed dialogue replacing the four-letter words (there are around 130 F-words).

Jay Presson Allen and Sidney Lumet’s screenplay is based on Robert Daley’s 1978 book, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. They wrote a 240-page script in 30 days.

Ciello is based on the NYPD narcotics detective Robert Leuci.

Williams spent a month learning about police work, hung out at 23rd Precinct in New York City, went on a drug bust, and lived with Leuci for some time. Williams said that by the time rehearsals started, ‘I was thinking like a cop’.

The film was budgeted low at $10 million but Lumet made it for less than $8.6 million. Distributors Orion could not afford TV advertising and relied on print ads, and it earned only $8 million in the US.

Lumet insisted on a big name movie star and a running time of at least three hours but it ended up at 167 minutes for its theatrical release. However, the film’s American TV premiere included previously unseen material and ran 196 minutes.

Also in the cast are Don Billett, Richard Foronjy, Carmine Caridi, Kenny Marino, Lindsay Crouse, James Tolkan, Bob Balaban, Lance Henriksen, Ron Karabatsos, Tony DiBenedetto, Lane Smith, Peter Friedman, Cynthia Nixon, Norman Parker, and Paul Roebling.

Alfred Hitchcock offered the script for Marnie (1964) to the young Allen, who developed her screenwriting talent under Hitchcock’s mentoring.

This film and The Godfather (1972) are the only major Hollywood movies shot in all five New York City boroughs.

Treat Williams recalled: ‘It’s really an extraordinary job on Sidney Lumet’s part. It’s a great study in the human condition. It’s a big film. It’s big emotionally. It’s operatic. It’s a great, great film. I wish I’d had more experience and been a little older when I did it, but it’s the best I could do at the time, and I’m very proud of it.’

Tragically, Treat Williams was involved in a motorcycle crash on Vermont Route 30, near Dorset, on 12 June 2023. He was airlifted to Albany Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, aged 71.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,067

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com