Hail! Mafia (1966)

Some folks might watch "Hail, Mafia" and assume this is just a typical French gangster film. However, French film noir was quite different. This film, instead is much like if you started with French film noir and blended it with the New Wave...creating an odd sort of hybrid. Like many productions of the era, although it's not an American film is stars American actors. This is because in post-war Europe (particularly Italy), folks thought having American stars in their movies would make them more marketable and even B-list actors like Henry Silva and Jack Klugman would make the pictures very international.The plot to this story is very simple. Two gangsters have been contracted to kill a third gangster. But before they ultimately kill the guy, there is a build-up--with angry Phil (Klugman) and more business-like and cold Schaft (Silva). It's all accompanied by a lot of jazz music and is almost good...almost. The problem for me is twofold. First, there just isn't much in the way of plot. Second, this is a clearly a case of style over substance. Not a terrible film...but there are so many better French gangster films...such as any of the pictures of Jean-Pierre Melville.

This film is adapted from a Pierre Lesou's novel, the author of LE DOULOS, adapted by Jean-Pierre Melville in 62; one of his masterpieces. I read all Lesou's novels, I know them very well, and this novelist was the closest of them all to Melville's world. A world of cold, complex, and metaphysics friendship among gangsters. Cerebral atmospheres that most of Melville's fans - and there are many - know as well as I do. Yes, yes, yes, Melville SHOULD have done this film, HAIL MAFIA, it should have been a film for him. And certainly not for Raoul Levy. I won't say he is a lousy film maker. I think he did the best. But when I think of Melville when watching this film, I feel pain inside of me.In his movie, Levy shows us a short sequence of Brigitte Bardot dancing in one of her films: ET DIEU CREA LA FEMME. Levy committed suicide several months after his feature - HAIL MAFIA - because of his love for Bardot.A good film, as far as I can appreciate. It is very rare in France. I only got it from the USA.

Very very good mob movie with Eddie Constantine the target of his former mob brothers. They want the retired gangster silenced so that there is no chance that he will come back from France to talk to the Senate committee on organized crime. To that end the mob sends two hit men (Henry Silva and Jack Klugman) to Europe to hunt down Constantine.More a drama then a "crime" film (with the action that implies) the movie really is about the relationship between the two hit men as they inter act on the hunt for their target. The performances of both Silva and Klugmen are excellent and its clear that Silva was a much better actor then his later supporting roles suggested. Equally good, and a revelation to people who only know him from the Odd Couple or Quincy, is Jack Klugman. Its a shame that Klugman kind of got lost in the TV series rut since he is clearly capable of a performances that are more complex than what a TV series require. The pairing of the two vastly under rated actors make for a superior drama that has been unfairly lost over the years. Hopefully a somewhere down the road someone will rescue this film and give it some sort of revival.This is one to search out.

If this film had been directed by Jean Pierre Melville, Criterion or someone else would have already have made a DVD special edition. It concerns two men, played by Henry Silva and Jack Klugman who travel to France to kill a man, a former gangster played by Eddie Constantine. They are sent to kill this man because they fear that he may testify and bring some underworld figures down. What happens on this journey is a story of fate, and some ironic twists.While the beginning of the film starts out kind of chessie, (the shots of New York) so we are to get the feeling that the scenes with the actors were filmed in New York. When the two men get to France, that is when the film really takes off. It is almost like a road picture, as they travel from Paris to Marseille, two Americans, who don't speak French traveling in a strange land, Country much more foreign then, than it would be today.Klugmans character has personal reasons why he wants to kill the character played by Constantine, while Silva, playing a guy called SHAFT, is only doing this job because it is his job. This film was based I believe on an American novel, and what is different here is that while usually in stories such as this the older man acts more the professional, while the younger is more carefree, HAIL MAFIA defies these conventions. Though Silva I believe is only 8 years younger than Klugman, he the younger man seems to live by codes, (he doesn't even smoke) and is the boss of the two, while Klugman seems to have the more easy going attitude, and not as careful. Their relationship is a very interesting on this road to a murder.I think that this film paved the way for Silva to get starting roles in Europe, and while it did not do that for Klugman, the film should be famous for his line regarding 'what would make a man quit smoking, Which he would have to do some 30 years latter due to throat cancer. The photography on the French scenes is first rate, filmed by the famous cinematographer of the New Wave, Raoul Coutard. Their are some other interesting touches, such as when Constantine's girl friend (I think his wife at the time) looks at a picture of John F Kennedy, and when she offers him a glass of Orange Juice, he says yes but with some Scotch (Constantine had a drinking problem).If this film were ever remade, and took place in the 21'st Century, one problem would be technology is a bit different than in 1965. I hope more people get to see this buried treasure.