After his mistress is savagely beaten up a Mafia leader goes after the killer with a bloody vengeance. Soon after the hunt begins, a gang war ensues. OK, so i saw maybe only half an hour of it in the middle, and after the first five minutes, most of that was like staring at a train wreck. a ripoff that took advantage of the godfather fever back in 70's and probably took 10 days to make. even the guy who played 'salazzo' in the G-F cashed in on this one. i didn't see any abe vigoda scenes thankfully. the acting was so bad i don't even think they took more than one take in any scene. the characters were wooden , the accents were laughable, the dialog hopeless, and i think the sets were borrowed from 'chico and the man'. movies like these are why people make fun of the 70's. "The Don is Dead" wins no points for originality. Obviously, it's attempting to ride on the coat-tails of "The Godfather". And it's not a classic that deserves to be remembered years from now. Its presentation is pretty matter-of-fact and of no real distinction. But it's still very engaging visceral entertainment, at least for fanatics of the mob movie genre. It benefits from good characters, fine performances, and the kind of in-your-face violence that has become standard for this type of thing.<br/><br/>The prominent mafia don of Las Vegas has died, and a truce is currently existing between the three families in the city. But all of that is going to go to Hell pretty quickly, as one greedy and power-crazed individual gets the bright idea to have two of these families go to bloody war with each other - all with a simple letter addressed to Don Angelo DiMorra (Anthony Quinn). Among the leading players are ambitious young Frank (Robert Forster), the son of the deceased don, and the Fargo brothers, Tony (Frederic Forrest) and Vince (Al Lettieri).<br/><br/>The makers of "The Don is Dead" do cast their movie well, from top to bottom. Angel Tompkins, Charles Cioffi, Louis Zorich, Ina Balin, Joe Santos, Frank DeKova, Abe Vigoda, Victor Argo, Val Bisoglio, Sid Haig, and Vic Tayback all put in appearances. (Lettieri and Vigoda, of course, were also in "The Godfather".) Forrest is particularly effective as Tony, who would rather leave the "life" behind but gets drawn back in when things start getting ugly.<br/><br/>Scripted by Marvin H. Albert, from his novel, and directed by Richard Fleischer, this is compelling drama when taken on its own terms and not compared to anything else. Even if it's just on a visceral level, it *does* work.<br/><br/>Seven out of 10.
Utamead replied
368 weeks ago