Broad & Liberty ran my piece on The Alto Knights film.
You can read the piece via the below link or the below text:
Paul Davis: The Alto Knights — Why did the DeNiro mob movie bomb?
I recently watched The
Alto Knights on HBO. As a fan of mob movies, from Jimmy Cagney’s
1931 The Public Enemy to Martin Scorsese’s 2019 The
Irishman, I had hoped that The Alto Knights would be
as interesting and entertaining as the classic mob movies that preceded
it.
But
I was disappointed with the film.
Alto
Knights was directed by Barry Levinson, a veteran director who also
helmed Bugsy, a good mob movie. The Alto
Knights was written by Nick Pileggi, who wrote Martin Scorsese’s
classic mob films Goodfellas and Casino, and the
film starred Robert De Niro, who portrayed classic gangsters in The
Godfather Part II, Goodfellas and other fine organized
crime films.
So
why did the film bomb?
To
begin with, in my view, the stunt casting of Robert De Niro portraying
both Cosa Nostra bosses Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, the
successors of Salvatore “Charlie Lucky” Luciano’s crime family after he was
deported to Italy.
Perhaps
another reason is due to Robert De Niro’s “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” I know a
good number of people who refuse to watch De Niro’s films because of his crude,
insulting and often dumb comments about President Trump.
I don’t agree. We should separate the artist from the person, and De Niro’s personal opinions and his acting are two distinctly different things.
But
I must admit that some years ago, as a Navy veteran who served on an aircraft
carrier during the Viet Nam War, I refused to watch Jane Fonda’s films because
of her support of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Communists. I believe
her visit to North Vietnam and her posing with an anti-aircraft battery crew
that had shot down many aircraft carrier pilots, including John McCain, was
traitorous.
But
today I agree with conductor Arturo Toscanini, who reportedly said of composer
Richard Strauss, “For Strauss the composer, I take off my hat. For Strauss the
man, I put it back on.”
Robert
De Niro is a fine actor, but he should have portrayed only Frank Costello. Barry
Levinson should have cast Joe Pesci, Al Pacino, or some other fine actor to
play Vito Genovese. Robert De Niro and the other fine actor would have had
several sit-down scenes with each other. They could have faced off like Robert
De Niro and Al Pacino did in Michael Mann’s Heat.
Another
reason the film bombed was the awful title. The Alto Knights (named
after a mob social club in New York) sounds more like a Knights of the Round
Table movie than a mob movie. The working title was Wise Guys, the
title of Pileggi’s true crime book about gangster Henry Hill, which was turned
into Scorsese’s Goodfellas.
I
would have called the film The Prime Minister of Crime, which was
what Frank Costello, a power broker and fixer for his Cosa Nostra crime
family, was called.
The
rivalry between Costello, the racketeer and Genovese, the gangster, makes for
good drama. Frank Costello’s dramatic appearance before a Congressional
committee is well portrayed, as were the events of the Apalachin mob meeting in
up-state New York. The aborted major mob meeting was filmed for both drama and
comedy as we see the well-dressed mob bosses flee through the woods to escape
the police.
I
also liked the absurd and unbelievable but true contentious court case
involving Genovese and his wife, portrayed well by Katherine Narducci. I also
liked Debra Messing as Frank Costello’s wife. And I especially liked Michael
Rispoli as Albert Anastasia, known as “The Lord High Executioner,” who was the
head of the mob’s “Murder, Inc” assassination crew.
Cosmo
Jarvis was also very good as Vincent “The Chin” Gigante, the former boxer who
was ordered to shoot and kill Costello by Genevese. (Gigante later became the
powerful boss of the Genovese crime family and walked around in pajamas,
slippers and a robe to faint madness to avoid being arrested).
The
film opens with Gigante shooting Frank Costello in the head in the lobby of
Costello’s apartment building. But Costello survived the assassination attempt
and subsequently retired from mob life.
The
film captures the right look of the late 1950s, and the wardrobes and sets are
spot on. Unfortunately, the film lacks the fast pace of Goodfellas and Casino,
and The Alto Knights drags on at times.
Being
half-Italian and raised Italian in South Philly, the hub of the
Philadelphia Cosa Nosta organized crime family, I was aware
of Cosa Nostra culture from an early age. I lived a few blocks
from then-mob boss Angelo Bruno. And I grew up with the sons and nephews
of Cosa Nostra mobsters, some of whom also became mobsters
themselves.
As
a writer, I’ve covered organized crime for many years, and I’ve interviewed a
good number of current and former mobsters, such as former Philadelphia mob
boss Ralph Natale, former Philadelphia mob underboss Philip Leonetti, and
former New York Colombo captain Michael Franzese.
As
a student of Cosa Nostra history I believe The Alto
Knights is historically accurate for the most part. Sadly, the film
did not perform as well as The Godfather films or Goodfellas and Casino.
The
film bombed, but for those who are interested in Cosa Nostra history, The
Alto Knights, for all of its flaws, is still worth
watching.
Paul Davis, a Philadelphia writer and frequent contributor to Broad + Liberty, also contributes to Counterterrorism magazine and writes their online Threatcon column. He also writes an online Crime Beat column. He can be reached at pauldavisoncrime.com
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