May 12, 2025
Massacre Mafia Style (The Executioner, 1974)
"Are we gonna let a couple of dead heads muscle us? Besides, now, we don't even know that's Chucky's finger."
"That's his finger all right, I've seen it on him a million times."
#massacre mafia style#the executioner#like father like son#video nasty#1974#american cinema#crime film#duke mitchell#vic caesar#lorenzo dardado#louis zito#cara peters#fred otash#john strong#jimmy williams#richard scarso#brigitte maier#george 'buck' flower#extraordinary artefact of a place and time and a monument to the blind faith one man had in his own star power#Duke Mitchell was a minor crooner who'd previously belonged to a comic double act that ripped off Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis' shtick (so#closely that it ended in lawsuits). throughout his life he tried his hand at just about anything‚ always convinced he'd be a huge success#which of course he never quite was. he knew everyone‚ counted Sinatra as a close friend‚ but for all his trying (and by all accounts he#really did put the work in) he never truly saw success he was convinced was coming to him. this is his attempt to break into film: writing#directing and starring in a cheapy Godfather cash in‚ a blood soaked ultra violent splatter film with pretensions of making some deeper#statement about the unjust image of Sicilian culture that the mob had necessarily conjured. if i sound harsh in all this‚ know that I had#the time of my life watching this; whatever Mitchell lacked in auteur polish he more than makes up for with sheer bloody enthusiasm and a#blinkered but inspired faith in his own project and skills. kind of beautiful‚ really. also i will say his script is actually very witty#in places‚ in a sharp‚ waspish way (quoted line above was my favourite of the film)#the splattery grue assured this a place on the bbfc nasty list but truthfully by today's standards it would be mainstream gangster cinema#(Mitchell also apparently offered the lead to Sinatra who thanked him but told him he made *real* films for real money)
