2025 - NOW YOU SEE ME NOW YOU DON'T, the 3rd in the magicians turned crime fighters series

Amazingly another in this magicians turned do-gooders film series. The gang known as the 4 Horsemen specializes in elaborate and improbable large scale magic tricks.  In the first film Now You See Me (2013) they showed up where I believe they were sort of bad guys who eventually saw the light.  That film made a lot of money.  The Horsemen returned in a sequel called naturally Now You See Me 2 in 2016.  This time they had to stop evil Michael Caine and that guy from those Harry Potter films from doing something bad.  That film also made a lot of money.

Well it's been 9 years since the last film and the original gang is looking a little long in the tooth so some hip, younger and more importantly sexier magicians are now recruited to this magical gang.  This time they are going to steal a diamond from evil Rosamund Pike.  Rosamund Pike has carved out a career in the entertainment business playing criminals.  It seems like she is in a lot of streaming shows where she is naughty and eventually gets what's coming to here. 

 

For the most part these movies are all okay if very repetitive.  They all follow the same formula, lots of chases, some elaborate if very improbable magic tricks and finally many and I mean many plot twists kind of like in The Sting.  By now these films are what they are entertaining and very undemanding time killers.   

 

Why do these films keep getting made?  Well because they still make money, what else.

This film was written by Michael Lesslie, Paul Wernick, Rhett Reese and Seth Grahame-Smith.  These writers specialize in this kind of light weight story telling.  The running time is 112 minutes. 

1967 - THE CAPER OF THE GOLDEN BULLS, an entertaining heist film

This is a very decent heist film but it's no classic like Rififi, The Killing or Le Cercle Rouge.  The cast is a collection of  character actors and if the leads weren't exactly at the top of the movie star list they got the job done.

I.E. an American living in Spain since the end of World War II served as a bomber pilot.  During the war he and his crew accidentally blow up a cathedral.  To make amends this group robbed a number or banks to rebuild the cathedral.   Now operating a restaurant in Spain the American is blackmailed into performing one last robbery.  He reassembles his crew and we get the usual master planning, execution of the robbery and some close encounters with the police.  This is all pretty standard stuff for this genre.  

The cast had a lot of "seen them all before actors" who had shown up in many movies.  Vitto Sotti seemed like he was in about every movie and TV show from the 1940's on.  If you needed someone to pay a stereotypical Italian, Scotti was your guy.  Henry Beckman had also been working in movies and TV since the 1950s, he was the definition of a working actor, no part was too small for him.  Leon Askin is chiefly remembered as General Burkhalter on Hogan's Heroes.  Walter Slezak early in his career had worked for Hitchcock in his propaganda film Lifeboat.  Frankly in this film the list of character actors is endless.

The leads were Steven Boyd as the American and Yvette Mimieux as his girlfriend.  Boyd's career started out strong with Ben Hur, Billy Roses' Jumbo and The Fall of the Roman Empire but kind of petered out after awhile.  Still he was always a reliable performer for the most part.  Yvette Mimieux was an attractive blonde who was groomed to be a star in the studio system.  The problem was that the Hollywood studio system was falling apart in the late 1950's and early 60's so her career kind of drifted off into television .  

 The Caper Of The Golden Bulls was never going to win any awards but it does entertain and the gorgeous on location filming in Pamplona shot during the running of the bulls makes it a very good looking film.  The film is fun to watch because the makers were smart enough not to take this story seriously.  I'm sure everyone had a very nice vacation filming this picture in sunny Spain. 

The film was written by Ed Waters and David Moessinger, the running time is 106 minutes.    

1961 - THE GREEN ARCHER aka DER GRUNE BOGENSCHUTZE

This is a crime thriller set in a creepy old mansion which features a masked man dressed in green like Robin Hood running around a castle killing people with arrows.  The overly complicated plot involves a corrupt American businessman played by German actor Gert Frobe who when he isn't yelling at people he's holding people prisoner in a secret room, harassing his niece, planning to flee the country with his fortune and seeking revenge on his brother who took the woman he loved from him.  And that's just the beginning of this film. Where does The Green Archer fit into all of this?  I was never entirely sure, the archer is either trying to kill Frobe or is working for him.

To get an idea of the goofy nature of this film, one of the other characters in the film is a reporter who frequently breaks character by talking directly to the audience.  What soon becomes obvious during this film's running time is that the whole film has it's tongue firmly in it's cheek and the dead pan acting of the rest of the cast is really part of the joke.  The exception to playing it straight is Gert Frobe whose performance can only be described as so over the top I couldn't even figure out where the top is.  Frobe is chiefly remembered as the James Bond villain Goldfinger and that larger than life villain can't touch Frorbe's crazed bad guy performance in this film.  The female lead is played by Karin Dor another James Bond villain alumnus.  Dor was Helga Brandt in You Only Live Twice who ended up getting eaten by piranhas.

 

This film was based on a book by an English writer named Edgar Wallace who worked in the 1920's and 30's pumping out these overly complicated crime thrillers.  This story is clearly very dated and the filmmakers probably made the right decision to just spoof the crime/mystery aspect of this film.

 

The Green Archer entertains by virtue of its absurd plot and Gert Frobe's crazed performance.  The film is set in London but it's a German production with German actors gives it's a very surreal feeling.

Written by Wolfgang Schnitzier and Wolfgang Menge, the running time is 93 minutes. 

1990 - SHE SHOOTS STRAIGHT, female cops kicking butt

Another Hong Kong action film from the early 90's.  There isn't really a whole lot that's new story wise but the film's fight scenes are exciting since they were staged by the director and action choreographer Corey Yuen who was an expert at arranging this stuff and there is a lot of action in this film.

 

The plot involves a family of police officers most of whom are women with the exception of Sammo Hung who plays one of the brothers in the family and Tony Leung who plays the other brother.  When Leung marries police Inspector Mina Kao (played by Sammo Hung's wife Joyce Gondenzi) jealously rears it's head in the family.  The action in this film kicks in with a vicious gang of Vietnamese thieves during a robbery that are confronted by the family of cops.  The result, lots of gun play.

 

The story is a little absurd but it's full speed ahead for the most part with the exception of one ridiculous scene where the Vietnamese gang ambushes the cops with an elaborate series of traps reminiscent of that scene in Home Alone where the little kid assaults Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern except in this film a lot more blood and guts are spilled.

 

The big spin in this film is having these police women beat the crap out of almost all these bad guys.  Hong Kong films have had women in action roles before but I can't recall them fighting and beating up people to this extent.  As is typical with these Asian action films the actors in this case Joyce Gondenzi practically do as much stunt work as the actual stuntmen.  She Shoots Straight is a standard but entertaining action film.

The film was written by Corey Yuen, Barry Wong and Yuen Kai-chi, the running time is an efficient 94 minutes. 

1954 - DRAGNET, the feature film...

If anyone remembers a cop show named Dragnet which I kind of doubt, it began life as a radio show produced and starring Jack Webb.  Webb went on to adapt the radio show as a half hour television show in the 1950's.  Webb brought the show back from the grave in the mid 1960's mostly to make the American public aware of the dangers of drug use particularly marijuana.  This was kind of rich since Webb was apparently a pretty big boozer in real life.

Dragnet was known as a  police procedural with the emphasis not on gun fights and car chases but on LAPD detectives assigned to a case.  Webb and his cop partner would methodically run down each lead. If you were looking for crime fighting action this show was not for you.  Supposedly the episodes were based on true life stories and the end of each show had the narrator of each episode intone in a grave voice the results of each case with loud booming music in the background.   

 

Dragnet was no doubt an important and trend setting crime genre but time has not been particularly kind to this show. Webb's emotionless clipped delivery of his dialog and the almost next to nothing drama in each episode made this show ripe for parody.

 

Which brings us inevitably to the movie version Webb directed which was released in 1954.  About the only difference between the television show and the movie was that it was filmed in color.  Otherwise this was basically and extended episode of one of his shows with the same cheap looking sets and the same stock company of actors that Webb used over and over.

 

Dragnet the film is kind of an odd bird.  The LAPD basically violates every suspect's civil rights during their investigation of a gangland shooting.  Webb seems to have a particular disdain for the 5th amendment and at times seems to want the district attorney to bring the bad guys to trial without any evidence just because he says they are guilty.  I'm not even going to get into the illegal wiretapping business.  Webb certainly had an interesting point of view when it came to law enforcement

The film was written by Richard L. Breen, the running time is 88 minutes. 

1962 - CARPET OF HORROR, yes that is the title

As ridiculous as the title might sound this is really an old fashioned crime film in the tradition of the 1930's.  It has an evil mastermind, a criminal gang to do the mastermind's bidding, a heroic secret service agent and a damsel in distress.  The film is at times ridiculous and technically very competent film making.

Well lets get the story out of the way.  A secret agent back from India has information he intends to give to the police that will bring down a gang of criminals operating in London.  He is murdered by a drug that is dropped on to his carpet which gives out a gas that asphyxiates him, it's not as ridiculous as the title implies.  Jumping into solve this crime is another British agent who also happens to fall in love with the dead man's niece.  The British agent has a black sidekick who he almost treats as an equal although there is still a rather patronizing attitude too the black character.  

 

This is a film set in England but filmed by a German cast and crew.  The director Harald Reinl cast his then wife Karin Dor as the helpless damsel in distress.  Reinl was a good director for the most part and some of the scenes in particular a shoot out between the gang and the police in an underground tunnel is actually well staged.

 

What causes this film to be on the ridiculous side is just the atrocious dubbing of the performers from the German language to English.  You have to get past this horrible dubbing to watch this film.  Also for a film set in England it was clearly filmed in Germany.

The screenplay was written by Helmut Harun and Felix Lutzkendorf.  The running time is 92 minutes.n  

1935 - THE WALKING DEAD, modest but entertaining horror/crime film

Boris Karloff is a man framed for the murder of a judge.  After being sentenced to death in the electric chair he is brought back to life by sort of mad scientist played by "Santa Claus" himself Edmund Gwenn.  As is the way with a 1930's Karloff film he lumbers around seeking revenge sort of like Frankenstein looking for the people who set him up for murder.  Karloff is a very good lumberer.

This is a Karloff horror film not produced by Universal for a change.  Warner Brothers probably offered Karloff more money than he was getting at Universal to play yet another sort of monster.  One thing you have to say Karloff was very good at playing the sympathetic monster.  You actually feel sorry for the guy by the inevitable climax.

The film was directed by one of Hollywood's greatest studio directors, Michael Curtiz.  If any director knew how to move a story along it was Curtiz, this film races along at top speed.  Curtiz had an amazing career starting in the silent era and finishing in the early 1960's.

 

The Walking Dead was the usual good Warner Brothers production with an interesting mix of Warner's character actors.  Hal Mohr was the cinematographer his chief claim to fame was as the cameraman who filmed the first talking picture, The Jazz Singer.

The film was written by Ewart Adamson, Peter Milne, Robert Andrews and Lillie Hayward.  The running time is a brisk 66 minutes.

1958 - MAIGRET SETS A TRAP, character study disguised as a crime story

Inspector Maigret the famous French detective had been around since the 1930's.  The character has also been in many films almost from the start of his literary career.  Charles Laughton portrayed him in a 1950 film Man On The Eiffel Tower directed by Burgess Meredith.  In 1958, Maigret Sets a Trap showed up in America in a slick film production.

The Maigret character was played by Jean Gabin.  Gabin in his younger years was a romantic lead in films like Pépé le Moko, Port of Shadows and The Human Beast.  As Gabin grew older he took on more character driven parts as he assumed the role of "elder statesman" in the French cinema.  Gabin's take on the Maigret character is sort of a French version of Lt. Columbo, a detective who uses his brains instead of his gun etc.

In Maigret Sets a Trap the detective is after a serial killer of women.  Maigret has to match wits with the killer in the same sort of "as shucks" manner that Peter Falk did on Columbo.  Frankly the mystery and crime elements of the film are a little obvious but the entertainment value is in watching a great French actor do his acting thing.

 

This is a very good looking film with excellent black and white photography and overall an impressive studio production.  Jean Gabin went on to play the Maigret character in two more films.

The film was written by Jean Delannoy, Rodolphe-Maurice Arlaud and Michel Audiard.  the running time is 119 minutes. 

1992 - FULL CONTACT, Ringo Lam's stylish action thriller

Ringo Lam's crime film is stylish, dirty, violent, soulless, and very entertaining for the action junkie crowd looking for lots of shooting and fighting without any of that morale compass stuff.

Chow Yun-fat plays Gou Fei a tough guy criminal along with his friend Sam Sei who get mixed up with an outrageous criminal gang looking to hijack a bunch of weapons.  Well one thing leads to another and there is betrayal, killing and lots more killing as a wounded Gou Fei nurses himself back to health all the while training and exercising himself into a one man killing machine and kill he does.

 

Ringo Lam was one of the best action directors working in Hong Kong, in Full Contact he's on location in Bangkok where he proceeds to blow and shoot up the town.  There's some dirty stuff as well one of the gang members is a woman who is shall we say a little oversexed another is a scary monster of a man called Deano as in not Dean Martin.  Gou Fei has a wife who seems like a nice bring her home to meet the parents kind of gal.  Her occupation appears to be exotic dancer so in between all the mayhem we get lots of dirty dancing.

 

It's always good to see Chow Yun-fat in his prime, he was a very charismatic actor.  Another Hong Kong mainstay is Anthony Wong who frequently showed up as a weaselly bad guy in a lot of these crime films.  The actor Ann Bridgewater who played Chow's wife actually got out of the film business and became an occupational therapist.

Full Contact is exactly what it is a well made film with absolutely no purpose to it other than to have Ringo Lam stage a bunch of impressive action scenes.  

The film was written by Nam Yin, the running time is 104 minutes. 

1993 - THE RETURN OF IRONSIDE, closing the loop.

The previous post looked at the TV pilot for Raymond Burr's Ironside series.  The chief selling point of The Return of Ironside was as a reunion show which had Burr back with the original cast from his old TV series.  The movie was filmed on location in Denver, Colorado at Burr's insistence.  Burr had a great fondness for the city.

In the 1970's these television reunion shows were all the rage.  The baby boomer crowd got to relive the hours they spent in from of their television sets watching stuff like, The Return of the Mod Squad, Rescue From Gilligan's Island, The Munster's Revenge,  etc.  Believe me the list is endless. 

The plot of this film is almost incidental.  The original cast was Don Galloway as Ed Brown, Barbara Anderson as Eve Whitfield, Don Mitchell as Mark Sanger and Anderson's replacement Elizabeth Baur as Fran Belding who took over the sexy female cop role after Anderson left the series.  The story of this rather contrived movie involves Anderson's daughter played by Perrey Reeves being framed for a murder she didn't commit by some corrupt cops, yes that old narrative chestnut.

 

Burr was back in the wheelchair but this time he needed it in real life as he was now dying from cancer.  In fact The Return of Ironside was aired after Burr's death.  Burr at age 76, was still the old performing trooper and although visibly ill he's the main reason to watch this plodding crime thriller.  The movie spends way to much time on the Perrey Reeves character's boring love life at the expense of Burr's interaction with his old cast mates.

 

You can spend a few minutes on the Wikipedia entry for Raymond Burr, it's fascinating reading.  He was a closeted actor his entire life and had a long career working in film, theater, radio and finally TV.  The Return of Ironside is a real nostalgia wallow.

The film was written by Collier Young, Rob Hedden and William Woodfield, the running time is 89 minutes.     

1973 - CHARLEY VARRICK. a well made crime caper

Walter Matthau is Charley Varrick a crop duster in New Mexico who has taken up bank robbing when his business fails.  After robbing a bank in a small town.  Varrick realizes that the money from the robbery is being laundered by the Mafia. Now with the police after him he has to contend with a Mafia hitman also on his trail.

The film has an interesting cast.  Walter Matthau is generally remembered for playing comedy. Actually he was in a number of serious roles particularly at the beginning of his career.  Joe Don Baker is the "good old boy" hit man on his trail.  One time 20th Century Fox Studios starlet Sheree North is a forger who Varrick hires to create a new passport in order to get out of the country. Perennial bad guy John Vernon is a member of the Mafia.

 

The film was very well directed by Don Siegel.  Siegel was one of those Hollywood directors who essentially shot medium to low budget films and was elevated to auteur status over the years by the critics.  However  for every Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Dirty Harry and Riot in Cell Block 11 there was crap like Duel at Silver Creek and The Black Windmill.  Siegel also directed John Wayne's last film The Shootist and had to deal with a very cantankerous Duke Wayne throughout the filming.

 Charley Varrick was a story that played to Siegel's skills as a good director of action films.  This film zips along at a good pace without losing sight of the characters at the expense of the action aspects of the film something current filmmakers could learn.

As good a job as Siegel did as the director, this film is blessed with a very good script from Dean Reisner and Howard Rodman.  In fact a major asset to this film's success is their contribution.

The running time on this film is 111 minutes.

1952 - THE BEAST MUST DIE - excellent crime thriller

From Argentina comes this excellent crime thriller.  The Beast Must Die concerns the fate of a writer who after his son is killed in a hit and run, attempts to find out who the responsible driver was.  Going undercover, his investigation causes a series of major complications.

The film was directed by Román Viñoly Barreto who worked during what is now considered the classical era of Argentina's film industry which ran from the 1930's to the 1950's.  The Argentina cinema at one point was releasing approximately 40 films a year in spite of political pressures from the Peron government and the Church.  In fact one of the performers Libertad Lamarque managed to earn the enmity of Evita Peron probably not a real healthy situation for her.

The Beast Must Die actually originates as a detective novel from a British author, Cecil Day-Lewis.  The director Claude Chabrol was so impressed with the story he also made a French version.

In spite of my digression on this post, I would emphasize again that this is an excellent thriller. 

This film was written by Narciso Ibáñez Menta and Román Viñoly Barreto, the running time is 95 minutes.

1998 - OUT OF SIGHT entertaining sexy crime thriller

Cast a couple of very hot stars, put them in a crime thriller, hire a top screenwriter and get a stylish director to blend it all together and you have the very entertaining Out Of Sight.

George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez are on the opposite sides of the law, he's a bank robber and she's a Federal Marshal.  After getting arrested for a failed robbery Clooney breaks out of prison and ends up being pursued by Lopez. One thing leads to another and Clooney and Lopez end up getting locked in the trunk of a stolen car.  Sure enough sparks fly between this hot couple and after her escape from the car Lopez is on the trail of fugitive Clooney who is planning a big heist in Detroit.

Out Of Sight was adopted from an Elmore Leonard story and it has the usual twists and turns he brings to his crime novels.  Leonard's stories always seem to have a bunch of odd ball characters who are usually cops and crooks and this story is no different.

Soderbergh is a clever director and he excels at these kinds of crime films  He knows how to show off his stars and he gets some great chemistry going betweenClooney and Lopez, like they needed any help.

 

A lot of credit should also be given to the screenwriter Scott Frank who has always been a talented reliable guy particularly in the crime thriller genre.  it's actually entertaining to see a group of talented people come together and create a smart and fun thriller for a change.

The running time is 123 minutes

1990 - UNDECLARED WAR, disappointing action film from Ringo Lam

 Undeclared War is a big disappointment from Hong Kong action director Ringo Lam.  The plot has something to do with a world terrorist organization trying to destroy an international conference of nations, seen that one before.  The film has the American and Hong Kong police joining forces to stop the terrorists.

The Hong Kong cop is played by Danny Lee his girlfriend is Rosamund Kwan who has shown up in some Jackie Chan and Tsui Hark films.  They deliver a lot of their dialog in English for the benefit of the American cop and  American audience and do fairly well with it although at times it's a little shaky.  I don't know how many times Danny Lee has played a Hong Kong cop but it seems like every time I see him in a film that's the character he seems to be stuck with.

 

The bad guys are played by Olivia Hussey one time star of Romeo and Juliet and Vernon Wells, the "Wez" from The Road Warrior and the chief bad guy in that Schwarzenegger classic Commando.  Olivia Hussey seems completely out of place in this film she should be playing a nun or something in a Zeffirelli film.  Vernon Wells could do these really evil bad guy parts in his sleep by this point in his career and he seems very sleepy in this film.

 

Usually Ringo Lam could rev it up with some great action stuff even in his so-so films but in this case he doesn't seem to have had the inventiveness or energy to rise to the occasion.  It's just one boring gun fight after another.  Even a speedboat chase towards the end of the film is boring.  Undeclared War is a big tiresome letdown  from a usually reliable director

The film was written by Nam Yin, Timothy Lung, Deborah Grant and Louis Roth.  Four writers for a standard action film never a good sign.  The running time is 109 minutes.

1968 - THE BASTARD or I bastardi

This rather oddball Italian euro crime feature is set in Arizona but the credits acknowledge that the film was shot in New Mexico, whatever.  The plot involves two criminal brothers who are basically robbing and shooting people all over the American Southwest.  One of the brothers  ( Giuliano Gemma) is betrayed by his current girlfriend to the other brother (typically scary actor Klaus Kinski) who steals his suitcase full of jewels and injures him for life.  The film turns into a revenge story from that point on with Giuliano Gemma out to kill his brother Kinski.

There are lots of shootings, car chases and a couple of gorgeous women one played by Margaret Lee.  In addition onetime James Bond leading lady Claudine Auger who was Domino in Thunderball, shows up in this film.  Also in the cast is legendary 40's glamour star Rita Hayworth as the drunken mother of the two brothers.  Hayworth suffered from dementia towards the end of her life but I don't know if that affected her performance in this film, she is supposed to be playing a drunk.

 

The director is a guy named Duccio Tessari an Italian writer/director who worked in the "Spaghetti Western", euro crime, and war movie genres, a versatile fellow.  You can give him credit for moving the story along and making it interesting and watchable.  He has a good eye for staging action scenes and picking locations.  Having two gorgeous women as costars doesn't hurt this film any.  The Bastard is a decent watch if you are into crime films.  I have to say that the film does have a rather odd ending.

 

The film was written by Mario Di Nardo, Ennio de Concini and Duccio Tessari.  The running time is 102 minutes.

1990 - THE GODFATHER PART III, dipping into the well one more time.

 Is The Godfather Part III a good film?  The answer is yes.  Did The Godfather Part III need to be made? Probably not.  Paramount once again dipping into their Godfather franchise persuaded Francis Ford Coppola to write and direct another sequel to the original film.  Coppola's last two films, Gardens of Stone (which nobody remembers) and Tucker: The Man and his Dream had been box office flops.  The Godfather Part III was Coppola's run for cover film, something that would be guaranteed to make money.

The film is actually not bad, Michael Corleone who has now turned his family's organized crime business legitimate, has to face down one more challenge as he attempts to figure out who is trying to kill him and take over the Corleone family business.  The film has Al Pacino back as Michael, Diane Keaton as his ex wife Kaye (still a nothing part) and Talia Shire as Michael's sister Connie.

New to the cast were Andy Garcia as Vincent, illegitimate son of his deceased brother Sonny and Coppola's own daughter Sophia as Mary Corleone, Michael's daughter and Vincent's love interest.  There was a lot of criticism of Coppola for hiring his own daughter for a major role in the film.  She was an untrained performer.  But she has an interesting look and she does fairly well in a challenging role for the most part.

 

The Godfather Part III carefully follows the outlines of the first two films.  Some intimate family time, moments of violence, lots of scheming and subterfuge and once again a cathartic mass killing at the end of the film.

 

As in the first two films, Al Pacino, and this can't be emphasized enough, really holds this film together.  He has been essential to the series since the first film.  Coppola's skill in directing large scale crowd scenes and intimate family moments is still superior film making.  If you are a fan of the first two films you will probably enjoy this look into the snake pit that has become Corleone family.

The screenplay is by Coppola and Mario Puzo agian, the running time is 162 minutes.

1974 - THE GODFATHER PART II - second film in the trilogy

Paramount had a big commercial and critical hit with The Godfather, so movie studios being what they are decided a sequel was called for.  Francis Ford Coppola was lured back with the promise of creative control.  More importantly Al Pacino returned as Michael Corleone now the head of the family and an extensive power player in the Las Vegas gambling scene.

The Godfather Part II is about Michael Corleone's plan to become the major player in the organized crime world.  The film's plot follows Michael as he travels from Nevada to Cuba to New York in an effort to consolidate his power.  With a bigger budget, Coppola has a much wider canvas to stage some epic scenes.

A lot of the original cast is back, Diane Keaton is Michael's wife (she still doesn't have much of a part.)  John Cazale is Michael's clueless brother Fredo, Talia Shire is Michael's sister Connie  and Robert Duvall is the family lawyer Tom Hagen.  But as in the first film Al Pacino is the whole show, he completely dominates this story.

 

The film jumps between the present day gangster stuff and the 1920's which tells the story of the early days of Vito Corleone and his rise to power as a Mafia Don.  Marlon Brando obviously to old for these scenes is replaced by a young Robert De Niro as Vito.  De Niro apparently couldn't speak a word of Italian but you would never know it, his performance is that good.

The Godfather Part II is based on a lot of real life characters in Mafia history during the 1950s. Understandably the names of these characters were changed for the film. No sense looking for trouble.

This is quality film making on an epic scale.

The running time is 202 minutes, the film was written by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola