Ezmae Chang
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
bes-75357
Someone asked who was Vito Corleone from the Godfather, because they like this movie much better because it used real people. First of all Vito was a combination of Frank Costello, and Joe Profaci with a hint of Willie Moretti who found "Johnny Fontaine" in a club (Frank Sinatra in New Jersey and sponsored him . With Moe green (Benny Siege) name is derived from the two men that took over the Flamingo with his untimely demise Moe Sedway and Gus Greenbaum hence the name Moe Green . Now as for the other events in the Godfather even down to Frank Pantangely getting almost choke to death by the Resotto brothers that was actually one of the Gallo brothers Larry and he had another brother Albert and then there was Crazy Joe Gallo use it has been cited that he had Jerome Brown shot Joe Columbo in Columbus square and went into a coma for several years afterwards. However in Gangster Chronicles (Wars) seemed to be a little more like a biographical depiction . Of how things basically went down from the Castellamarese War between the Joe Masseri faction and Salvortore Maranzano . as depicted by Joe Valachi in 1963 testifying against Vito Genovese Frank Pantangely , and Michael Corleone. You just have to know what happened in reality to know who these guys are . Well enough for now as I'm not even going to spell check this . Just trying to help out fellow enthusiast, I hope that helps a little. drop me a line if . you have more question. I love this stuff.. BS, 426@gmail.
r-dury
I notice a comment from Terri in the UK. I have the same problem. I want a copy of the original Gangster Chronicles - not the documentary sent to me from Amazon. This was still very good but, as Terri found, it was virtually 'news' clips and was NOT the original mini-series, as I remember it. As others have said - it was a proper history performed as portrayed by proper actors - such as Michael Nouri as Luck Luciano, Robert Davi as Vito Genovese and in particular Richard Castellano as Joe 'The Boss' Masseria. Can anybody out there tell me where I can get a copy? I cannot get, also, in the UK The Borgia Stick (1967) TV. and Timestalkers (1987) TV. Where do I go to get these please? RON DURY
Lloyd Rutzky
Ranking with the great mini-series of all-time (ROOTS, ROOTS: THE NEXT GENERATIONS, HOLOCAUST, BLIND AMBITION, BACKSTAIRS AT THE WHITE HOUSE, and MASADA), this was a superb retelling of the history of organized crime in America. Pretty much based on fact, but also loaded with a few fabrications, it tells the story of how Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky basically invented "the mob" in the early thirties which exists to this very day. Meyer Lansky, however, was still alive in 1981 when this was made so his name was changed to Michael Lasker and he was excellently portrayed as an adult by Brian Benben. Charles "Lucky" Luciano, played as an adult with solid charm and confidence by Michael Nouri, has his major source of revenue, prostitution, falsely seen as something he'd never be involved with. But, hey, this was TV in the 80's and NBC must've wanted to avoid censorship. And since the show almost made Luciano look like a guy who only became a criminal because it was the smart thing to do, if they'd shown him cleaning up as a pimp it would've been too much. Perhaps the most dynamic performance of THE GANGSTER CHRONICLES, though, was by Joe Penny as the adult Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. As Michael Lasker's boyhood friend he joins forces with Charlie and Michael as they drift from small-time hoods to underworld kingpins, though Bugsy was more of a muscleman than the mastermind who put the "organization" together. The first half of THE GANGSTER CHRONICLES features powerful narration by E.G. Marshall who ended every chapter by saying, just in case you thought these guys were heroes, that "Charlie Luciano, Michael Lasker and Ben Siegel were hardened criminals who lived by a cruelty that would someday destroy them." But the show is so entertaining you really will find it hard not to root for Charlie, Michael & Ben as they take on the real "bad guys" like Al Capone, Dutch Schultz and earlier, Joe The Boss Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano. The rest of the cast was terrific including Richard Castellano as Joe The Boss, Madeline Stowe as Michael's wife, Kathleen Lloyd as Ben's wife, Allan Arbus as Charlie's youthful friend and cleaning store operator Mr. Goodman, Robert Davi as Vito Genovese, Markie Post as Charlie's onetime girlfriend, Jonathan Banks as Dutch Schultz, Louis Giambalvo as Al Capone, Jon Polito as Tommy Lucchese, James Andronica as Frank Costello, and Alex Rocco as a hood who uses similar lines in a dispute with Luciano to the ones he used as Moe Greene in THE GODFATHER, the greatest movie of all-time, by far. Shot down by weak ratings and NBC's favoring of the even weaker-rated (at the time) of the fabulous HILL STREET BLUES, it was a shame the show ended with so much left to tell in 1932.
