Product: The Valachi Papers (1972)
Rating: 4.0
Based on facts!
This movie is based on facts revealed by mob turncoat, Joseph Valachi, in 1963, and published as a book by Peter Maas (The Valachi Papers, same title as the movie).Although the movie is based on Valachi's story, at least one scene never took place in real life (otherwise it would've been mentioned in the book because it's so spectacular). That's the scene where Valachi's friend, 'the Gap' (real name, Dominick Petrilli), gets his penis cut off in Valachi's restaurant by mobsters and afterward asks Valachi to shoot him, which he does. Maybe the movie people thought they needed a scene like the horse head scene in 'The Godfather'.Too bad, because the rest of Valachi's story is true and inventing fictional scenes only compromises the authenticity of the story.It's a very good movie and it follows the book closely, but it could have been a great movie had they had a bigger budget and some famous actors to fill out the parts. That said, some of the actors did a great job, such as Joseph Wiseman (Salvatore Maranzano) and the guy who plays Valachi's sidekick, the Gap. Charles Bronson acts very well too, of course.If you like mob movies based on real life stories like 'Donnie Brasco', 'Goodfellers', 'Casino' etc.etc., then this movie is for you.If you liked the movie, you should read the book too! It's one of those books you can't put down before you have read all of it. You can buy it here on Amazon and it's fairly cheap.