Vinnie Cannoli (Hell Bent for Whiskey)

"Geez, Paulie! Remind me to never introduce you to one of my associates again!"

> «*To make sure **what***, Frank? I swear, if you're lying to us, we're going to get **really messy** on ya... *you understand me*, **Frank**?» -Vinnie's final warning to Frank
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**Vinnie Cannoli** is the protagonist main character of the short film Hell bent for Whiskey. He is a ruthless Chicago mobster, working for his boss, Belluccio and is regularly joined by his partner Paulie.

## Biography

Not much information is given about Vinnie's life other than that he joined the Belluccio crime family sometime before the events of Hell Bent for Whiskey.

By October 1928, he, along with Paulie, has become one of the Don's most loyal and trusted right-hand men, now tasked with numerous assignment for their illegal alcohol production and distribution ring in Chicago, officially signed under a front company, Belluccio's Whiskey and Beer.

Recently, two of their three breweries were rendered inoperable under suspicious circumstances. Sabotage by their competitors, the Costellis, is suspected, likely by someone within their own ranks. They soon single out Frank, a low-ranking nervous wise guy, as a possible agent of the Costellis. He and Paulie had been shadowing him for a while, until one night, they saw Frank inside Costelli's Bar and later head for their last brewery by car. The two surmise ill intentions, jump in their vehicle and find him fleeing from the still, triggering a hot pursuit for the turncoat.

## Hell Bent for Whiskey

Vinnie and Paulie are seen engaging in a car chase with and later cornering their fellow Belluccio gang member Frank, who they believe to be working for the Costelli gang, the Belluccios' rival company. Paulie demands to get some explanations from him regarding the evidence they gathered, with Vinnie threatening him with dire consequences should his traitorous game be revealed. Frankie's empty promises are cut short, when the brewery is suddenly destroyed by a bomb, having been placed there by Frankie. Having been confirmed in their suspicions, Vinnie and Paulie gun him down.

The two return Belluccio's Bar, only to find their boss already reading the paper on the event. Belluccio tells them that it was the only brewery they had left and without the Canadian shipments they'd be out of business. Vinnie informs his boss that the Canadian shipments had been caught by police raids, their asks how it happened when Paulie informs him that a gangster named Tony forgot to pay off the cops, Belluccio orders him to be whacked but Paulie corrects Belluccio after remembering that he already had Tony whacked last month. Vinnie quips that that may be why he didn't bribe the authorities. Both laugh, but are quickly shut down by their boss, who threatens them with their lives. He then orders Vinnie and Paulie to take the Costellis' booze to make up for their loss.

Vinnie and Paulie arrive at the brewery by truck and open fire inside the warehouse, but are confused when they find no one is there. Despite Paulie voicing suspicion over the lack of guards, Vinnie shrugs it off, saying it just made their job easier and begin to load their truck full of booze. What they didn't know is that only one floor above them, the Costelli guards were all lying dead inside a break room, with only a single bottle of home-brewed whiskey pointing to their demise.

The two mobsters ship the goods to Luigi's Bar, where a swinging party is held the following night and while the party goers are drinking the booze, Vinnie and Paulie are discussing the payment with the bar owner Luigi. While talking the drunk Luigi helps himself to another glass of the stolen whiskey and shortly after, begins to turn into a zombie, violently shaking and yelling during the process, as Paulie and Vinnie watch in horror. As the metamorphosis finishes, Vinnie is hit by Luigi's right eye, having popped right out of its socked like a cannon ball. The now wart-ridden corpse-like Luigi quickly attacks and slams Paulie into a wall. Vinnie opens a nearby fire emergency case containing a fire axe and attacks Luigi with it, briefly distracting him, but is knocked into the wall. With an axe lodged into his back, Luigi is killed after Paulie manages to grab his gun and shoot him. Vinnie remarks that he should never introduce Paulie to any of his acquaintances ever again, but then seriously begins to question why Luigi went savage. Paulie brings up the idea that it had something to do with the booze they brought but Vinnie dismisses the theory as rubbish, asking about the people in the bar, only to find they too had transformed. Vinnie and Paulie grab their weapons and attempt to fight back the horde, escaping through a back door into the adjacent alley and into their truck. They drive over to their boss and tell him of the incident, who then orders them to destroy the source and any evidence of their being there back at Costelli's brewery and the bar.

Vinnie and Paulie then set up dynamite at the brewery. While Vinnie places the explosive, Paulie, who had been setting up the detonator outside the building, flees back inside, due to being chased by a group of zombies. As the zombies break through the windows, Vinnie points to a hatch in the ground and the two then escape into the sewer. The zombies begin to drink the booze and tip over a large vat of whiskey which begins to pour into the tunnels where Vinnie and Paulie are wading through the sewage and begin to look for a manhole to exit the sewer complex. At the same time, Mr. Belluccio is sitting on the toilet, reading the paper and smoking a cigar. He is soon interrupted by his mother's shouting, who wants her son to help her with the whiskey that is coming out of the taps. He tells her to not bother him while he's using the bathroom and to solve the problem herself. His mother simply reminds him him to stop dumping his cigars in the toilet. Mr. Belluccio carelessly ignores her and drops his still-lit cigar into the toilet and ignites the whiskey in the water, blowing up the building and setting of a huge chain reaction creating a nuclear-like explosion, Vinnie and Paulie witness the explosion and run for cover behind the wall of a building, miraculously surviving unharmed. Vinnie cautiously peeks past their cover and finds nothing but a grey wasteland of collapsed buildings and dust. Vinnie solemnly curses under his breath that he and Paulie will probably be made responsible for this, but Paulie tells him that, technically, they *did* destroy all the evidence and sign it off as a job done, noting that he had never liked the city anyway. Vinnie agrees to forget about this for now and while still left with questions, both are too tired to care and decide to head home and look for a bar, as Paulie ends the night by saying "I need a drink".

## Gallery

"Lose the piece, Frank. It's over."Vinnie and Paulie kill FrankieVinnie and Paulie with Mr BelluccioVinnie and Paulie laughingVinnie and Paulie looking at each other"Fuggetaboutit. It makes our job a lot easier."Vinnie and Paulie discuss the payment with LuigiVinnie and Paulie watch Luigi's transformationVinnie and Paulie screamingVinnie loading his ThompsonVinnie firing into the hordeVinnie and Paulie in the sewerThe two watch the oncoming explosionVinnie and Paulie hiding from the explosion"Aw man, I bet we're gonna get blamed for this one..."