Movie review: ‘Prizzi’s Honor’

FloridaGator80

Gangsters have been a staple of movies since someone first put the words “motion” and “picture” together. Hollywood has framed just about every kind of story through gangster glasses from just pure violence to real-life stories to franchises about certain families and, yes, even love stories. In “Prizzi’s Honor” you have a mob hitman who falls for a woman who herself is a killer. It rises above mediocrity because of the cleverness of the script (taken from a wonderful novel) and talent of its A-list stars headlined by Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner. “Prizzi’s Honor” doesn’t always come to mind when you think mob films, despite being nominated for eight Oscars and winning one, so this one remains the sleeper today it was when it was released – and it’s just as good.

‘PRIZZI’S HONOR’
(1985; 130 minutes; rated R; directed by John Huston and starring Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner and Robert Loggia)

WHEN A (HIT) MAN LOVES A (HIT) WOMAN …

(NOTE: I expanded this review with a little more opinion, some more trivia and the updating of links on Dec. 13, 2016. I again expanded the review on Dec. 11, 2019.)

When you think of a wonderful gangster film that takes time to develop its characters and plot without sacrificing the attention span of its audience you probably think of “The Godfather” and its wonderful characters, story and its best-of-American filmmaking. However, take a moment to consider (or remember if you can) another good mob film called “Prizzi’s Honor” starring Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner.

(CLICK HERE FOR ALL MY MOVIE REVIEWS)

“Prizzi’s Honor” certainly comes up short when compared to “The Godfather,” but just about every film comes up short in that department. What “Prizzi’s Honor” does is a neat, smart job with an outstanding cast working with an intricate plot taken from Richard Condon’s bestseller of the same name. It certainly is not a mob story along the lines of a Martin Scorsese scorcher like “The Departed” (click here for my review) which also stars Nicholson, but “Prizzi’s Honor” is in a few small ways its equal at times and a few even better.

“Prizzi’s Honor” starts slowly building its characters’ identities through a wedding (always a great mob scene – no pun intended) at a slow pace, which then surges back and forth as necessary to move both the story and characters along. The time spent with each actor is well designed by director John Huston, who earned an Oscar nomination for his work here (he was the oldest ever nominated director at 79 at the time of “Prizzi’s Honor”).

The story of “Prizzi’s Honor” is convoluted and starts out with the “Prizzi” mob family using an outside killer to take care of some business while all the family’s at a wedding. After, in an unrelated (but soon to be related) issue, money is stolen from the family by a man in Las Vegas who is killed by his partner who flees to California.

The family’s top hitman is Nicholson as “Charley Partanna” and he goes out to settle family accounts with the man. However, since the wedding he has been seeing a woman he met at the nuptials, and he finds out to his displeasure that the woman (Turner as “Irene Walker”) is married to the guy he just killed and that she might be responsible for the theft from the “Prizzi” family.

Now, the plot twists even more. Since Nicholson’s in love with her, he manages to accept her obvious lies and even includes her in a scheme to kidnap a bank president that will benefit the family. However it goes awry and the whole family is tossed into even more turmoil.

Behind the scenes in all this is Anjelica Huston as “Maerose Prizzi,” who is Nicholson’s spurned lover. She wants him back and to do so must manipulate everyone, including the venomous and deadly family patriarch “Don Corrado Prizzi,” who is played to perfection by William Hickey.

Everything turns around on itself several times before Nicholson has to ultimately keep his family’s honor and set everything right. It’s impossible to describe all the plot twists without taking away the pleasure you might derive from watching it for the first time or again after many years.

The acting here is superb at all levels, so let me take a look at some of the actors and their work …

  • I was totally blown away by the effort of Oscar nominee (for this one) Hickey. As this movie’s “godfather,” Hickey takes on the persona of a reptile – he is always deliberate in his physical movements (just like a lizard getting up out of the sun) that include the blink of his eyes and his guttural voice. Hickey’s countenance shows nothing but the saturation of the tumor of pure evil and that is not an easy accomplishment for any actor. You almost expect to see a forked-tongue come out of his mouth as he hisses his lines. Hickey has played mobsters before (such as in “My Blue Heaven” – click here for my review), but this is a tour de force for his career and he was nominated for an Oscar for this performance. He was also the lone bright spot in an awful film called “Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins” (click here for my review) and was also in Clint Eastwood’s “Pink Cadillac.” Hickey died at 69 in 1997 of emphysema and bronchitis.
  • The Oscar winner for “Prizzi’s Honor” (it was nominated for a total of eight) was Anjelica Huston as the patient and vengeful woman who believes she was once wronged by Nicholson. She does the Oscar-worthy turn with an effort so wonderfully layered that it takes you nearly the entire film to realize how deadly and tough she really is in the film and how much like Hickey’s character she turns out to be like. Huston, who was in an on-again, off-again relationship in real life with Nicholson at the time of filming “Prizzi’s Honor,” has also been in “The Addams Family” and “The Grifters.”

Although they headline the film, Nicholson and Turner have to take a back seat to Hickey’s and Huston’s performances.

  • Nicholson is extremely effective as the mob lieutenant who handles the tough ones for the family but is also a bit dense in his thinking and outlook on life. He doesn’t have his father’s subtlety or the boss’ cruelty, but he is a killer and Nicholson hits a homerun here. Nicholson was even better in “The Departed,” but was nominated for an Oscar here. He was also in “The Shining” (‘Here’s Johnny!’) as well as one of his most recognized roles in “A Few Good Men.”
  • Turner shows off her brass at just about every turn here and it’s easy to forget how scheming and self-centered she ultimately turns out to be. Turner’s solid effort here would be noteworthy, except it doesn’t reach the level of her co-headliner nor several of the supporting actors. Turner has also been in “Romancing the Stone” and its sequel as well getting an Oscar nomination for “Peggy Sue Got Married.”

Other supporting cast members worth mentioning are:

  • John Randolph as “Angelo Partanna,” who is Nicholson’s father here. He is smooth, intelligent and gets the job done with little fuss. He was better as Chevy Chase’s father in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” (click here for my review) and was also the grandfather in “You’ve Got Mail” (click here for my review). He died at 88 in 2004.
  • Lee Richardson plays “Dominic Prizzi” and he hates Nicholson’s guts for shaming him and his daughter. He does a good job playing both the highly excitable father as well as a mob boss who knows how to be tough. Richardson was also in “Network” and “A Stranger Among Us.” He died at 73 in 1999 of a heart attack.
  • I would have liked to see Robert Loggia play Richardson’s character so he would have more screen time, but he’s solid as “Eduardo Prizzi,” who is the other son of the boss. Loggia is competent but needs more time to become a screen presence here. He was also in “An Officer and a Gentleman,” “Big,” “Scarface” with Al Pacino and was the older man for Susan Dey in “First Love.” Although he did better work (just take being “Feech La Manna” in “The Sopranos”), I liked him best in the football flick “Necessary Roughness” (click here for my review). Loggia died at 85 in 2015 from complications from Alzheimer’s disease.

“Prizzi’s Honor” was the 32nd ranked film of 1985 at the U.S. box office after making $26.7 million in ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. It was made on a budget of $16 million, according to Wiki, and surprised everyone with its strength at the box office as well as reception by critics and ultimately its Oscar nominations. The No. 1 film of the year was “Back to the Future” at $210.6 million. Here are the other films from 1985 that I’ve reviewed:

Assorted cast notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Kristy McNichol, Tatum O’Neal and Brooke Shields were all considered to play the role won by Turner, while Liza Minelli turned down the chance to play the character that earned Huston an Oscar.
  • As for the potential actors for the “Charley Partanna” role, here’s directly from com: “Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, Bill Murray, Ryan O’Neal, Christopher Reeve, Burt Reynolds, Sylvester Stallone, John Travolta and Jon Voight were considered for the role of Charley.” Really stupid would have been Voight or Murray (sorry, Bill, not the right role for you); Travolta would have been interesting; and Hanks, Hoffman and O’Neal would have been interesting.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “John Huston is the only director to direct two members of his own family to win Academy Awards. The first was his father Walter Huston in Treasure of the Sierra Madre who won best supporting actor, then his daughter Angelica Huston won best supporting actress for this film.”
  • Nicholson reportedly gained 30 pounds for the role of “Charley Partanna.”
  • Although he would later be nominated for an Oscar for “The Lovely Bones,” Stanley Tucci notched his first film credit here as “Soldier.” I believe he did a truly spectacular job as bad guy-weirdo in “Big Trouble” (click here for my review) and was sterling in an episode of TV’s now-ended “Monk” series.

© Chuck Curry and A Gator in Naples, 2014. 2016, 2019.
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express
and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.
Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given
to Chuck Curry and A Gator in Naples with appropriate
and specific direction to the original content.

Unknown's avatar

Published by FloridaGator80

Leave a Reply