Confessions of a Vice Baron

What seems to be based on the life and crimes of early 1930's Mafia pioneer Lucky Luciano the movie "Confessions of a Vice Baron" is the story of convicted death row convict Lucky Lombardo, Sing Sing inmate #1452, going to see the prison warden for a last visit. Lombardo is set to "let it all hang out" and go public about his sleazy and sordid life of crime. The life that he worked himself up, or down, from a suave and debonair gigolo to an illegal abortionist to a big time pimp and white-slave trafficker and finally murderer.

Lucky Lombaro wants his story to be published after his death in order to tells those who feel, like Lucky did, that crime does pay. In fact as Lucky tells it doesn't and he's the best case example to prove it. Going back into Lucky's past we see, in a number of badly spliced together 1930's and 40's exploitation movies, how he got to where he's now on death row. We get to see how in the end his hubris and arrogance did him in. Lucky started out basically in the sex trade and had girls as young as 13 kidnapped and forced into a life of prostitution.

In the beginning of his criminal career Lucky was only trying to survive by his ability of charming rich old and young women out of their savings. It was later as his appetite grew he got into more lucrative and criminal activities. Involved in an abortion and baby selling racket Lucky soon saw that it was the illegal white-slave and prostitution business where the money was and he decided to take it over.

After making it to the top of the rich vice and prostitution business with dozens of pimps madams and bordellos, as well as hundreds of call-girls, under his control Lucky came up against someone whom he could't knock or pay off: Special prosecutor and new state DA Selmer Jackson. The D.A is obviously styled after the real life New York special prosecutor District Attorney and later Governor Thomas Dewey. Dewey's the man who put real life Mafioso Lucky Luciano behind bars. It was D.A Selmer in the end got the goods on Lucky that eventually put him in the Sing Sing "Hot Seat".

Very graphic for it's time "Confessions of a Vice Baron" does show the movie going public, if they back then could find a theater that showed the film, what a bunch of despicable lowlifes hoods the likes of Lucky Lombardo really were. Not the cleaned up version of gangsters shown in Hollywood produced and released movies that were shown back then in the neighborhood theaters.

Willie Costello as Lucky Lombardo, AKA Van Hersten Kilonis De Kevon, looks like he's either on downers or very repentant as we see him telling his life story during splicing breaks in the movie. We see him in some half dozen or so films that he was previously in. With Costello getting either heavier or thinner as well as having or not having a mustache in the scenes that he's in.

The movie just stops short of having Lucky Lombardo being executed with Lucky looking straight into the camera and telling the audience "Let my fate be a warning to you that Crime Does Not Pay". That's followed by a screaming newspaper headline saying "Gang Chief Pays For his Crimes" as if he was already executed with the sub-title of the very same story saying "Lombardo to die at Midnight"! As if he were still alive and waiting to be executed!

The original title is excellent as it positively explains what the film is about. It was re-issued under the name "Skid Row", which is senseless as it has nothing to do with drunken hobos. The film has basically no plot. It is just a series of sketches detailing what were once considered terrible vices. The film is now antiquated, the acting is abominable, and the direction is worse. It seems to be much older than its 1942 release date. It is difficult for me to write these comments as my father is acting in it (Noel Madison) as a "procurer" for the white slave trade (prostitution). I don't know which studio produced this film, but I have a feeling it may have been backed by the FBI under the "Crime Doesn't Pay" theme. The ending is a closeup of the vice-baron lecturing directly to the audience with the last line being "Crime Doesn't Pay". The movie is so bad, it's now laughable!

This 1942 Willis Kent production stars the great Willy Castello as death-row inmate Lucky Lombardo, who offers to serve up a detailed "confession" of his criminal exploits to teach the younger generation that crime does not pay. These exploits are shown by clips from earlier Willis Kent productions starring Castello (!!!) and a few that he didn't star in. For instance, who can forget his role as the slimy pimp in Wages of Sin, or the oily gigolo in Mad Youth, or the unlicensed abortion doctor in Victims of Passion? They are all here, as well as the obscure Smashing The Vice Trust, which has not surfaced in the last few decades, but which looks fascinating. In addition, clips are shown from Kent's productions of Murder in the Museum (including a more explicit striptease that was spliced into later versions of the film, NOT found in the 1935 original) AND Cocaine Fiends, in which WC did not appear. The new footage of Castello is awkwardly lit and shot, looking like a stag film, and the warden and his secretary who listen to the testimony are poor performers, but as always Castello is a fascinating performer, suave and tough and charming and seedy. The static photography and flat inadequate lighting of the new footage really give the feel of a grim death-row setting, and Castello delivers the purple-prose script completely convincingly--as if he were Bogart delivering a Clifford Odets soliloquy. In a sense, this film is a "best-of" Willy Castello. Any lover of classic 1930s exploitation films should love this picture. Unfortunately, my copy is a bit splicy, but as a 60-year-old underground relic, we should be happy it exists at all. Castello only made a handful of films, but he created a searing image on the screen and will never be forgotten by fans of hard-boiled grindhouse cinema. Confessions of a Vice Baron is a fitting tribute to Castello's unique talent and to a genre of films that continues to fascinate viewers in a new century.

Confessions of a Vice Baron (1943)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Mildly entertaining exploitation picture has a prisoner (Willy Castello) about to be put to death but before that he walks into the wardens office and asks to talk. It seems the prisoner wants to talk about his life in crime so that hopefully others will hear the stories and decide to take a different path in life.

The exploitation roadshow had its biggest period during the mid to late 30's once the Hayes Office started to put an end to anything naughty coming out of Hollywood. For fans of the genre, CONFESSIONS OF A VICE BARON should keep them entertained but it should be noted that this movie is pretty much edited together from other movies. The stuff dealing with the prisoner "confessing" is all new footage but the rest comes from movies like SMASHING THE VICE TRUST (lost outside the footage here), THE WAGES OF SIN, RACE SUICIDE, MAD YOUTH and THE PACE THAT KILLS, which is the only film not to have Castello actually in.

While this film isn't too bad and it only runs 58-minutes, it would still be wise to check out the other movies since you can seen them in their entirety. As you'd expect, the story here is pretty thin to say the least and there's no question that the quality ranges from bad to awful depending on which film you're actually watching. As for Castello, you can clearly call him one of the first kings of exploitation.

'illegal operation' nudity, abortion and baby snatching clinic, gigolo, procurer, prostitution, fornication, Mann Act-- some footage very random--such as stripper video often used two synonyms Willy Castello

Although the Production Code of 1934 did an excellent job of cleaning up the content of films, not everything was squeaky clean in theaters across America. Although the Code forbade mentions of premarital sex (unless it was severely punished), abortion, homosexuality, prostitution and the like, some low-life distributors made films that slipped in under the radar, so to speak. In the guise of 'educational films' geared towards warning parents about risks to their children, all sorts of prohibited topics were not fair game. But, since the various censor boards in each state would never allow these sorts of sleazy exploitation films, often they were marketed city by city--almost like a traveling evangelism show. And, if you had the money to pay for admission and you appeared to be old enough, you got to learn the wicked truth...along with some occasional nudity, violence and sexual sadism!

"Confessions of a Vice Baron" is clearly one of these traveling exploitation films. Its topics include underground abortion 'clinics' (run by folks who'd read a few medical books and so were called 'doctors'), fornication, white slavery (i.e., trapping girls and forcing them into sex slavery), baby snatching and a few glimpses of nudity! Oddly, drugs and alcoholism somehow were omitted in this film--but it's not like the movie avoided too many sins!

Willy Costello stars as the vice baron in the title, Lucky Lombardi. Although this actor with a strong accent is not exactly the type you'd expect in such a role, he is just fine as the king of sleaze. The film begins with Lombardi on Death Row--and he's come to the warden to tell his tale of excess and evil in order to warn our children. And, of course ALL the excesses are shown in this film--including many clips from other films that were tossed into the movie. In its defense, although the clips were random, they were well-placed and only seemed somewhat irrelevant! The nude scene, strippers stripping and a few other scenes obviously were lifted from other films--and I laughed as several scenes involved folks with mid-1930s hairstyles! So is it any good? Not really. But, it IS entertaining and worth seeing if you like this sort of trash.