Johnny Coll, messaggero di morte

A fun little gangster movie from 1963 that feels very much like a 'rat pack' picture. Henry Silva stars in an early career badass role, playing an gangster seemingly assassinated in Italy, who turns up in America to bump off some mob foes. A good toughness in the 'killer' plot here alongside an exemplary supporting cast that includes such notables as Elisha Cook, Jr., Sammy Davis, Jr. And Telly Savalas.

'Lost' classic crime movie, with 'Rat Pack' member Peter Lawford as Executive Producer, and featuring Rat Packers Sammy Davis Jr. and Joey Bishop in single scene cameos, this is an often brutal mob movie featuring glacial Henry Silva as a pitiless, downbeat anti-hero pitting his wits and weaponry against a variety of slick-suited, big-city mobsters operating behind an outwardly respectable veneer. Opening the movie as a Salvatore Giuliano-type Sicilian folk-hero (the early scenes show a young 'Johnny' being taken under Giuliano's wing in World War II after witnessing his mother's death at the hands of the Nazis), 'Johnny' is reinvented and resurrected by Marc Lawrence's exiled 'Lucky Luciano' type syndicate boss, who has arranged his faked death in order to set him loose against the former Stateside associates who are now lining their pockets with his ill-gotten gains. Swiftly acquiring Elizabeth Montgomery's thrill-seeking, well-heeled moll (a cinematic half-sister to the similarly enthralled Claire Trevor in Robert Wise's BORN TO KILL), Johnny sets about his one-man vendetta amidst the boardrooms, casinos and fancy spreads with a singleminded ruthlessness that, in its settings and attitude (if not it's visual style) appears to foreshadow Lee Marvin's similarly brutal rampage through the well-heeled trappings of contemporary corporate America four years later in POINT BLANK. Comparisons aside, this is a slick slice of thick-ear hardboiled crime, aided by a snappy Billy May score and Sammy Davis Jr. theme which adds to the sense of pace and rhythm engendered by William (BEACH PARTY) Asher's snappy direction. And the ending's a killer (pun intended). Undoubtedly worthy of wider (any!) availability, as it's an often cynical, but arresting crime movie (pun similarly intended)with the makings of a cult. Catch it if you can.

There's murder and mayhem to spare in this wild ride through the underworld of the early 1960s.

There's simply no one who could play a merciless killer better than Henry Silva, with his beady black eyes, and that inimitable smirk which plays across his face as he dispatches his victims. Here he's put to perfect use as a remorseless "messenger boy of death" sent by deported mobster Johnny Colini (Marc Lawrence) to settle scores with Colini's former associates in the US.

In the odd and somewhat awkward opening scenes of "Johnny Cool", we're introduced to Silva's character as a young boy in Sicily. When fascists kill his mother, he's adopted by the hill bandits who rescued him. Next we see him as a bandit chief, a sort of Sicilian Robin Hood who's an honored guest at a local wedding. Which makes Silva's seemingly easy transition to a cold-blooded hit man a bit inexplicable, after Colini on his own initiative bribes the authorities to fake the bandit's death. I have a feeling there's something missing here; maybe the novel explained it better.

But once Silva -- who at the mobster's behest has taken Colini's name for his own -- hits New York, the movie shifts into high gear, and from that point on it never lets up. Bouncing from New York to Vegas to LA and back, the new Johnny Colini -- or "Johnny Cool" as he's inevitably nicknamed -- eliminates his targets with icy aplomb, leaving a trail of corpses to mark his journey through the underworld.

Along the way, he gets involved with bored little rich girl Darien 'Dare' Guiness (Elizabeth Montgomery), who demonstrates dramatic chops which may come as quite a surprise to those who only know her as Samantha from the TV series "Bewitched". Though she's basically a decent person, something within her is fascinated by the darkness she senses in Johnny, and she's swiftly drawn into the violence that swirls around him. He loves her, but of course in traditional "Beauty and the Beast" fashion, it will be his undoing.

Besides being produced by Peter Lawford and featuring a couple of songs by fellow Rat Pack member Sammy Davis, Jr. as well as cameos by Davis and Joey Bishop, this film sports a striking assemblage of actors in supporting roles: from up-and-comers like Telly Savalas to noir and gangster flick icons like Elisha Cook, Jr. and Robert Armstrong, to some not-so-obvious choices for mob bosses in Jim Backus and Mort Sahl. In his brief appearance Sahl leaves quite an impression, as he greets the prospect of his imminent death with a sort of weary, good-humored resignation. He correctly divines Johnny's fate, offering him some rueful advice that he really should have taken.

And Silva's final scene is unbelievably wrenching, incredibly disturbing for all that it lacks any gore or overt violence. I guarantee you, you will never forget it.

This is a neat little film, compact and brutal as a sawed-off shotgun. While not as stylishly executed as later gangster revenge sagas like "Point Blank" or the original "Get Carter", this one still carries one hell of a punch.

Pure 1963 gangster drama. Not sure if this is on DVD yet, but it should be.

Elizabeth Montgomery as a brunette, looks amazing. She is a bored socialite who wants excitement, and hooks up with Henry Silva.

Some of the scenes are classic. The Beverly Hills Hotel, Las Vegas, a NYC skyscraper. Telly Savalas also has a cameo, and Sammy Davis Jr. Also, John McGiver ("The Manchurian Candidate") as an angry casino boss.

There is also something aesthetic and wild about seeing the streets of Los Angeles and NY in black and white, in the 60's. It just seems so surreal. Don't miss this film, they often show it on TCM channel. 9/10

This is classic Henry Silva when he was young and a potentially hot hollywood item running with the 'Rat Pack' and a pre-Bewitched Elizabeth Montgomery. The cultural aspects of the Mafia are touched on before Mario Puzo's novel, which came a few years later. Some cameo support performances from Jim "Mr. Magoo" Backus and Sammy Davis, Jr. make an interesting and dark gangster story. The ending is blunt and may leave you feeling as if you were wandering in the wasteland only to find the key to the exit doesn't work. Check it out.