O Chefão Siciliano

An Italian mobster movie that, although a fine film, could have been an absolute classic. Cop Maurizio Merli (aka the Marlboro Man) pursues Mafia 'Don' Michele Barresi across two continents after the kingpin guns down a rival. He travels from Milan to New York City with a witness in his custody, the only man who has the power to identify Barresi as the shooter. On the way from Milan though it's a rough journey as shooters try to take them out at every turn. The only downfall here is the pacing, spending way too much time in Italy, when by far the movie's most effective scenes are the ones in New York, where the city is captured so brilliantly in all it's vintage glory. So much time is spent running through Italy, and on the usual romantic interlude between cop Merli and his ex-wife. This portion of the film is perfectly fine but causes things to sag a bit in the middle, as the last half hour, the New York portion, is electrifying by comparison. Plus the writer of "From Corleone to Brooklyn" would have us believe that in order to get from Milan to New York, you first need to take a train and then a bus from Milan to Rome, which isn't accurate. While this is an above average crime thriller, I believe if the two had taken a direct flight from Milan to New york and spent the bulk of their time in the city, this could have an absolute classic. Still a fun ride and worth tracking down. Legendary pulp director Umberto Lenzi made a bunch of these crime dramas, and this is one of his finest, featuring all the bloody shootouts and high energy chase scenes that fans would expect, including an impressive car chase through the extremely narrow cobble stone side streets of Milan, littered with pedestrians. Lots of great mob lingo and double crosses and of course, done with the style of the best films of the era. From what I have read people tend to look for the Italian language version of the movie, which makes sense. However large portions of this one seem to filmed in English, with live sound, so the English language version should not be dismissed. In any language this is a great ride.

At this writing the masses are rating it 6.6/10, which is just too low. 80% of those that took the time to write a review are giving it 8/10. That's more like it.

I'm glad that it ended when it did. Da Brooklyn a Corleone would make a nice sequel, but not all in one movie!

There's not a lot you can say in a review of this particular movie without a spoiler cropping up, so I guess I could say in that regard that it's extremely plot-driven. The characters are drawn in a much more believable way than the current crop of mafia orientated movies that suffer from way too much badda-bingness.

I can't find a subtitles file for this anywhere, so I had to watch in English, which was OK for the Brooklyn scenes. If I ever get my hands on one, I would LOVE to create a version of this movie where the scenes in Sicily are done in Italian with English subtitles, and the scenes in Brooklyn are done in English. The script actually lends itself to that, with one of the locals in NY asking what a particular word is in Italian. That has to be in English, but the scenes in Sicily obviously weren't. Of course the elephant in the room is that real Sicilian wouldn't sound much like standard Italian, but, hey, close enough. That would be a truly awesome improvement to what is already a really solid flick. If someone PM's me with a subtitle file, I will share the result. I promise, it will be awesome. Well, it is already. My copy already has English/Italian sound tracks, so the project is very doable.

Having Maurizio Merli on your tail must be like having a pack of hounds chasing after you (or Pepe Le Pieu, if you want a less scary comparison). The perp in question here isn't even on the same continent - he's high tailed it to New York, and Merli still wants to track him down.

That said, you can just jump on the next plane to the Big Apple without some sort of evidence. The gangster who fled is a mob boss wanted for ordering the murder of two other mob bosses in Palermo, and the cops in NYC have been tipped off that he's there, which makes him go on the run. Meanwhile, back in Italy, Merli and partner Venantino Venantini are trying to clean up the mess while various witnesses are bumped off by the Mafia. During a hit, Merli (well Venantino really) capture a button man alive, but the guy won't talk...until he finds out the mob boss has killed his sister.

The main bulk of the film details Merli trying to get this witness to New York without him being killed by the masses of mobsters armed to the teeth, which makes for steamlined, tension filled plot as anyone they encounter could be a hitman, and mostly are! Merli punches, shoots, ducks, runs, scampers and growls through the entire film, even taking on a gang on New York street punks. I don't have a single complaint to make about this film!

There's never a dull moment in this one, right up to the last second.

We're also beginning to see a gradual shift of setting here as half of this is filmed in New York, soon to be a trend as we'll get to see The Bronx Warriors, 2019: After The Fall Of New York, Escape from The Bronx, the New York Ripper, Zombie Holocaust, Inferno, Manhattan Baby all taking place in New York city. Maybe the Italians just liked it there. Who knows?

FROM CORLEONE TO BROOKLYN is an exciting late 70s Italian crime film starring the dynamic and handsome Maurizio Merli as an Italian cop who is trying to find a killer who is mob-connected and who eventually has to bring a witness to the United States to testify against the suspect in order for the suspect to be extradited back to Italy. Written and directed by Umberto Lenzi, who directed any number of excellent police films in the 70s (and four great vehicles for Carroll Baker in the late 60s/early 70s), the film moves at a brisk pace and because Mafia killers are after Merli and his witness, the viewer never knows when they will next be attacked or by what method. The pulsating, police-funk score gives this the classic "sound" of a 70s euro-crime film, and the fatalistic ending is something one would rarely see in an American film. Van Johnson, as the New York police lieutenant who works with Merli, does a fine job of barking orders at underlings and projects a genuine concern for Merli's task and situation. I'm still not sure if Mr. Johnson did his own dubbing on this film, but had a cold and was not well-recorded, or whether someone was doing a Van Johnson imitation--after all, Johnson is an EASY to identify actor with distinctive phrasing and accent. A mimic could listen to the soundtrack of one of his films and do a decent impression. In any event, this would rank among the top third of 70s Italian crime films that I have seen. Also, much of the location shooting is in New York and is shot when there is snow on the ground, so the atmosphere is important in the film Recommended to fans of this genre of film, FROM CORLEONE TO BROOKLYN is an example from the "golden age" of Euro-crime films.

Umberto Lenzi, in case you've never heard of him, is an Italian director of various kinds of exploitation flicks: horror, crime drama, and even spaghetti western. The first movie of his that I ever saw was "Orgasmo" - called "Paranoia" in the US - in which Carroll Baker (of "Baby Doll" fame) plays a woman who moves to Italy and gets to know a young couple who aren't what they seem. Now I've seen another one of Lenzi's movies: "Da Corleone a Brooklyn" ("From Corelone to Brooklyn" in English). Maurizio Merli, who was apparently famous as a Franco Nero lookalike, plays a cop helping a low-level mafioso testify against a big-time gangster. I actually found much of the movie to be really slow-moving, but the last half-hour or so made up for that. Even so, the European exploitation flicks that I prefer are the ultra-gory ones.