Le clan des Siciliens

This French jewel heist is always entertaining due to crisp direction by Henri Verneuil and a script that never takes the usual path. It's great seeing Jean Gabin play the sophisticated patriarch of a Sicilian crime family that plots to hijack an airliner with $50 million in jewels. Alain Delon is his usual moody, wild-man self as the cold-blooded killer who is being sought by the French police and is a constant threat to the upcoming heist. Lino Ventura is a standout as the droll police inspector who's trying to quit smoking while chasing Delon. Great 60's period score by Ennio Morricone. It's not available on DVD, but Fox Movie Channel plays it occasionally. Much more fun than "Le Cercle Rouge" which was recently released on DVD to much fanfare.

Roger Sartet (Alain Delon) is a high profile career criminal who is top of the French police wanted list, so when he escapes from their custody for a second time under the nose of dogged cop L'inspecteur Le Goff (Lino Ventura), he goes immediately into hiding as the police try to locate him. Vittorio Manalese (Jean Gabin) a Sicilian born criminal and godfather of a mob style family, is the man who sprung him from police custody, he has long planned his retirement back in Sicily but is immediately interested in one last heist after hearing Sartet's plan for a big jewel heist in Rome. Together with some mobsters from New York, they set in motion a daring plan to steal the jewels while on route to the US. All goes well for Sartet until a child's indiscretion alters his fate for good.

Entertaining enough crime flick, with some excellent set pieces and made with plenty of style, the funky main theme by Ennio Morricone being a highlight. All three legends of French cinema are excellent although none have enough screen time to truly rank in their best. Verneuill's direction is uber stylish, with some passing similarities to Leone in framing and tone, although some elements of the main heist are quite dated they are still quite fun. Its not a film for the pc brigade however as there is plenty of sexual denouement, Sartet's affair with the beautiful Jeanne Manalese (Irina Demick) producing one of cinemas most outrageous moments of sexual symbolism, its so absurd you just have to laugh.

I first saw "The Sicilian Clan" at the Mayfair theater in Fresh Meadows, in 1970. A Woody Allen movie was the main feature then, but I went to see "The Sicilian Clan," a great crime movie then and now. The Mayfair, then operated by the Weinstein brothers of Miramax fame, changed in 1974 from showing foreign and off-beat movies to X-rated movies, movies hard-core enough to get the new theater operator sent once to Rikers Island by the Queens DA. The Queens DA at the time, John Santucci, never bothered the wise guys portrayed in "Goodfellas," but then, Santucci never went to jail like his predecessor, former DA Thomas Mackell. In the glossy world of "The Sicilian Clan," the criminals are professionals who make money the old-fashioned way - they plan robberies. The picture starts with members of the Manalese family, arranging for the escape from custody of career criminal Roger Sartet (Alain Delon). Sartet is in big trouble, having killed two policeman during his capture, according to a comment later made by Lino Ventura's character, a tough cop. The escape from the police van is suspenseful, as is most of this movie. "The Sicilian Clan's" plot has the thieves take a hijacked jet to New York. Instead of landing at an airport in Queens, though, the jet lands on an unfinished highway. To show the attention to detail director Henri Verneuil took, as the jet rolls over a bridge, you briefly see dirt from the bridge supports fall down, from the weight of the landing jet. About eight years after I saw this movie, Queens mobsters using inside information robbed the high security vault of Lufthansa airlines at JFK Airport. That robbery and its aftermath are part of the plot of "Goodfellas." In "The Sicilian Clan" Sartet's character has inside information on the burglar alarm installation at the Villa Borghese, where a big jewelry exhibit is taking place. He uses this information to get Jean Gabin's character, the head of the family, involved in the robbery. Thinking it over, Queens in the 1970s was the most appropriate place to see a crime movie like "The Sicilian Clan." A French crime movie that in part imitated what was happening in Queens.

As one of the IMDb reviewers said, "The best feature of this film is the fantastic sound track by the genius composer Ennio Morricone". Morricone's catchy, wistful, longing, mourning and absolutely mesmerizing score elevates this typical (in a good sense) French crime noir to even higher level. I first heard it couple of years ago when I bought Morricone's "Once Upon A Time: The Essential Ennio Morricone Film Music Collection", a double disc superb collection. Even among legendary Morricone's scores, the music for "Le Clan des Siciliens" stands alone. It created a mood that mixed suspense, melancholy, danger, and regrets, and it made me fell in love with the movie that I had not even seen. Since I heard the score for the first time, I tried to find the film and finally I purchased a Region Free, NTSC, widescreen DVD with French, English and Russian Audio tracks and English subtitles. The film looks gorgeous and I was pleased with the clean and clear DVD transfer. I have been a fan of French crime/heist/noir/mystery of 1960-1980 films for long time and to see three of my favorite actors (Alain Delon, Jean Gabin, and Lino Ventura) who had made many classics of the beloved genres acting in the same movie added to my excitement. All three are excellent, and one of the advantages of the new DVD was the chance to see the film in its original French and to hear the real voices of three screen legends. Nobody could be cooler than Delon as Roger Santet, a convicted murderer, ruthless, violent yet irresistibly and dangerously charming, a "beautiful destructive angel of the dark street". Lino Ventura is reliable and convincing as a chief of detective inspectors who had vowed to hunt Santet down. Aging Jean Gabin, one of the most beloved French actors with the wide acting range who could play successfully the characters as diverse as inspector Maigret and Pépé le Moko is wonderful as Vittorio Manalese, the father and "the Godfather" of the Sicilian Clan, the family which is tied by blood in more ways than one. Vittorio certainly lived by an old wisdom, "Keep your friends close but your enemies closer."

Another strong thriller by a man who ,although despised by the French "intellectual" critics ,made movies which still hold up very well today ;people are happy to watch for the umpteenth time "La Vache Et Le Prisonnier" "Melodie En Sous -Sol " or this "Clan Des Siciliens " Henri Verneuil was perhaps the only French director of the sixties to come near to the American know-how.His three stars ,Jean Gabin,Alain Delon and Lino Ventura have enough charisma to grab today's audience.Add a solid screenplay ,with never a dull moment,great scenes (particularly the sequences on the plane),a sense of humor (the brat's gaffe ,revealing auntie is having an affair with Delon)and Ennio Morricone 's brilliant score and you have a very entertaining flick ,which you 'll watch again in ten years with the same pleasure.