"The Don is Dead" - the title alone is worth the price of the purchase - is too often downgraded as a quick and inferior attempt to cash in on the tremendous success of Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather"; released the year before. Let me tell you, the problem doesn't lie with this perfectly enjoyable and competently made Mafia saga. The problem merely is that "The Godfather" is insanely popular and too many avid fans will bash and boycott everything that even remotely resembles their preciously favorite milestone. Popular cinematic ideas are reproduced and often even get blatantly copied, that is a fact. This doesn't mean, however, that nothing good comes out of the giant stream of imitations! Italian exploitation, for example, is my personal favorite type of cinema and that genre exists for 99% out of shameless knock-offs and stolen ideas. Regardless of what you mean read, "The Don is Dead" remains an excellent drama/thriller with an absorbing plot, splendid performances from a great cast and steady direction from the underrated Richard Fleisher. Following the death of a highly respected Don, representatives of three Mafiosi clans gather to re-divide the Las Vegas territory. The slimy Luigi Orlanda and his mistress see this as an opportunity to double-cross the others and raise a destructive gang war. They manipulate for the powerful Don Angelo DiMorra to fall in love with the girlfriend of his own protégé stepson Frank Regalbuto and things rapidly escalate into deceit, executions and mass-retaliation. The story is good, and Fleisher effortlessly finds the right balance between talky sequences and exciting action footage. There are some delightful execution-highlights, like set in a barbershop or a laundry salon. Anthony Quinn gives a fine performance, although clearly modeled after Marlon Brando - I admit, and "young" actors Frederic Forrest and Robert Forster are also very impressive.
20 Reviews
It held my attention for close to two hours.
Hey_Sweden24 September 2014
"The Don is Dead" wins no points for originality. Obviously, it's attempting to ride on the coat-tails of "The Godfather". And it's not a classic that deserves to be remembered years from now. Its presentation is pretty matter-of-fact and of no real distinction. But it's still very engaging visceral entertainment, at least for fanatics of the mob movie genre. It benefits from good characters, fine performances, and the kind of in-your-face violence that has become standard for this type of thing.
The prominent mafia don of Las Vegas has died, and a truce is currently existing between the three families in the city. But all of that is going to go to Hell pretty quickly, as one greedy and power-crazed individual gets the bright idea to have two of these families go to bloody war with each other - all with a simple letter addressed to Don Angelo DiMorra (Anthony Quinn). Among the leading players are ambitious young Frank (Robert Forster), the son of the deceased don, and the Fargo brothers, Tony (Frederic Forrest) and Vince (Al Lettieri).
The makers of "The Don is Dead" do cast their movie well, from top to bottom. Angel Tompkins, Charles Cioffi, Louis Zorich, Ina Balin, Joe Santos, Frank DeKova, Abe Vigoda, Victor Argo, Val Bisoglio, Sid Haig, and Vic Tayback all put in appearances. (Lettieri and Vigoda, of course, were also in "The Godfather".) Forrest is particularly effective as Tony, who would rather leave the "life" behind but gets drawn back in when things start getting ugly.
Scripted by Marvin H. Albert, from his novel, and directed by Richard Fleischer, this is compelling drama when taken on its own terms and not compared to anything else. Even if it's just on a visceral level, it *does* work.
Seven out of 10.
The prominent mafia don of Las Vegas has died, and a truce is currently existing between the three families in the city. But all of that is going to go to Hell pretty quickly, as one greedy and power-crazed individual gets the bright idea to have two of these families go to bloody war with each other - all with a simple letter addressed to Don Angelo DiMorra (Anthony Quinn). Among the leading players are ambitious young Frank (Robert Forster), the son of the deceased don, and the Fargo brothers, Tony (Frederic Forrest) and Vince (Al Lettieri).
The makers of "The Don is Dead" do cast their movie well, from top to bottom. Angel Tompkins, Charles Cioffi, Louis Zorich, Ina Balin, Joe Santos, Frank DeKova, Abe Vigoda, Victor Argo, Val Bisoglio, Sid Haig, and Vic Tayback all put in appearances. (Lettieri and Vigoda, of course, were also in "The Godfather".) Forrest is particularly effective as Tony, who would rather leave the "life" behind but gets drawn back in when things start getting ugly.
Scripted by Marvin H. Albert, from his novel, and directed by Richard Fleischer, this is compelling drama when taken on its own terms and not compared to anything else. Even if it's just on a visceral level, it *does* work.
Seven out of 10.
TV-Movie Looking Movie Rides The Godfather Wave
cultfilmfreaksdotcom30 November 2018
How could a movie starring Anthony Quinn, Robert Forster, Frederic Forrest, Al Lettieri, directed by Richard Fleischer and centering on cutthroat mobsters slightly miss the mark, or, not be an incredible masterpiece?
Probably because there's not much of a target to begin with, and yet, that's not such a bad thing since the breezy undertone provides a cushion of what feels like actor improvisation under the edgy, multi-plotted schemes going on... And on and on...
The story, or one of many stories, centers on a brash climber, played by Forster, who, using a somewhat contrived Brooklyn accent and not seeming as natural and genuine as usual... along with two hired guns, The Fargo Brothers played by Forrest and Letteri... are a collected trio of goons with an ambitious attempt to overthrow a newly-made don, Anthony Quinn, playing white knight to Forster's beautiful, and abused, girlfriend (cult starlet Angel Tompkins): a victim who dreams of being a famous singer.
Lightweight melodrama befitting a TV movie-of-the-week makes a lot of whistling in the cemetery - but with a catchy tune...
There are so many twists (everyone wants to kill everyone) you may need a scorecard after a while, or instructions: Although Robert Forster goes from a temperamental wild card to a downright awful bully that the audience winds up rooting against, he's much more likable than Quinn, a brooding know-it-all who, alas, is the sole DON IS DEAD hero since, well, he's Anthony Quinn...
And despite too much talk and not enough action, there are some decent gunfights between exposition and so, with all the twists and turns, pay attention and you may just follow this jigsaw puzzle that works better incomplete than when it attempts an 11th hour resolution...
What makes it fit slightly within the Noir category despite following more of a "Modern" Classic Gangster template is that the good guys and the bad are all in the mafia i.e. where there's a moral compass in a school of sharks, it's usually within a Film Noir shoreline.
Probably because there's not much of a target to begin with, and yet, that's not such a bad thing since the breezy undertone provides a cushion of what feels like actor improvisation under the edgy, multi-plotted schemes going on... And on and on...
The story, or one of many stories, centers on a brash climber, played by Forster, who, using a somewhat contrived Brooklyn accent and not seeming as natural and genuine as usual... along with two hired guns, The Fargo Brothers played by Forrest and Letteri... are a collected trio of goons with an ambitious attempt to overthrow a newly-made don, Anthony Quinn, playing white knight to Forster's beautiful, and abused, girlfriend (cult starlet Angel Tompkins): a victim who dreams of being a famous singer.
Lightweight melodrama befitting a TV movie-of-the-week makes a lot of whistling in the cemetery - but with a catchy tune...
There are so many twists (everyone wants to kill everyone) you may need a scorecard after a while, or instructions: Although Robert Forster goes from a temperamental wild card to a downright awful bully that the audience winds up rooting against, he's much more likable than Quinn, a brooding know-it-all who, alas, is the sole DON IS DEAD hero since, well, he's Anthony Quinn...
And despite too much talk and not enough action, there are some decent gunfights between exposition and so, with all the twists and turns, pay attention and you may just follow this jigsaw puzzle that works better incomplete than when it attempts an 11th hour resolution...
What makes it fit slightly within the Noir category despite following more of a "Modern" Classic Gangster template is that the good guys and the bad are all in the mafia i.e. where there's a moral compass in a school of sharks, it's usually within a Film Noir shoreline.
The best of men make mistakes, all we can do is correct them
sol121824 March 2006
**SPOILERS** With the terrible news of his father Mafia Don Poleiro Regalbuto sudden death young Frankie, Robert Foster, feels that the weight of the world was put on his shoulders and doesn't know if he could handle it. At a big Mafia conference in Las Vages the three mob families decide that all of the late Don Poleiro's operations should be put in the hands of his friend and fellow Mafia Kingpin Don Angelo Dimorra, Anthony Quinn, with Frankie being thought the ropes by him until he can do the job as a Mafia Don himself.
There's foul play and treachery afoot with the greedy and back-stabbing mob Cosiglieri, Luigi Orlando, Charles Cioff, planing to use his recruited out-of-state hit men to start a bloody mob war between the three Vages Mafia families. Then, after the dust settles,Luigi plans to take over the entire Mafia operations in the city that's worth well over a billion dollars.
Luigi get's his chance to get the war between the Mafia families started when he manipulated young Frankie into a feud with his new adopted father Don Angelo. Lugie starts a rumor that the fatherly Don was having an affair with Frankies girlfriend nightclub singer Ruby Dunne, Anglel Tompkins, this results in Ruby getting almost beaten to death by an outraged Frankie. Lugie's trickery also leads to Don Angelo sending out a hit team to knock off the love-crazed and unstable hood. The Don's brother and family Consiglieri Mitch, Louis Zorich, tries to talk his hot-headed brother out of it but not after the hit men gunned down Frankie's dad, the late Don Poleiro,Consigieri Vito Netherbourne, George Skaff.
With a full-scale mob war now about to explode Frankie get's help from the Fargo brothers hit men for hire Tony & Vince, Frederic Forrest & Al Letteri. This causes so much damage to Don Angelo's mob empire, including the murder of his brother Mitch, that it lands him in a wheel chair after suffering a heart-attack and near-fatal stroke.
The mob war really escalates when Don Angelo's boys trick Frankie and Vince into going to a meeting of the minds in a downtown Vages diner this results in a violent gun battle with Vince being gunned down. Tony then pulls out all stops and sends his men, the former Don Poleiro mob, out for blood that results in dozens of Don Angelo's men getting shot knifed slashed and, together with Don Angelo's legitimate business establishment, blown up.
Frankie escaping to Italy is later set up in a trap where he's blown away but his fellow mobsters for his insane actions. This resulted in almost the entire mobs lucrative operations in Las Vages being blown to hell. It's not until Don Bernardo, John Duke Russo, is prematurely released from prison that the truth about Liugi's perfidy came to light from non-other then his abused wife, and Bernardo's secret lover, Marie, Jo Anne Meredith. Luigi now exposed by both Tony Fargo and Don Bernardo as the rat-fink that he is finally, together with Marie, get's everything that coming to him. Tony Fargo who at first wanted out of the world of crime ends up together with Don Bernardo as the top two Mafia hoods who have complete control of the city of Las Vages with it's billions in it's annual take of legitimate gambling dollars.
Not that bad of a "Godfather" clone that was unfairly put down for trying to imitate "The Godfather" but is a pretty good film all by itself. Where some thirty years later it's almost forgotten and unknown to the movie-going public.
There's foul play and treachery afoot with the greedy and back-stabbing mob Cosiglieri, Luigi Orlando, Charles Cioff, planing to use his recruited out-of-state hit men to start a bloody mob war between the three Vages Mafia families. Then, after the dust settles,Luigi plans to take over the entire Mafia operations in the city that's worth well over a billion dollars.
Luigi get's his chance to get the war between the Mafia families started when he manipulated young Frankie into a feud with his new adopted father Don Angelo. Lugie starts a rumor that the fatherly Don was having an affair with Frankies girlfriend nightclub singer Ruby Dunne, Anglel Tompkins, this results in Ruby getting almost beaten to death by an outraged Frankie. Lugie's trickery also leads to Don Angelo sending out a hit team to knock off the love-crazed and unstable hood. The Don's brother and family Consiglieri Mitch, Louis Zorich, tries to talk his hot-headed brother out of it but not after the hit men gunned down Frankie's dad, the late Don Poleiro,Consigieri Vito Netherbourne, George Skaff.
With a full-scale mob war now about to explode Frankie get's help from the Fargo brothers hit men for hire Tony & Vince, Frederic Forrest & Al Letteri. This causes so much damage to Don Angelo's mob empire, including the murder of his brother Mitch, that it lands him in a wheel chair after suffering a heart-attack and near-fatal stroke.
The mob war really escalates when Don Angelo's boys trick Frankie and Vince into going to a meeting of the minds in a downtown Vages diner this results in a violent gun battle with Vince being gunned down. Tony then pulls out all stops and sends his men, the former Don Poleiro mob, out for blood that results in dozens of Don Angelo's men getting shot knifed slashed and, together with Don Angelo's legitimate business establishment, blown up.
Frankie escaping to Italy is later set up in a trap where he's blown away but his fellow mobsters for his insane actions. This resulted in almost the entire mobs lucrative operations in Las Vages being blown to hell. It's not until Don Bernardo, John Duke Russo, is prematurely released from prison that the truth about Liugi's perfidy came to light from non-other then his abused wife, and Bernardo's secret lover, Marie, Jo Anne Meredith. Luigi now exposed by both Tony Fargo and Don Bernardo as the rat-fink that he is finally, together with Marie, get's everything that coming to him. Tony Fargo who at first wanted out of the world of crime ends up together with Don Bernardo as the top two Mafia hoods who have complete control of the city of Las Vages with it's billions in it's annual take of legitimate gambling dollars.
Not that bad of a "Godfather" clone that was unfairly put down for trying to imitate "The Godfather" but is a pretty good film all by itself. Where some thirty years later it's almost forgotten and unknown to the movie-going public.
Mixed bag of effective and flat mob play
fs327 January 2001
Like quite a few other of the 70's crime dramas that were not classics, but still of more grit and consequence than many of those churned out in the last two decades, this interestingly plotted mob film is a frustrating mix of a really good scene or two followed by a painfully predictable and badly presented one. Anthony Quinn is top billed but largely wasted as the boss whose romantic liaison triggers a war of wills and weapons with some headstrong younger members (led by Robert Forster, Frederic Forrest and Al Lettieri.) Some good action scenes follow, but, like the rest of the film, some of them are quite impressive while others fall flat. A mixed bag, not often seen but worth watching, with limited expectations.
perfectly acceptable entertainment not going to win big on originality
Aylmer17 July 2009
Warning: Spoilers
The main selling point of this film is probably the odd-ball assemblage of a cast ranging from B-movie stars (Robert Forster and Sid Haig) to A-listers (Anthony Quinn) and recognizable character actors (Frederic Forrest and Al Lettieri) all thrust together as Italian mob members operating in a never-mentioned-by-name American city! Though Forster and Forrest are completely miscast as Italians, they add a lot of fun bringing their unusual personas to a genre which usually doesn't get their sort of energy.
Forster plays against type as a young hothead suddenly in charge of a small portion of his father's empire (his father was the titular character). Another rising star on the mob scene wants to take over, so he stages a deliberately outlandish and unlikely scheme to get Forster and Quinn (the most powerful mob boss in town) to wage war. Honestly, the plot is beyond ridiculous but it's fairly original and adds to the fun. What isn't original is the execution, which is GODFATHER all the way.
Case in point: the shootout scene in which *SPOILER* Al Lettieri's character is fatally wounded. He runs through an alley tossing over boxes of oranges as though he's as desperate to die like Brando as he is to stay on his feet! The action scenes are otherwise fairly pedestrian with reliable if unremarkable cinematography, editing, and music. There are a few highlights though:
1) The stunt-man who plays the assassin who blocks Lettieri's escape in the aforementioned shootout. He does an excellent job taking a shotgun blast to the chest, then clamoring up to his feet only to get fatally shot by Lettieri and plummet to the ground. He really eats the pavement on that fall! One of the best stunt-deaths yet captured on screen.
2) A nice touch when Forster's character realizes his girlfriend has been running around on him. He breaks into her apartment while she's gone and starts punching the closet door. The next scene has her entering her apartment to find everything completely trashed and Forster's just sitting there staring at her! In a baffling bit of character decision-making, she continues in and actually eggs him on even further! What happens next I'm sure you can guess, but it's a surreal example of good directing making up for shoddy writing.
In summary, a typical 70's crime movie which isn't going to do much for people who aren't already fans of the genre. However, THE DON IS DEAD is not entirely dismissible either and fine entertainment for a rainy afternoon.
Forster plays against type as a young hothead suddenly in charge of a small portion of his father's empire (his father was the titular character). Another rising star on the mob scene wants to take over, so he stages a deliberately outlandish and unlikely scheme to get Forster and Quinn (the most powerful mob boss in town) to wage war. Honestly, the plot is beyond ridiculous but it's fairly original and adds to the fun. What isn't original is the execution, which is GODFATHER all the way.
Case in point: the shootout scene in which *SPOILER* Al Lettieri's character is fatally wounded. He runs through an alley tossing over boxes of oranges as though he's as desperate to die like Brando as he is to stay on his feet! The action scenes are otherwise fairly pedestrian with reliable if unremarkable cinematography, editing, and music. There are a few highlights though:
1) The stunt-man who plays the assassin who blocks Lettieri's escape in the aforementioned shootout. He does an excellent job taking a shotgun blast to the chest, then clamoring up to his feet only to get fatally shot by Lettieri and plummet to the ground. He really eats the pavement on that fall! One of the best stunt-deaths yet captured on screen.
2) A nice touch when Forster's character realizes his girlfriend has been running around on him. He breaks into her apartment while she's gone and starts punching the closet door. The next scene has her entering her apartment to find everything completely trashed and Forster's just sitting there staring at her! In a baffling bit of character decision-making, she continues in and actually eggs him on even further! What happens next I'm sure you can guess, but it's a surreal example of good directing making up for shoddy writing.
In summary, a typical 70's crime movie which isn't going to do much for people who aren't already fans of the genre. However, THE DON IS DEAD is not entirely dismissible either and fine entertainment for a rainy afternoon.
It's no "Godfather", that's for sure
Wizard-83 September 2012
In his career, movie director Richard Fleischer made some very good movies, "Compulsion" and "The Narrow Margin" being just two of them. However, when he reached the 1970s, though he made a few more good movies ("The Spikes Gang", "Soylent Green") his talent started to decline, and before the decade was over he started to make an unbreakable string of stinkers up to the point he retired in the late 1980s. "The Don Is Dead" was the first sign that in the early 1970s that he was going past his prime. To be fair, it seems that he wasn't given a lavish budget for this movie. The movie is so obviously shot on phony- looking back lots and sets, giving the movie a made-for-TV feeling. (This shabby look may be why music composer Jerry Goldsmith wrote a very television-style musical score for the movie.) And the script is nothing to shout about, having a bunch of mobster-themed plot turns that we've seen many times before. Some of the acting isn't bad - the movie is filled with talented actors, not just Anthony Quinn. But you don't just go to a movie to see good acting, you want an engaging story and characters, which for the most part this movie simply does not have.
Originality may be wounded, but sometimes it heals.
mark.waltz9 March 2022
Warning: Spoilers
There had been films about the mafia long before "The Godfather" came along, both good and bad, and with the many rip offs of that 1972 Oscar Winning Best Picture, some which were bound to be decent, others rotten. This one's basically decent with a lot of great elements, a few unoriginal but nothing that I could call hideous to where it would not be worth watching. What is worth watching about it is the presence of Anthony Quinn, not quite saying sayonara to Marlon Brando, his co-star from that 1957 classic, but he basically takes on a similar role closer to what the youmger Al Pacino would do in the 1974 "Godfather" film sequel where they deal with issues in Las Vegas. So in that sense, this has some originality which would later be utilized in the Academy Award winning 1974 sequel.
As one of the heads of several families doing my business in Las Vegas, Quinn finds himself involved in mob war that is manipulated by others outside his own family. This leads to violence when a young singer whom Quinn helps seduces him, and word gets back to her jealous boyfriend. She's badly beaten and left recovering in the hospital, and violence between the family erupts because of this and other factors. Like "The Godfather", when hits happen, they are sudden and without warning, and quite brutal. People surviving an explosion in a building are brutally gunned down, throats cut, and others beaten to get into before they are assassinated.
I couldn't help but chuckle when Abe Vigoda showed up as one of the right hand menn on Quinn's team, not only because it was basically the same part but because of how he would spook this character years later on late night TV. Young Frederic Forrest has a major part, and is quite good, pretty much the adoptive heir to Quinn's legacy as he had no children. Unlike "The Godfather", this is not epic in scope and so it does not run for an extreme length. A good suppirting cast is made up of mostly obscure featured players so it's certainly not considered all-star, and aside of a few people like Vigota and Vic Tayback, which the viewer will not be distracted by that factor. I wouldn't rank this as a classic, but Quinn is obviously great enough to wear knockoffs of Don Corleone's shoes, and commands a satisfying walk back into familiar territory.
As one of the heads of several families doing my business in Las Vegas, Quinn finds himself involved in mob war that is manipulated by others outside his own family. This leads to violence when a young singer whom Quinn helps seduces him, and word gets back to her jealous boyfriend. She's badly beaten and left recovering in the hospital, and violence between the family erupts because of this and other factors. Like "The Godfather", when hits happen, they are sudden and without warning, and quite brutal. People surviving an explosion in a building are brutally gunned down, throats cut, and others beaten to get into before they are assassinated.
I couldn't help but chuckle when Abe Vigoda showed up as one of the right hand menn on Quinn's team, not only because it was basically the same part but because of how he would spook this character years later on late night TV. Young Frederic Forrest has a major part, and is quite good, pretty much the adoptive heir to Quinn's legacy as he had no children. Unlike "The Godfather", this is not epic in scope and so it does not run for an extreme length. A good suppirting cast is made up of mostly obscure featured players so it's certainly not considered all-star, and aside of a few people like Vigota and Vic Tayback, which the viewer will not be distracted by that factor. I wouldn't rank this as a classic, but Quinn is obviously great enough to wear knockoffs of Don Corleone's shoes, and commands a satisfying walk back into familiar territory.
Playing for all the marbles
bkoganbing12 June 2006
Charles Cioffi, the consigliere of a jailed Mafia chieftain decides to get a war started among the three Las Vegas crime families. Knowing that Angel Tompkins, singer girlfriend of the son of a recently deceased Mafia Don, is looking for a break, he arranges a meeting with Anthony Quinn, Godfather of the third Mafia family where nature takes its course.
When former boyfriend Robert Forster returns to America and finds out it ain't long before the bullets start flying. When the film is over there are only a couple left standing and if you want to know who does pick up all the marbles than watch the film.
Of course this film came out to take advantage of the enormous publicity reaped by The Godfather in the previous year. It's an average sort of gangster flick, it could have been done at Warner Brothers during the Thirties with their stable of gangster players.
Al Lettieri and Abe Vigoda were both in The Godfather and their presence sort of lends an aura authenticity to the film. Lettieri was just coming into his own as a great portrayer of villains and assorted gangland types. His early death was a real loss to film.
Anthony Quinn of course is always good and fans of his which are legion will want to catch The Don is Dead.
When former boyfriend Robert Forster returns to America and finds out it ain't long before the bullets start flying. When the film is over there are only a couple left standing and if you want to know who does pick up all the marbles than watch the film.
Of course this film came out to take advantage of the enormous publicity reaped by The Godfather in the previous year. It's an average sort of gangster flick, it could have been done at Warner Brothers during the Thirties with their stable of gangster players.
Al Lettieri and Abe Vigoda were both in The Godfather and their presence sort of lends an aura authenticity to the film. Lettieri was just coming into his own as a great portrayer of villains and assorted gangland types. His early death was a real loss to film.
Anthony Quinn of course is always good and fans of his which are legion will want to catch The Don is Dead.
Universal's answer to the Godfather? Not likely.
thermoj130 July 2010
Warning: Spoilers
I read the novel by Marvin Albert and though it was not Puzo material, it showed some grit and strength--A more realistic depiction of a real mob family. To be fair, Richard Fleischer did a very good job of directing, considering what he had to work with. Then, Trumbo and Butler--encouraged by Universal brass, no doubt-- just had to take it and monkey with it. The casting was inconsistent, with kudos to getting Anthony Quinn, Abe Vigoda and Al Lettieri as classic Mob paisani. Still good was the casting of Robert Forster but could have been better with James Farentino or Tony Lo Bianco as Frank Regalbuto. Then it gets worse, with Frederic Forrest as the quiet leader, the "answer to Al Pacino's Michael Corleone". Forster, in my honest opinion, should have been Tony Fargo instead. The book-to-film transition was highly sanitized, understandable given Universal's desire to stay mainstream and not rock the boat. It did lead to a bump in the road when Tony Fargo was unaccountably absent when Vince and Frank were going to a sit-down with the numbers boss Zutti. In the book, Tony was dallying with one of Marie Orlando's callgirls. All in all, an attempt by "The Factory" to throw the dice and see if they come up with an answer to The Godfather. Didn't happen.
Makes a cruel mockery of The Godfather's pretensions.
robin-moss230 January 2006
"The Don Is Dead" is clearly an attempt to cash in on the success of "The Godfather" which was made the previous year. Very few people regard "The Don Is Dead" as a great movie, but many admire "The Godfather" enormously. (There are also many who do not, particularly fans of gangster films in general. Their attitude was brilliantly summarised by Ian Cameron in his book "The Gangster Film" where he described "The Godfather" as "built to be the "Gone With The Wind" of the crime genre, which is to say a crime movie for people who despise crime movies but are impressed by gigantic, best selling novels, a movie for people who do not even much like movies.")
"The Don Is Dead" borrows from "The Godfather" the central theme of a younger, less forceful, less impressive brother maturing during a crisis and developing both leadership qualities and murderous ruthlessness. It also borrows the carefully explained structure of the crime family with its leader (the Don) and its adviser. Fortunately, "The Don Is Dead" takes nothing else from "The Godfather". It does not aspire to be a "Gone With The Wind" of gangster movies. It is content to be an enjoyable, fast-moving well-made crime film. "The Don Is Dead" was made by a team of top Hollywood professionals, and their expertise is evident throughout.
In a city dominated by three crime families, the adviser of one hatches a scheme to grab control of the city by setting the other crime families against each other. For a time his plan works well, and gang warfare breaks out. One of the family heads is dependant on two brothers who kill for him. The younger of these brothers is reluctant to participate but is more intelligent than both his brother and his friend, the crime Don. Gradually, as the violence accelerates, the younger brother assumes command.
The pacing of "The Don Is Dead" is excellent. Each scene is tightly cut but nothing is rushed. Whether an action scene or a whispered conversation, everything is given as much time as necessary but nothing more. The shootings and bombings - of which there are many - are done properly: in other words quickly but credibly. Neither John Woo-style ludicrously fast cutting nor Sam Packinpah-type slow motion diminish "The Don Is Dead".
With one exception, the acting is good throughout. It was enjoyable to see Anthony Quinn in a modern role and wearing smart city clothes. Quinn, of course, has enormous power on screen, but so too have some of the actors in supporting roles. The exception is Frederic Forrest who has neither the acting skill nor the screen charisma adequately to flesh out the main role of the younger brother. He is further hampered by his whining voice. Throughout he gives the impression of being weak and petulant. A key scene is when he returns to his base which has been bombed in his absence and learns that his brother has been killed. His men are about to quit. After a moment or two of private grief, he shouts at his men that they will strike back, and restores their self-confidence and determination. Actors like Charlton Heston and George C. Scott could have worked miracles with that material, but Frederic Forrest just stands there and whines. It is difficult to imagine any hardened criminal regarding him as a leader.
The cinematography is excellent, and Richard H. Kline deserves congratulation for creating in a colour movie the chiaroscuros traditionally found in black and white crime films of the 1940s. Jerry Goldsmith provides an atmospheric, low-key score which consistently increases the tension. During his career Richard Fleischer never received due credit for being a brilliant director, probably for the same reason that Michael Curtiz, John Huston and Robert Wise did not: he was versatile and made a wide variety of movies instead of working with the same subject matter again and again. In his staging and pacing of scenes, his handling of the actors - with that one exception - his placement of the camera and in the high quality work he elicited from his crew, Fleischer demonstrates in "The Don Is Dead" that he was a master film director.
"The Don Is Dead" is probably not a film for every-one, but any-one who likes a good gangster movie should make a point of seeing it.
"The Don Is Dead" borrows from "The Godfather" the central theme of a younger, less forceful, less impressive brother maturing during a crisis and developing both leadership qualities and murderous ruthlessness. It also borrows the carefully explained structure of the crime family with its leader (the Don) and its adviser. Fortunately, "The Don Is Dead" takes nothing else from "The Godfather". It does not aspire to be a "Gone With The Wind" of gangster movies. It is content to be an enjoyable, fast-moving well-made crime film. "The Don Is Dead" was made by a team of top Hollywood professionals, and their expertise is evident throughout.
In a city dominated by three crime families, the adviser of one hatches a scheme to grab control of the city by setting the other crime families against each other. For a time his plan works well, and gang warfare breaks out. One of the family heads is dependant on two brothers who kill for him. The younger of these brothers is reluctant to participate but is more intelligent than both his brother and his friend, the crime Don. Gradually, as the violence accelerates, the younger brother assumes command.
The pacing of "The Don Is Dead" is excellent. Each scene is tightly cut but nothing is rushed. Whether an action scene or a whispered conversation, everything is given as much time as necessary but nothing more. The shootings and bombings - of which there are many - are done properly: in other words quickly but credibly. Neither John Woo-style ludicrously fast cutting nor Sam Packinpah-type slow motion diminish "The Don Is Dead".
With one exception, the acting is good throughout. It was enjoyable to see Anthony Quinn in a modern role and wearing smart city clothes. Quinn, of course, has enormous power on screen, but so too have some of the actors in supporting roles. The exception is Frederic Forrest who has neither the acting skill nor the screen charisma adequately to flesh out the main role of the younger brother. He is further hampered by his whining voice. Throughout he gives the impression of being weak and petulant. A key scene is when he returns to his base which has been bombed in his absence and learns that his brother has been killed. His men are about to quit. After a moment or two of private grief, he shouts at his men that they will strike back, and restores their self-confidence and determination. Actors like Charlton Heston and George C. Scott could have worked miracles with that material, but Frederic Forrest just stands there and whines. It is difficult to imagine any hardened criminal regarding him as a leader.
The cinematography is excellent, and Richard H. Kline deserves congratulation for creating in a colour movie the chiaroscuros traditionally found in black and white crime films of the 1940s. Jerry Goldsmith provides an atmospheric, low-key score which consistently increases the tension. During his career Richard Fleischer never received due credit for being a brilliant director, probably for the same reason that Michael Curtiz, John Huston and Robert Wise did not: he was versatile and made a wide variety of movies instead of working with the same subject matter again and again. In his staging and pacing of scenes, his handling of the actors - with that one exception - his placement of the camera and in the high quality work he elicited from his crew, Fleischer demonstrates in "The Don Is Dead" that he was a master film director.
"The Don Is Dead" is probably not a film for every-one, but any-one who likes a good gangster movie should make a point of seeing it.
What a mess
bobcobb-8437116 September 2016
OK, so I took these user reviews seriously that said this is worth your time. It is not. This flick's a mess. Anthony Quinn is an old don who seduces the girl of another, much younger mafioso (played by Robert Forster who's not half bad). War ensues.
The plot doesn't make much sense and it is trying hard to emulate The Godfather (especially the story line of the young mafioso, played by Frederick Forest, who is trying to leave the family business). It fails miserably. I had a hard time keeping my eyes open on this one. There are maybe two scenes that held my attention, and they were both execution scenes. They were staged pretty well, but they are two isolated scenes in a dull mess.
The plot doesn't make much sense and it is trying hard to emulate The Godfather (especially the story line of the young mafioso, played by Frederick Forest, who is trying to leave the family business). It fails miserably. I had a hard time keeping my eyes open on this one. There are maybe two scenes that held my attention, and they were both execution scenes. They were staged pretty well, but they are two isolated scenes in a dull mess.
This could have been a really good crime flick.
punishmentpark1 April 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Fargo, Fargo, Fargo, where have I heard that name before? Ah, yes, 'Fargo'... And didn't Steve Buscemi wear a brownish jacket with a burgundy red type of sweater underneath it in that one, too, just like Tony Fargo does here? I must be seeing things...
Anyhoo, back to 'The Don Is Dead', a film that has quite a few interesting plot angles: the death of a Don (in a city of three families) to begin with, which puts the status quo under considerable pressure and causes a consigliere to think it's his time to seize power in a most cunning way, a female singer/songwriter perfectly willing and able to sleep her way to stardom (a role that could have been exploited much more), a Don who does not get hurt by the usual violence but suffers several heart attacks, and, finally, a high rank hit-man who wants to get out of the business but gets caught up in the mob's hubbub... I didn't see it coming that Tony would be the one taking over in the end, though; Robert Forster clearly has more charisma than Frederic Forrest, but in all fairness, when he beats up on the girl, his character is logically done for in every sense.
For the rest of it, I expected more dramatically than just a long series of more or less mildly 'entertaining' back-and-forth trickeries and retaliations (I would think that Quentin Tarantino could have played wonderfully with time and thus the element of surprise). The actors try their best (lots of a familiar faces in early roles, except for Anthony Quinn, who plays a daring part ending up in a wheelchair and may at that point only nod or blink), but mostly do not have enough to work with, the scene wherein Fargo brother Vince gets killed being the absolute worst: imagine three piles of empty crates placed diagonally and a few meters away from each other in an alley, and while acting out that you are dying, you have to hit them áll! I can't help but wonder what Fleischer was thinking when he thought out that scene...
All in all it wás worth seeing (nice and neat locations, costuming, camera work and such), but that doesn't make it a good film, unfortunately;
5 out of 10.
Anyhoo, back to 'The Don Is Dead', a film that has quite a few interesting plot angles: the death of a Don (in a city of three families) to begin with, which puts the status quo under considerable pressure and causes a consigliere to think it's his time to seize power in a most cunning way, a female singer/songwriter perfectly willing and able to sleep her way to stardom (a role that could have been exploited much more), a Don who does not get hurt by the usual violence but suffers several heart attacks, and, finally, a high rank hit-man who wants to get out of the business but gets caught up in the mob's hubbub... I didn't see it coming that Tony would be the one taking over in the end, though; Robert Forster clearly has more charisma than Frederic Forrest, but in all fairness, when he beats up on the girl, his character is logically done for in every sense.
For the rest of it, I expected more dramatically than just a long series of more or less mildly 'entertaining' back-and-forth trickeries and retaliations (I would think that Quentin Tarantino could have played wonderfully with time and thus the element of surprise). The actors try their best (lots of a familiar faces in early roles, except for Anthony Quinn, who plays a daring part ending up in a wheelchair and may at that point only nod or blink), but mostly do not have enough to work with, the scene wherein Fargo brother Vince gets killed being the absolute worst: imagine three piles of empty crates placed diagonally and a few meters away from each other in an alley, and while acting out that you are dying, you have to hit them áll! I can't help but wonder what Fleischer was thinking when he thought out that scene...
All in all it wás worth seeing (nice and neat locations, costuming, camera work and such), but that doesn't make it a good film, unfortunately;
5 out of 10.
Business As Usual With Nothing Personal About It
zardoz-1324 December 2010
Warning: Spoilers
This abysmal mafiosi thriller about a war between the families in an anonymous city lacks anything in the way of flair, charisma, or momentum. During his prime, veteran director Richard Fleischer was a creative force to contend with, and he made his share of great movies, but "The Don Is Dead" is one of his least memorable epics. Clearly, this lackluster actioneer exemplifies the old studio system of making movies and the blame for its pedestrian quality must be traced back to its producer, the legendary Hal B. Wallis of "Casablanca" fame and his associate producer Paul Nathan. After Wallis left Warner Brothers in a dispute over "Casablanca" with Jack Warner, Wallis set up shop at Paramount, and he ruled with dozens of landmark films, among them "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" and "Becket" with Richard Burton. Once Wallis left Paramount and wrapped up his career at Universal, the quality of his craftsman went down. "The Don Is Dead" is a well-produced crime thriller, but it is as lifeless as the don in its title. The pacing of this 115 minute movie is leaden, and a number of fine actors are left to wander around aimlessly in the screenplay by Marvin H. Albert. Albert is best known for "Duel at Diablo," "Tony Rome," and "Rough Night in Jericho." Matters are not helped by the dire lack of realism. Virtually everything in "The Don Is Dead" was lensed on a Universal back lot, and it is clearly obvious from fade-in to fade-out what a numbing picture that this is. Surprisingly enough, the Motion Picture Association of America gave "The Don Is Dead" an R-rating. Mind you, there is no nudity, the violence is standard-issue, and that startling loud red blood that appeared in 1970s era films was sparingly put on display. None of the gunfights stand out for their distinctive flair. The only thing that does stand out is how the Robert Forester character avoids a hit in a crowded underground parking lot. He holds himself up on the bumpers of two cars so that the gunsels cannot see his feet. Fleischer helmed "The Don Is Dead" between the sci-fi thriller "Soylent Green" with Charlton Heston and western "The Spikes Gang" with Lee Marvin, two films that rise about the flat quality of "The Don Is Dead." This is the kind of movie that only completist in the Mafia genre will want to watch. Anthony Quinn looks terrible and he has no fire in his performance. Robert Forster is pretty good as a temperamental young man and Frederic Forrest is the man to watch.
A movie worth seeing!
RodrigAndrisan11 June 2020
Richard Fleischer was a very good craftsman of the 7th art, very prolific, excelling in different genres: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, History, Crime, Drama,
Mystery, Music, Romance, Biography, he approached almost all genres. It delighted my childhood, adolescence and youth with movies such as: "20,000
Leagues Under the Sea", "The Vikings", "Barabbas", "Fantastic Voyage", "The Boston Strangler", "Tora! Tora! Tora!", "The New Centurions", "Soylent Green", "Mr. Majestyk", "The Incredible Sarah", "The Jazz Singer", "Conan the Destroyer", "Red Sonja". "The Don Is Dead" it's a film like Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather". We also have two actors who starred in both films: Abe Vigoda and Al Lettieri, both predestined to play mobsters. This is not an ordinary review, but a tribute to Al Lettieri. He is the best actor in "The Godfather". Here he has a similar role, but it's more temperate. In both films he's killed by rival mobsters. This actor, who played only mobsters and other
villains, instinct tells me, would have deserved a role of honest man, a positive hero in at least one film. Usually, in a movie starring Anthony Quinn, he's the reason I want to see the movie. This time, Lettieri was the first reason, Quinn was the second. Quinn also plays a great role as a mobster here, especially in the final scene, when he looks like a vegetable. In other very good roles are: Frederic Forrest, Robert Forster, Angel Tompkins, Charles Cioffi.
ignore that nutty first guy, this is worst mob movie ever
jago124426 October 2006
OK, so i saw maybe only half an hour of it in the middle, and after the first five minutes, most of that was like staring at a train wreck. a ripoff that took advantage of the godfather fever back in 70's and probably took 10 days to make. even the guy who played 'salazzo' in the G-F cashed in on this one. i didn't see any abe vigoda scenes thankfully. the acting was so bad i don't even think they took more than one take in any scene. the characters were wooden , the accents were laughable, the dialog hopeless, and i think the sets were borrowed from 'chico and the man'. movies like these are why people make fun of the 70's.
FWIW my review from a man who'll never make a critic
paul-jackson927 February 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Sigh... I have never been able to sit through the 175 mins of The Godfather something interferes like bed or food or something a little more interesting on the other channel.
The 115 min The Don Is Dead on the other hand is/was tailor made for my (gnat like?) attention span. Wish they'd show it some time! I saw this when I was 10 - 12 years old and thought it was great. Loadsa guys talking tough easy to keep track of plot loadsa machine gun action and stuff. Maybe even a good performance or two tho I can't recollect much about it.
Wish I could remember better and do a proper synopsis. The mob war erupts when one guy finds out that one of the other family is sleeping with a woman, wife/daughter/girlfriend? After a violent conflict the survivors are gathered together to discuss a peace. I remember Angelo? pointing the informant out to the peacemaker type and saying "he was the only one who had anything to gain". He is then taken out and disposed of, Angelo becomes the new Don. Is this actually worth a spoiler?
Is it a rip off? Kinda hard to say seeing as I can't remember one and haven't seen the other lolz - probably!
You wanna tell me Godfather is way better I'm not arguing (internet arguments are for idiots anyhow).
You wanna watch a mafia movie and only have 2 hours rather than 3 to spare then this is for you.
The 115 min The Don Is Dead on the other hand is/was tailor made for my (gnat like?) attention span. Wish they'd show it some time! I saw this when I was 10 - 12 years old and thought it was great. Loadsa guys talking tough easy to keep track of plot loadsa machine gun action and stuff. Maybe even a good performance or two tho I can't recollect much about it.
Wish I could remember better and do a proper synopsis. The mob war erupts when one guy finds out that one of the other family is sleeping with a woman, wife/daughter/girlfriend? After a violent conflict the survivors are gathered together to discuss a peace. I remember Angelo? pointing the informant out to the peacemaker type and saying "he was the only one who had anything to gain". He is then taken out and disposed of, Angelo becomes the new Don. Is this actually worth a spoiler?
Is it a rip off? Kinda hard to say seeing as I can't remember one and haven't seen the other lolz - probably!
You wanna tell me Godfather is way better I'm not arguing (internet arguments are for idiots anyhow).
You wanna watch a mafia movie and only have 2 hours rather than 3 to spare then this is for you.
The Don is Idiot !
elshikh411 May 2010
I hate the 1970s, and anybody sane must. This is a movie with a stuff that I'm trying to imagine who can be attracted by?!
The direction is TV-ish, with the ugliest meanings of the term. In other words, there is no creativeness or craftsmanship. It's tragic that this is directed by (Richard Fleischer); the same man who made, once upon a time, The Vikings (1958), and The Boston Strangler (1968). Now here's a new characteristic for the 1970s, it makes even the good directors do BAD!
Forget about the music, originally I thought there was none, asking myself was it the 1970s realism?!! But after a while, I discovered that (Jerry Goldsmith) himself composed the music to it. Ok, no need to repeat the characteristic that I just said earlier!
The sets are poor. The drama is a joke; being just a dumb war over a girl (Troy? Even if, this is the weakest of them all!). It goes on boringly, because it's nothing but a meaningless thriller, with pure killings and no thrill. The script itself is arithmetical; kill so-and-so, then a response by killing else so-and-so yet from the other side, then kill another so-and-so, to have another so-and-so killed, and so on with the killer killed so-and-sos! The characters are trivially written; compared to them, Donald Duck got interesting psychological dimensions!
Everyone was moving like dummies, and talking like robots. (Robert Forster) looks handsome with cool jackets; that's all the good things that I can tell about him here. After notable and so energetic career that includes 3 and 4 films a year, except for his role in (The Marseille Contract), (Anthony Quinn) would be out of job for the next 3 years. Hence, (The Don Is Dead) is the only movie he did in 1973. It says a lot about how he was having such a big problem working in real movies during the 1970s. No doubt it's one of his worst, if not The Worst!
The effect of (The Godfather) is more than perceptible (2 mob generations, a conflict over power, assassinations' sequences...). However, it's part of the exploitation's wave. Well, the lousy exploitation's wave to be precise. And with having catchy names, like (Quinn), (Goldsmith) and (Fleischer), then it is disappointing, deepening the deplorable irony between Hollywood's golden age, and its tin one!
Save the chilly explosion at the garage, nothing is distinguished, or rather watchable. From a long experience of miserable devoted viewer, take it from me: in the 1970s, all what it took to make a gangster movie was enough guns, fires, blood, added to zero direction, terrible actors, and female nudity. The thing is; after 40 years they still do the same, but as straight-to-video; namely, they became more truthful and explicit.
According to the TV quality, the Italian characters, the set in which Forster's character Frank was hiding; this is not a movie, this is Kojack: The Lost Episode, and it's a low-grade one too. Otherwise, it's long shoddy massacre of a movie. I give it just 2 stars; one for (Quinn)'s suits, and the other is for (Forster)'s suits!
Finally, my title is just a way to express some anger, since the real idiot wasn't the don; it's ME for wasting nearly 2 hours of my life watching him. Simply, the don is dead, so this movie too!
The direction is TV-ish, with the ugliest meanings of the term. In other words, there is no creativeness or craftsmanship. It's tragic that this is directed by (Richard Fleischer); the same man who made, once upon a time, The Vikings (1958), and The Boston Strangler (1968). Now here's a new characteristic for the 1970s, it makes even the good directors do BAD!
Forget about the music, originally I thought there was none, asking myself was it the 1970s realism?!! But after a while, I discovered that (Jerry Goldsmith) himself composed the music to it. Ok, no need to repeat the characteristic that I just said earlier!
The sets are poor. The drama is a joke; being just a dumb war over a girl (Troy? Even if, this is the weakest of them all!). It goes on boringly, because it's nothing but a meaningless thriller, with pure killings and no thrill. The script itself is arithmetical; kill so-and-so, then a response by killing else so-and-so yet from the other side, then kill another so-and-so, to have another so-and-so killed, and so on with the killer killed so-and-sos! The characters are trivially written; compared to them, Donald Duck got interesting psychological dimensions!
Everyone was moving like dummies, and talking like robots. (Robert Forster) looks handsome with cool jackets; that's all the good things that I can tell about him here. After notable and so energetic career that includes 3 and 4 films a year, except for his role in (The Marseille Contract), (Anthony Quinn) would be out of job for the next 3 years. Hence, (The Don Is Dead) is the only movie he did in 1973. It says a lot about how he was having such a big problem working in real movies during the 1970s. No doubt it's one of his worst, if not The Worst!
The effect of (The Godfather) is more than perceptible (2 mob generations, a conflict over power, assassinations' sequences...). However, it's part of the exploitation's wave. Well, the lousy exploitation's wave to be precise. And with having catchy names, like (Quinn), (Goldsmith) and (Fleischer), then it is disappointing, deepening the deplorable irony between Hollywood's golden age, and its tin one!
Save the chilly explosion at the garage, nothing is distinguished, or rather watchable. From a long experience of miserable devoted viewer, take it from me: in the 1970s, all what it took to make a gangster movie was enough guns, fires, blood, added to zero direction, terrible actors, and female nudity. The thing is; after 40 years they still do the same, but as straight-to-video; namely, they became more truthful and explicit.
According to the TV quality, the Italian characters, the set in which Forster's character Frank was hiding; this is not a movie, this is Kojack: The Lost Episode, and it's a low-grade one too. Otherwise, it's long shoddy massacre of a movie. I give it just 2 stars; one for (Quinn)'s suits, and the other is for (Forster)'s suits!
Finally, my title is just a way to express some anger, since the real idiot wasn't the don; it's ME for wasting nearly 2 hours of my life watching him. Simply, the don is dead, so this movie too!
Sloppy, boring and amateurish.
alexanderdavies-9938227 June 2017
"The Don is Dead" is one of the worst films of the 1970s. There is no creative output of any kind and the whole is just one extended television film (no offense meant to T.V films). Any potential was gone after the opening 15 minutes. The meeting with the Mafia Godfathers was mildly diverting but that is about all. Anthony Quinn is actually well cast as one of the Mafia Dons, why couldn't a better screenplay have been written? The use of "Universal's" backlot is painfully obvious and robs the film of any kind of scale it might otherwise have had. There is some action but so what? Anyone can put together a scene involving a gunfight. Any comparison between "The Don is Dead" and "The Godfather" is purely coincidental and I'm not the biggest fan of the latter movie.
Solid and exciting adaptation.
searchanddestroy-119 January 2020
And also very faithful to Marvin Albert's work. I read it six times in my life, the first one when I was 16. This is of course influenced by GODFATHER, borrowing a couple of the actors of Corleone saga. This story could easily have given a mini series, because you have focus on many sub characters and plots. But the book was not that huge either. I I have always enjoyed this Dick Fleischer's feature. And watch out for the faces here. As were THE UNTOUCHABLES. The good thing here is that you have not real lead character, mainly supporting ones, or the one you may think the lead is actually not the winner at all.... As in the Marvin Albert's novel.
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