Forty years before Mario Puzo's best- selling novel got Marlon Brando to put cotton in his mouth, two New York godfathers went at it in this modern adaption of "Romeo and Juliet". Boris Karloff and Leo Carillo are two rivals fighting over the same territory by knocking off each other's kin one by one, getting closer until practically nobody is left.
Karloff has a laughable Italian accent here with Robert Young ridiculously cast as his shoe-polished haired son, running off to Florida in an attempt to escape his grasp. He ends up ironically at one of Carrillo's parties where he meets and falls in love with his daughter, Constance Cummings. Bodies continue to enter the morgue until the final confrontation. In one of her more off-beat roles, veteran character actress Emma Dunn is memorable as Carrillo's mother, vowing to go to surprising lengths to end the violence.
Practically every archetype of " Romeo and Juliet" are present, much like the many modern updated and of course "West Side Story". There is a great use of props, especially a gun which is actually a cigarette case in disguise. The party sequence is quite lavish, much like the ones on each of the three "Godfather" films. The miscasting of Karloff and Young do bring on some unintentional laughs, but the conclusion is one that may leave you in shock.
Karloff has a laughable Italian accent here with Robert Young ridiculously cast as his shoe-polished haired son, running off to Florida in an attempt to escape his grasp. He ends up ironically at one of Carrillo's parties where he meets and falls in love with his daughter, Constance Cummings. Bodies continue to enter the morgue until the final confrontation. In one of her more off-beat roles, veteran character actress Emma Dunn is memorable as Carrillo's mother, vowing to go to surprising lengths to end the violence.
Practically every archetype of " Romeo and Juliet" are present, much like the many modern updated and of course "West Side Story". There is a great use of props, especially a gun which is actually a cigarette case in disguise. The party sequence is quite lavish, much like the ones on each of the three "Godfather" films. The miscasting of Karloff and Young do bring on some unintentional laughs, but the conclusion is one that may leave you in shock.