Just perfect...

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

This must be one of Bronson's best performances. But the film itself is nothing to write home about and does not deserve a review. But I am writing one anyway.BRONSON plays this small time hood who is being hunted by the mafioso after his former boss (played by LINO VENTURA) puts out a contract on his head, fearing that he might spill the beans about their operations, for a deal with the police. Much of the film is told in flashbacks as Bronson's character narrates the story of his life to a man of the law. The film has a great memorable score by RIZ ORTOLANI. It is used to great effect in the scenes with BRONSON and JILL IRELAND, who plays his wife. It also boasts of a great fight scene in jail where a nude fighting fit Bronson holds his own against assassins in the jail's shower. The film also has a depiction of the Appalachin meeting mentioned in GOODFELLAS.But it is a rather tepid and flat film. No real memorable scenes. Underdeveloped characters. It is a real mess. And even though i liked the way the film looked, some of the sets looked like sets.(6/10)

It's been the better part of three decades or so since I've read the Peter Maas book upon which this was based, maybe even a tad longer. Giving the benefit of the doubt to the screenwriter, most of what you get is probably accurate historically, although I don't know about that nasty castration scene. Pretty gruesome.Stories about the Mafia have always fascinated me, and since La Cosa Nostra had such a rigid discipline, it's not surprising that a lot of stories (and lives) ended badly. I hearken back to the Fifties and Sixties when the front page of the New York Daily News would feature a large photo of the latest mob hit in the style of those on display in the movie. One downside to this film, as other reviewers have mentioned, are the anachronistic elements along with some faulty chronology. For example, Joe Valachi (Charles Bronson) becomes a Mafia made man on November 5th, 1930, and a subsequent scene when his sponsor Gaetano Reina (Amadeo Nazzari) is whacked is dated February 26th of the same year.I also thought the picture could have done a better job of putting the Apalachin Meeting of the Mafia hierarchy in context. Come to think of it, that meeting would be a good topic for a modern day movie treatment if done right.Made and released the same year as "The Godfather", I don't think there's anyone who would disagree that the Corleone saga is much more compelling and interesting as a viewing experience. As a second tier entry however, this picture has it's moments and offers some insight into the inner workings of the Cosa Nostra. Another era flick you might try came out a couple of years later with Peter Boyle in the lead role as "Crazy Joe", based on the life of murdered gangster Crazy Joe Gallo.

"No fancy Hollywood hot-shots need apply for screen tests here", or so my audition sign would read back in the day when this was being filmed. A totally stark, un-gussied, realistic look into the sequences of events surrounding a mobster's life, with all the subtlety of a 3- day old, 30-lb. catfish on a fine linen tablecloth. The actors hired for this gig were probably hit men, dope dealers, pimps, etc. themselves. If not, they looked as close as you can get to the real thing. Dino D. and Terence Young got the local European flavor to carry this tour-de-force to its maximum impact, with terse, punctuated dialog. We've seen the Bronson duo (Bronson & Jill Ireland) and Gerald O'Loughlin before, but that's about it for familiar faces. The good part is that everyone blends in.But it's the finely tuned narrative and banter between O' Lough. and Chas. B. that really sets this movie up: Their initial combative interplay, the psychological arm-wrestling regarding the spilling of the goods and the eventual delineation of years of mob activities keeps the metaphorical ball rolling. The eventual bond that develops between the snitch and the cop is neither rushed nor over emotionalized, as it too follows the same slowly brewed pace as the story line itself. You really feel the developed bonding of those two principals as the movie draws to its conclusion, punctuated by Riz Ortolani's lush score in 3/4 time and accentuated by the fact that both had been had!

I watched the movie on demand on cable and its amazing that the Valachi Papers was released nearly within a 6 month time span of the Godfather; both films could not be further apart in the spectrum. Bronson was all wrong for the part; the forced accents from all of the principals made it look and sound more like a skit from Saturday Night Live. It was just plain horrible. It was as if they were just trying to cover a time line as if they were doing a documentary. When you watch it, its presentation comes off dated, like a low budget 1950s style movie. The music is heavy and melodramatic. This film should be remade with a director who can take his time and with writers who will work up a screenplay befitting this amazing story. I mean before Joe Valachis testimony, very few people knew the workings of La Cosa Nostra and it was years before J Edgar Hoover even admitted there was organized crime.