Prizzi's Honor (1985)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

John Huston

Writers:

Richard Condon (novel)
Richard Condon (screenplay)

Release Date:

14 June 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Hired killers by day. Devoted lovers by night. Until they found their next assignment was each other.

Plot:

A professional hit man and hit woman fall in love, only to discover that they have each been hired to kill the other.

Plot Keywords:

Love | Battle Of The Sexes | Assassination | Father Son Relationship | Wedding

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 23 wins & 11 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sun. July 19	8:00 AM	MAX
Thur. July 30	2:15 PM	MAX

Cast

Jack Nicholson	...	Charley Partanna
Kathleen Turner	...	Irene Walker
Robert Loggia	...	Eduardo Prizzi
John Randolph	...	Angelo 'Pop' Partanna
William Hickey	...	Don Corrado Prizzi
Lee Richardson	...	Dominic Prizzi
Michael Lombard	...	Rosario Filargi 'Finlay'
Anjelica Huston	...	Maerose Prizzi
George Santopietro	...	Plumber
Lawrence Tierney	...	Lt. Hanley
CCH Pounder	...	Peaches Altamont (as C.C.H. Pounder)
Ann Selepegno	...	Amalia Prizzi
Vic Polizos	...	Phil Vittimizzare
Dick O'Neill	...	Bluestone
Sully Boyar	...	Casco Vascone

Runtime:

130 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Canada:R (Nova Scotia) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Manitoba) (re-rating) (2004) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) (original rating) | Iceland:14 | Hungary:16 | Spain:18 | Finland:K-15 (re rating: 2001) | France:U | Singapore:M18 | West Germany:12 (re-rated) | West Germany:16 (original rating) | Netherlands:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R | Spain:13 | Ireland:15

Filming Locations:

Alpine, New Jersey, USA

Company:

ABC Motion Pictures

Trivia:

Al Pacino was offered the role of Charley but turned the role down.

Goofs:

Continuity: Irene Walker's red car often has the wax on various panels. When we first see the car the left-hand door is an unusual matt color while the rest of the car is buffed to a shiny finish. You can even see swirl marks in the door at it stops. Later when we see the car again we see it from the front left. The door is clearly polished this time but the front left wing isn't. Probably an attempt to hide the crew from reflecting in the cars bodywork.

Quotes:

[Charlie is telling Maerose about Irene]
Charley Partanna: I met her in a church. It just happened. I knew she was the woman for me. She'd organized the scam in Vegas. I go looking for the bad guy and it turns out to be my woman, can you imagine this? Not only that - Pop tells me she's the piece man for the Nettabino contract. Just the same, I love her, Mae... I love her.
Maerose Prizzi: Well...
Charley Partanna: How can I live with this? I gotta do something about it. I gotta straighten it out.
Maerose Prizzi: Then do.
Charley Partanna: Do what? Do I ice her? Do I marry her? Which one of these?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Mitzi's Honor (1987)

Soundtrack:

Overture to 'La Gazza ladra'

Two hours of tasteless ham courtesy of the Prizzi Meat Co.

Eight academy nominations? It's beyond belief. I can only think it was a very bad year - even by Hollywood standards. With Huston as director and Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner as leads I probably would have swallowed the bait and watched this anyway, but the Oscar nominations really sold it to me, and I feel distinctly cheated as a result.

So it's a black comedy is it? Can anyone tell me where the humour is in Prizzi's Honor? It's certainly tasteless (the shooting in the head of a policeman's wife is but another supposedly comic interlude in this intended farce about mafia life) but with the exception of a joke about 'your favourite Mexican cigars' (which I imagine is an old joke for Americans who have been officially forbidden from buying anything Cuban for the last 50 years) I failed to spot anything of a comic nature - and I did try. There is a lot of Mafia cliché but cliché doesn't constitute humour in my book.

Is it a romantic comedy of sorts? Never. The characters and their relationships are so completely incredible and shallow that they are on a par with Ben Afleck and Jennifer Lopez in Gigli.

Is it a cleverly devised parody about the Mafia? Not in a million years. The plot is just pointlessly absurd rather than comically absurd, and it usually just has the feel of a really bad (and cheap) Mafia movie. It feels more like a homage than a parody.

With one-dimensional characters and little in the way of humour written for them, the actors are left doing dodgy accents and pulling faces. Well it isn't enough; even when the face is being pulled by that master of the comic facial expression, Jack Nicholson (repleat with puffed up top lip ... now is that meant to be a parody of Brando's padded jowls in The Godfather?... Oh! Who cares?... all I know is, it isn't funny).

Throw in some slow, plodding direction (this film drags on for 2 hours), some hopelessly daft and clichéd dialogue such as; "You remember the Camora? Well we're far bigger, we'll track you down wherever you go", and clichéd mannerisms and you'll be reaching for that fast forward button before you can say "capiche?". Prizzi's Honor is far from being Huston's "masterpiece" and is rather a very poor last work. It's definitely one work in the great director's canon that should be given a concrete overcoat and tossed into the Hudson River.