Mafioso (1962) User Reviews

Sordi goes south

[Chris Knipp · 8/10 · 30 September 2006]

Italian cultural icon and cinematic great Alberto Sordi (1920-2003) was in peak form when he starred as Antonio Badalamenti, a Sicilian who's become a successful FIAT executive and efficiency expert in Milan and goes on a two-week vacation to his hometown of Catanao in Sicily with blonde northern wife and two little blonde daughters. Laughs and thrills happen when they're welcomed back into Antonio's family – and the good graces of Mafia boss Don Vincenzo. It turns out Antonio not only owes the Don a favor for getting him the job up north, but is regarded by the local Cosa Nostra as a piciotto d'onore, a kid who distinguished himself in the ranks (maybe you could loosely translate the phrase "good old boy") and he also happens to be the best marksman the town has ever known. What starts out as a broad comedy and a warm social satire on the Italian south turns more serious and intense as the hero fits right in and his initially standoffish wife starts liking the family and bonding with one female member whose beauty she's able to bring out.

Fine writing, direction, and use of locations add up to a seamless film. You're never bored for a minute and most of the time you're hugely entertained, so it makes sense that Mafioso is going to have a revival release in the United States. It's unseen here, not on DVD and would be worth seeing not only for the fun it provides but for the display of Alberto Sordi's range and fluency as an actor. Sordi starred in Fellini's early pair, The White Sheik and I Vitelloni. Andrew Sarris has said Lattuada is "a grossly under-appreciated directorial talent." Il Mafioso shows the writing skills of Marco Ferreri and Rafael Azcona, working with the team known as Age & Scarpelli (Agenore Incrocci and Furio Scarpelli). Their screenplay may be tongue-in-cheek, but it nonetheless provides insight into the Mafia, and the film's picture of Sicilian town life (in wonderfully rich grainy black and white, high style for the time) is vivid and authentic-looking and -feeling. Music by Piero Piccioni, another mainstay of Italian cinema (Il bel Antonio, Salvatore Giuliano, Una vita violenta). Produced by Dino De Laurentis with Antonio Cervi; this can also be seen as a product that reflects the energy and spirit of Italy's postwar "economic miracle" period when so much was exciting culturally in the country – cinema, literature, design.

Shown in a handsome new print as part of the 2006 New York Film Festival. I would give this a 9 out of ten but the overall plot somehow seems too incongruous.

Other Reviewers Missed

[bookphile1 · 8/10 · 4 June 2007]

Contains Spoiler I just saw this movie which was certainly as wonderful as most of the other reviewers are saying.

But one thing several of the other reviewers seemed to miss (to me, at least) was that the entire culture of his hometown was invested in his doing his little errand for the Don. The societal structure is based on doing "favors" for each other. The Don does a favor for his parents, his parents in turn, turn on a dime in their treatment of their Northern Italian daughter-in-law in order to get her to be willing to stay for a few extra days. His father presumably has some idea of the kind of errand he's actually going to be going on.

Everything operates from a complex web of familial and social obligations, guilt and fear and he's completely trapped. Not just his wife and children but his parents and sister could all be forfeit if he doesn't do what they want him to do.

He only has one skill they care about; his marksmanship. His humanity, his pride, his love for his family; none of that means anything to them.

This is a scathing indictment of what brutality, not just Mafia brutality, can do to the human spirit and the acting is wonderful.

Good Food, Bad Vacation, Great Movie

[rabrenner · 9/10 · 5 November 2007]

A factory efficiency expert decides to take his family on a nostalgic vacation to the small town in Sicily where he grew up. Big mistake. He quickly becomes embroiled with the local Mafia, who see him as the perfect candidate to take care of a little job for them in America. Long before THE GODFATHER or THE SOPRANOS, Alberto Lattuada made this tragicomedy about Mob life. Between this and SEDUCED AND ABANDONED, one gets the impression that Sicily in the early sixties was an outer circle in Dante's Inferno. Shot in glorious black and white on location. A forgotten gem, recently restored. Note to foodies: there are several terrific meals in this movie. You may not live long in the Mafia, but you'll dine well.

Unwilling mafia man.

[ItalianGerry · 6 September 2006]

(Contains spoilers!) "Mafioso" may be one of the finest Italian movies of the 1960s, ultimately to rank up there, in my opinion, with treasures such as Antonioni's "L'Avventura," Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" and "8 1/2," Visconti's "The Leopard," Germi's "Seduced and Abandoned," Pasolini's "Accattone" and "Mamma Roma," Olmi's "Il Posto" and "I Fidanzati," Risi's "Il Sorpasso", Bolognini's "Senilità" and "La Viaccia," Bellocchio's "Fists in the Pocket," Bertolucci's "Before the Revolution," Rosi's "Salvatore Giuliano." The name of director Alberto Lattuda is not as well known, but he has made some remarkable films, among which are "Italiani Brava Gente" and "Mill on the Po." In "Mafioso," Alberto Sordi gives one of his finest performances as a loving family man, Antonio Badalamenti, born and raised in Sicily, now living in Milan with a wife and two little daughters. He is a foreman in a factory there and honest, decent, and fair to a fault. He takes his wife and children to his native Calenzano in Sicily to meet the family they have never seen and with great pride shows them the wonders of his this region, the friendly people, the good bountiful food, the ancient traditions.

Then a darker reality intervenes and turns the human comedy into a stark moral dilemma with tragic implications. It is in the form of Don Vincenzo, the local don, who may have been instrumental in obtaining the cushy Milan job for Antonio. Antonio had been asked by his Milan superior to consign a packet to him. Antonio is the messenger boy. Now it is payback time. Don Vincenzo wants a favor from Antonio, one that involves a secret mission to New York and New Jersey to act as a hit-man for the mob for one small job. It is to murder a troublesome rival gang member.

Antonio can refuse. No overt threats are made. He is, after all, loved and admired by Don Vincenzo and the other friends and family of the village. But the implications should he refuse are dark and sinister. His own family and the lives of his children might be at stake. In this kind of moral dilemma, how far will a good man go to save and protect his family? The crate that will secretly fly him to America for the short mission is a symbol of the moral enclosure and claustrophobic fear that now threatens him. His wife all the while thinks he is off on a local hunting trip, and indeed, he returns with some killed rabbits. The organization has planned everything perfectly. But Antonio, now safe, now happy for the safety of his family, will live as an altered man, harboring a horrible secret he can never share with those he loves or with anyone. Back at the Milan factory he returns a pen borrowed from a worker and inadvertently not returned. He's that honest.

This is the theme of the film and it is given vivid life in the details, for it is a movie replete with beautiful details. For example, Antonio's wife is a liberated woman who smokes in a society that still forbids it among women. She appears to be radical and aloof, but she is just uneasy in what is for her an alien culture. And yet she wins the hearts of her relatives through some simple gestures of good will, such as in helping a woman with a bit of hair removal to make her look prettier. There is a nice beach scene where the male locals ogle the women in a kind of pent-up libido. And I love those Sicilian male caps which everyone wears and which Antonio wears again too, symbolizing his becoming a Sicilian again. We view a society that to a great extent values conformity and mistrusts all outsiders, where "honor" surpasses every consideration (as in Germi's "Seduced and Abandoned") and where one cannot make choices based merely on intrinsic merit or on what seems to be the right thing to do.

Alberto Sordi, arguably one of Italy's two or three greatest actors of all time, gives a performance that is mesmerizing and on key at all times. It is nothing short of brilliant. His is a bizarre yet believable journey through comedy and joy that comes in touch with genuine fear and terror.

It is a shame that this film has not been commercially available or widely seen in the United States since it opened in 1964 (except at a few Sordi and Commedia'all'Italiana retrospectives) and has not been widely available on video or DVD outside of Italy. That failing seems about to be remedied.

After a New York Film Festival retrospective showing, it will be re-released commercially and later make its way to DVD for American film enthusiasts to see once again or for the first time. They will have a great deal to look forward to.

just go see this! Best of 2007 for sure.

[tc2019 · 10/10 · 23 January 2007]

How wonderful it is to start the year and to know that you have possibly already found what is going to be your favorite movie of the year: MAFIOSO is that movie!

I had never seen the film and never seen much of director's LAttuada's work either. I am Italian yet in Italy LAttuada is not really considered as one of the great directors...well it is about time this changed. We have to thank the folks at Rialto Pictures (who id re-releasing the film in the US) for rediscovering this great talent. I wish they started rediscovering him also in Italy...well, too often a country doesn't appreciate its talents! Anyway...

LAttuada directs with a great sense of storytelling, every shot has its reason to be and is there to bring the story forward. His capacity of being in control and keeping all the aspects of the film together is exemplary: The cinematography is incredible, manages at the same time to create a mood and to be absolutely concentrated in serving the script. The way the film uses its musical score is super modern (I would like to mention the genius score by Piero Piccioni) The editing is exceptional, never a flaw, never a scene that lasts too log or too little. The overall feeling at the end is that of a perfectly cohesive film. And one that makes you think too...and think a lot!

I am not a big mafia movie fan, but this one is different from any other I have ever seen, has a way of turning comedy into tragedy and tragedy into comedy that I have not seen too often on the screen.

Alberto Sordi is one of the best actors Italy has ever had: please go and discover his talent and his genius. I say MAfioso is well worth your time, if you don't go and see it it is your big loss!

Excellent! Thanks to Criterion for finding this gem!

[zetes · 9/10 · 10 July 2011]

Excellent, underseen comedy/drama by Alberto Lattuada, best known for co-directing Variety Lights with Federico Fellini. In a Fellini biography I once read Lattuada was quoted as bitterly claiming that he invented Fellini, that Fellini had basically participated in the making of Variety Lights but it was Lattuada's film. Lattuada was just trying to be nice, to help the kid start off his career, and Fellini pretty much stole the style for his subsequent films. Judging by this film, made 12 years afterward, Lattuada had apparently moved on, because this isn't much like Fellini's style (though one could imagine Fellini making a similarly plotted film). However, it is an excellently directed film, one that makes me wonder how many other gems might be hiding in Lattuada's filmography. It stars Alberto Sordi, whom you'll recognize from two early Fellini films, The White Sheik and I Vitelloni. He plays a Sicilian who is now a successful man in Milan. He's married with two young daughters, but he hasn't been home to visit the family since he left. This is the story of his twelve day vacation visiting home, bringing along his family. To his wife (Norma Bengell, a Brazilian actress), Sicily seems an extremely backward country. The whole culture is strange and very different from mainland Italy, and there seem to be hints of criminal activity between every line. She's not wrong. Sordi was never exactly in the mafia when he lived in Sicily, but he was more than a little connected, and now some of the high ranking criminals are thinking his status as unknown outsider might be useful to them. The film is very funny, but it also goes to some dark places. One thing's for sure: I don't think he or his family will want to visit the family again anytime soon.

Ham-handed comedy, unbelievable drama

[buff-29 · 7/10 · 21 January 2007]

This film has several amusing scenes and an attractive, understated performance by the female lead, Norma Bengell, but when it starts to take itself seriously, it becomes pretty much of a mess. The celebrated Alberto Sordi is fine in the lead, but he is asked to do too many silly things for his character to be effective.

Sordi plays a successful man taking his beautiful wife and lovely children back to visit the home folks--but his home folks are in Sicily and include the local mafia boss, so many complications ensue. There are some laughs when Sordi's mom and dad force-feed their guests and when Sordi meets some of his old cronies, but it is all pretty broad humor. It is when the mafia boss demands repayment of an old favor that things begin to seem ridiculous and viewers, at least this one, start looking at their watches.

Masterpiece of Italian cinema

[ChungMo · 9/10 · 12 January 2007]

Albert Sordi is virtually unknown here in the United States. He's been called the Italian Peter Sellars but I think that should be reversed, Sellers was the British Sordi. Just one look at his performance in this film should cement that fact that Sordi was by far a better dramatic actor then anything I've seen Sellars do.

I had the pleasure of seeing this film twice and it really improves the second time. The loud behavior is a little off-putting the first time but the second viewing revealed all the incredible subtleties in the film and the performances.

The direction is extremely good. Director Lattuada is unknown here despite his extensive resume. I could see a definite influence on Sergio Leone in the camera placement and attention to detail. And the music is exceptional as well. The switch to serious drama is what makes this a great film. A lesser production would have made the mafia into clowns.

If the film comes into town make a point to see it. It's better then most of the stuff being made today.

At moments brilliant, always interesting

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 6 May 2019]

"Mafioso" is an Italian black-and-white film from 1962 directed by Alberto Lattuada and written by a whole lot of screen writers with Lattuada not being one of them, really many for one movie. Anyway, this one runs for 105 minutes approximately and received an okay amount of awards recognition back then, not too much though. It is basically from beginning to end about Alberto Sordi and his title character. He lives with his beautiful wife and two daughters in Milano and returns home to his roots in Sicily where he meets family, old friends and acquaintances. I won't go too much into detail about the cast as most non-Italian people will not have heard about any of them and I must admit that includes me. But good for you if you recognize a few faces. This month, there is a movie series going on here in a Berlin indie cinema showing old Italian movies and this is one of the first, so I was eager to take the chance and check this one out. So I did and I don't regret it one bit, even if this is probably not the kind of movie that is infinitely better on the big screen than small screen. You could make a bit of a cut in this film here as the first half is relatively light most of the time while the second half is darker and a bit more of a thriller, even if not entirely bar comedy. Lets take a look at the first hour now. The family arrives at Sicily and there are many comedy moments, a lot of fun here and there like when the protagonist is so eager to see Sicily ahead of him on the ship and his wife looks back missing the Italian mainland already. Or when the title character is talking about donkeys ornated with pompous blankets while on the other side of the road there is a wake going on and they ask what happened and the wife is told oh he was shot. Shows you how dominant organized crime still was at that point in Sicily. And the second half of the film will tell you again. Until then, the wife is facing some struggles too, but these are minor (well not for her) as she won't really get accepted by the family, lets say the mother, and the latter's face impression is priceless. Or the hairy sister. Or the hairy's sister's fiancé who may like the protagonist's wife a bit too much. Another joke included the term "he is sitting" In an office? No that means he is unemployed. But while the wife is sorting things out at some point, helps the sister in getting rid off all her hair and this way also charms the mother's heart, there is more trouble than expected for the protagonist at the end of his journey home.

This includes a seemingly innocent hunting trip, well as innocent as hunting can be, but it feels obvious pretty quickly for the viewer that there is a lot more in story for him, especially after the local godfather helped him and his father with an important investment earlier in the movie. There was one camera shot I really liked, namely when we see the scared eyes of out "hero" and right afterwards, the cold-blooded eyes of the other man in the car. His proposal sure is one you would not decline. Anyway, even with this film turning into a bit of a crime thriller in the last 45 minutes, it was still funny here and there with some really dark humor like when we actually see the protagonist with his prey after he fulfilled his task. Or the way he walks when he gets out of the big chest and needs to go to the toilet. Or when at the very end we see him back at Milano and how a colleague tells him something along the lines that they need more men like him to make the world a better place. But don't mistake this for being too light. The fact that he killed a man in thatg barber shop sure had heavy consequences on him as we see him crying and lying in bed watching his wife and children knowing they are safe now as he did what he had to do. But how long the impact will last, it is not entirely sure. And what it makes out of him. But we can be pretty assured that he will not be particularly interested in future plans by his wife to make another trip to Sicily any time soon. Unless Don Vincenzo is not alive anymore perhaps. Overall, this was a good film with some great moments actually and I mentioned these. It will make you smile, maybe even laugh, and also make you think. I must say I am not too familiar with old Italian films, even if I read that Comedia Italiana was a thing back then and I am curious what other movies the coming weeks will have to offer. In terms of these old Italian films, people mostly thing of Fellini first, maybe next about Argento and De Sica and then about a few others. But even beyond the big names (and Lattuada is probably not among them), there is a lot more to discover and this film is just one example. Well-crafted with strong performances from beginning to end and thanks to the second half almost a must-see if you care about old Mafia-themed films. Go for it!

black and white

[sonofgodtrujesus · 10/10 · 12 March 2007]

I've never seen black and white film look so rich, sensuous and stunningly attractive; Cinematographer Armando Nannuzzi hit the nail on the head, creating a very rich and vibrant looking film. At times my mind naturally filled in the colors due to the crisp clarity of all the images, both of natural, rural scenes, and modern, city/industrial settings.

Art director Carlo Egidi masterfully blends the surrounding background of everyday life with his set designs and costumes so that it is impossible to separate the two; truly a mirrored recreation of the day in the life of a modern Sicilian during mid-60's. Each scene is so thought out, and crafted so well that at times their is an almost alien effect, due to the deep endearing political and social dynamics which has become lost in our culture and films today in the 21st century. This effect at times appears exaggerated due to its robust social nature, yet does the job in creating a warm, stunning and beautiful feel to this film.

Interesting but tame to what we can watch these days

[jordondave-28085 · 7/10 · 13 October 2023]

(1964) Mafioso (In Italian with English subtitles) COMEDY/ DRAMA

It's been said this was the first actual movie about the Italian mafia before Francis Ford Coppola made famous with his "Godfather" trilogy! Story involves hard working factory worker, Antonio Badalamenti (Alberto Sordi) visiting relatives on a trip before unknowingly showing gratitude to powerful Don (Ugo Attanasio) where he asks Don to do a favor for him. More black comedy focusing on his quips with his family and relatives than direction becomes a serious Italian gangster film. Interesting but tame compared to what's being shown today.

An old movie that's really not an old movie at all

[johnpetersca · 10/10 · 14 April 2007]

Mafioso was made in 1962 and reflects a "pre-color" film aesthetic that includes both vivid dialog and precise black-and-white renditions of light and shade. One result of the superb craftsmanship in Mafioso is to pull the viewer, consciously or unconsciously, into the lives of characters. The strongest pull is from the Alberto Sordi character, Antonio Badalamenti, a Sicilian who migrated to Northern Italy as a young man and made good, with a job as factory foreman and a blond wife and daughters. On a vacation, he takes the family, for the first time, to Sicily, giving both Northern and Southern relatives a chance to decide what to make of one another.

Mafioso's director, Alberto Lattuada, handles all of this is with a naturalness that immediately makes us accept and believe in his characters. It's a wonderful achievement. That it was possible with 1962 black-and-white technology is cause not only to appreciate Lattuada and his team's accomplishment but to reconsider assumptions on how characters in movies can be brought to life. Approach to film-making may, in the end, matter more than technology. For example, the material poverty of the Sicilian settings is calmly obvious in Mafioso in a way that is not evident in the far grander movies of the well-known Italian-American auteurs.

Once in Sicily, things start to happen. Both families prove adaptable and find ways to get along but, for Antonio, there are unexpected implications. Seems he owes the local don (played by Ugo Attanasio in another wonderful, low-keyed performance) a favor. Antonio pretends to his wife and daughters that he's on a hunting trip but is packed into a shipping crate so that he can be sent to America, kill a rival gangster, and be shipped back to Sicily. Everything works. Antonio's upset about killing the stranger but is quite willing to keep the secret (and his acceptance by both Southern and Northern cultures) for the rest of his well-ordered life.

Grazie, Alberto

[Seamus2829 · 9/10 · 13 May 2007]

I just had the opportunity to see this film in a newly restored print of the Italian original. The story concerns a manager of an auto plant (played to perfection by Italian screen idol,Alberto Sordi) in Milan who takes his family to Sicily to meet his family & his old friends, when he finds himself involved in the local Mafia Don & his ner do well cronies. The screenplay was written by it's director (Alberto Lattuada), Raphel Alzcona & Marco Ferreri (some years before he raised eyebrows with his films 'The Grand Bufet' & 'The Last Woman'). Although the films use of black & white was quite striking, I kind of wished it had been shot in Technicolor (for the panoramic shots of Sicily & it's beautiful coastline). An overlooked gem that's well worth seeking out, if it's being screened in a proper cinema,but it won't lose much on DVD either.

Famiglia

[rewolfsonlaw · 10/10 · 11 April 2021]

An important and overlooked film that unfolds to reveal a reality as immutable as family: family. Alberto Sordi's first return after eight years to his Sicilian homeland after establishing himself as an engineer in Milan, a position given him by his Sicilian Patron, proves his life on mainland Italy was the real vacation. This film understands its message and never misses the mark, an expectation Sordi's character is expected to fulfill. Mafioso makes Coppola's "The Godfather" an over-produced operatic spectacle. Mafioso is family.

Barber Shop Location

[acerone277 · 8/10 · 10 March 2014]

Mafioso was filmed in 1961 with the Barber Shop, in which Alberto Sordi shot his target who was sitting in the barber chair of the Embassy Barber Shop which was in Guttenberg, Hudson County, NJ. My certainty is my Dad owned the barber shop and both he and I were in the movie. Just wanted to set the record straight. I have the original VHS tape of the movie. It was first released in the United States in a theater in Union City about 1 or 2 years later. I did see it, of course. The movie followed me for over 20 years giving me wonderful memories. My father's wish before he died was see the movie once more before he died. I was able to have friends who owned an Italian store locate a copy that a store in the Bronx, NY would sell. I bought it and had a private showing for my Dad.

Exceptional for its restraint and simplicity

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 13 December 2008]

I really liked this Italian film about the mafia because although it lacks the flash and stereotypes of this sort of film, it really manages to produce an excellent portrait of real people caught up in an ugly lifestyle. While not filmed by such Neo-realists as DeSica or Rosselini, this film sure looks a lot like this style of film that was so popular in the 40s and 50s. That's because so many of the actors appear to be real people--real people who are neither handsome nor glamorous. Heck, even one of the women in the film has a rather significant mustache!

The story begins in Milan with a well-respected engineer for an Italian car manufacturer at work just before leaving for vacation in Sicily. His boss asks Antonio to give a present to Don Vincenzo who also happens to live in the same town where he's headed. Apparently, Antonio grew up there and is going back for the first time in many years to introduce his wife and kids to his extended family. However, once in Sicily, it's rather apparent that Don Vincenzo is the local Mafia boss and the town appears to be under his control. Despite Antonio seeming to be a good father and husband, as well as a decent all-around guy, eventually the Don wants him to "do a little favor"--and it shows how seemingly good people become pawns of organized crime.

The film excels with its realism. This isn't just because of all the non-professional actors, but because the film manages to tell the story in a way that makes you connect with Antonio and understand how such a good person could do evil. Well acted, directed and written--this is a highly underrated little Italian gem.

Vacation Nightmare

[jbbooks1961 · 10/10 · 10 April 2018]

Antonio Badalamenti, a good-natured supervisor at the Fiat plant in Milan, is a native Sicilian who has lived comfortably and complacently in the North for a decade with his blonde wife and two beautiful daughters. Before leaving on a rare two week vacation back to his ancestral hometown, one of the plant managers tasks him to personally convey a mysterious gift to Don Vincenzo, the local godfather In Nino's town.

Even though Nino's wife has misgivings about leaving the comforts of her comparatively luxurious life, she is unprepared for what she encounters. Marta undergoes culture shock when confronted by the poverty and comparatively crude customs of the provincial Sicilians, especially the Baladamenti family, who in turn view the refined blonde Northerner as a snobbish interloper.

Bringing his family with him to pay his obligatory respects to Don Vincenzo, the always affable Nino discovers the giift he has been tasked with delivering to the Don to be a beautifully bejeweled heart pendant enigmatically inscribed with the names of of nine deceased "friends" of the Mafioso, evidently martyrs of some kind for La Cosa Nostra.

After the godfather's nephew Don Liborio reminds Nino of a forgotten oath of loyalty he took as a naive 18 year-old decades before, ostensibly to get the Fiat job, he becomes further indebted when the Don settles a controversial land transaction in favor of Nino's father. Feeling he has no option but to fulfill the unknown obligation and whatever it entails, Nino agrees to honor his fealty by fulfilling a favor to the Don, a nightmarish favor which shakes Nino's safe, complacent world to its very core.

Sicily mafia stereotype comedy

[filmalamosa · 10/10 · 5 January 2012]

I don't see how you could categorize this film as other than a comedy for adults. That is what it is... tragedy as other reviewers suggest now that is funny...

The first part has fun at the expense of Sicilian stereotypes: peasant women with mustaches... toothless old men fighting with knives and food and more food.

The part in New York is even more hilarious with the mafioso speaking Italian with an American accent... All the stereotypes present and subtle humor every where.

This film is meticulous hangs together well. Best of Italian comedy.

A "dark" comedy for adults. Where did they run down all the Sicilian non actors?

Godfather

[RanchoTuVu · 9/10 · 11 December 2008]

Mafia ties run deep in this film about a middle level manager in an auto plant in Milan who takes his family to his native Sicily for a summer vacation. Admired by his old childhood friends who can't take their eyes off of his attractive wife, he's the local boy who makes good in the big city. But "Mafioso" presents the deep ties that connect him into his ancestral village, portraying a system that runs deep in this Sicilian setting of an ancient village in which his family's connections intertwine with local Cosa Nostra. The director and the lead actor both make this a film in which one can savor just about every scene. Alberto Sordi connects the comedy with the drama, the good humored happy family man obligated into the "brotherhood" by Don Vicenzo and his right hand man to do his part, keeping him literally in the dark.

Excellent comedy about an honest sicilian turned into a 'mafioso' killer !

[skulli99 · 8/10 · 21 August 2002]

The actor Alberto Sordi plays the part of an honest sicilian, just married with a woman from the more 'liberated' Northern Italy, who returns to Sicily to introduce his wife to his very traditional family ! Creating not few cultural conflicts, however she is in the end well accepted , even the local Sicilians look at her with more curiosity than suspicion ! Alberto Sordi plays the part of a meleodramatic Sicilian very well, and the first hour of the film is very funny, but afterwards becomes too serious as he is smuggled into the States to be a mafioso killer !

Anyway just for the acting excellence of Alberto Sordi this film gets a 8 vote from me !

Creepy

[gkeith_1 · 10/10 · 22 March 2010]

Studied Italian recently at The Ohio State University. Studied some Italian cinema. Enjoyed trying to understand conversation in this movie; tried not to look at subtitles. Wife looked like Brigitte Bardot, and a little like younger Jane Fonda. Girls throwing yucky food on floor was funny. Plant manager sounded like he was speaking Americanized Italian (like me), lol. Wife thinks, "His mother hates me." Creepy friar with water dousing stick. Toothless father too short and emaciated; didn't convince me he could be the father of main character.

My Italian coursework included geographical studies, such as Italy's 20 regions. One is Sicily, a separate island with its own dialect. It is known for poverty and Mafia. This movie showed how they go hand in hand. My coursework was up to date, even though decades after this movie. Apparently those two stereotypes are still true. Kidnappings are prevalent in Italy, especially of young children of wealthy parents.

Milano (Milan, to Americans) is still the money capital of Italy. Not only is Milano the home of Fiat, Lamborghini and Alfa Romeo, but it is also the fashion design capital with brands such as Gucci, Versace, Armani, etc. There are fancy apartments and lots and lots of material worshipping people. Banks are huge. Capitalism is supreme. Milano is the big metropolis: the New York City of Italy.

We saw a movie in class about southern Italy. The story took place in a small, isolated town with rural surroundings. It was creepy. It was prime territory for criminals to hide a kidnap victim. There was no air conditioning, just an old decrepit kitchen table fan. The mother was raped by the crooks. Ick.

At least "Mafioso" was funny in places.

More social drama than crime film

[searchanddestroy-1 · 8/10 · 8 March 2022]

Only Italians could make such a film, speaking of the mafia thru such this angle, an interesting analysis of the Italian society of the early sixties. I am not too familiar with Italian stuff, but I can easily appreciate this one. Mafia is shown as it really exists, in such a way only Italian can do it. No clichés, no gunfights, nothing to do with THE UNTOUCHABLES nor any other US movie about the Octopuss. It could have been played by Jack Lemmon, if it had been an American feature, the tenderfoot thrown so brutally into a world of violence, not made for him at all. In this so obviously Italian film, you can't avoid the mix up between, comedy, drama, tragedy. A real must see.