Before there was The Godfather, there was The Brotherhood. This interesting film details the life of a New York crime boss, Don Francesco Ginetta (Kirk Douglas).

Frank is one of the old-school guys. Basically uneducated, he takes care of business himself, the old fashioned way, just the way his father taught him many years before. Now middle-aged, Frank spends his free time with some of the old retired Italian immigrants his father’s age playing bocce ball and drinking red wine.

As the film progresses, we learn that these older gentlemen, harmless now, were actually some of the most fearsome gangsters ever to prowl the streets of New York. The clincher comes when they reveal to Frank that one of his fellow godfathers was the guy who fingered their fellow Mafiosi for Lucky Luciano before his successful takeover bid some thirty-five years before. Frank learns that the rat was responsible for 41 deaths, including Frank’s father. The syndicate of which Frank is a prominent member resulted from all that killing so many years in the past.

Frank is a family guy. He is shown attending his brother Vincent’s wedding, which he, as the head of the family, put on. The wedding has all the hallmarks of a gala affair and everyone was invited, the older Mafiosi as well as the current syndicate members. The two groups glare at each other but Frank seems at ease with both, joking and toasting at each table.

Vincent (Alex Cord) is a younger man, just returned from Vietnam and has a college education, to boot. He takes Frank aside and tells him he “wants in.” Frank is delighted although he tells Vince that he can write his own ticket anywhere with his college education. Vince insists that he wants to do the bookkeeping for the operation and that’s just fine with Frank.

As time goes by, it becomes apparent that Frank is a little too independent for the liking of the rest of the syndicate members. There was that gang-related killing recently and nobody asked for permission to make the hit. Then again, Frank has been disagreeing with some of the new business opportunities that the syndicate wants to invest in. The other members approach Vince to try to get Frank to change his mind. But Frank is stubborn and he and Vince get into terrible fights. Meanwhile, the old “mustache Petes” are pressuring Frank to take revenge for all those murders so many years ago…

Directed by Martin Ritt (Hud, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold), The Brotherhood gives a sensitive glimpse of what it was like to be a second generation Mafiosi in the sixties. As I mentioned in my review of Hud, Ritt’s direction has a way of indicating the emotional content without the need for dialog. Emotional separation, for example, is shown by barriers between the characters and long bleak shots indicate how alone the character feels. This film, like Hud, bears repeated viewing to see how much a director can do visually without the need for speech. Lots of great camera angles and quick pans and zooms, without the empty flashiness that can ruin a film. Ritt used two film crews as the film was shot in both Sicily and New York. Lalo Schifrin did the original score. It sounded like it was based on folk themes from Sicily and modern jazz.

The casting was well-done, with Kirk Douglas turning in his usual sterling performance as the elder Ginetta brother. Alex Cord was similarly good playing a mild mannered younger brother type who gets in a little over his head. Irene Pappas and Susan Strasberg play the wives of the two Ginetta brothers. Most of the Mafiosi are familiar faces like Eduardo Cianelli, Joe De Santis, Murray Hamilton, Luther Adler, and Louis Badaloti. All the roles were well done and convincing.

The Paramount DVD is presented in 1.85: 1 widescreen and is very well preserved but contains no extras except English and French subtitles.

If organized crime is your cup of tea, The Brotherhood will be to your liking. Also recommended are The Godfather, and The Yakuza another little-known organized crime film starring Robert Mitchum.

Thanks for reading!


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening