LGM Film Club, Part 224: The Valachi Papers

1972 was a great year for films, in no small part because of the revival of the mafia movie. But let’s be clear–this had nothing to do with The Valachi Papers, starring Charles Bronson. This is a bad movie, part of the Dino de Laurentiis universe, which is mostly not a good universe. It follows the story of Valachi, who was the first big time mob informant, through his years as a gangster. But it’s boring, if bloody. Various famous gangsters get offed, Valachi gets older, and the film goes all-in for bad Italian accents that are hard to understand and don’t move the plot forward at all. I’ll watch pretty much any mob movie, but this is not a good one.