We all know the classics: Goodfellas, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Mean Streets, The Departed… man, Martin Scorsese made a bunch of ’em. Gangster movies have been a long-standing tradition in Hollywood since the Golden Age, when James Cagney reigned supreme and the moral mavens of the Production Code made damn sure audiences knew that these people were destined for tragic ends that, ironically, only helped cement their status as iconic rebels against the status quo. Gangster movies are a part of the culture, and represent some of the finest examples of cinematic storytelling thanks to their inherent dramatic irony: heroes with strong moral codes… who kill each other.
Luc Besson’s The Family is only the latest in a very, very long line of gangster movies that attempt to humanize the Mafia, but while most audiences are well aware of the genre’s highlights, there’s a lot of perfectly good, great, entertaining or just plain weird gangster movies you may not be aware of. Or at the very least, you may not be aware are actually any good. With that in mind, this week’s edition of Top This will be taking a look at 10 Underrated Gangster Movies, to watch when you think you’ve seen everything.
So get yourself a cannoli out of seek out some of our favorite gangster movies that don’t get enough credit, because Scorsese and Coppola are always stealing the limelight.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
10 Underrated Gangster Movies
There's more to the mob genre than Goodfellas and The Godfather.
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10. Lansky (1999)
Made-for-TV mafia biopics reigned supreme in the 1990s, with real-life Dons Joey Bonanno and John Gotti getting the classy, Emmy bait treatment. But the best may be this underseen, very thorough biography of Meyer Lansky, the so-called "Mob's Accountant," played by a slithery Richard Dreyfuss, and directed by John McNaughton (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer).
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9. Oscar (1991)
Sylvester Stallone's best attempt at straight comedy was this fast-paced farce about a mafioso who decides to go straight... on the worst day of his life. As laundered money, dirty underwear, promiscuous daughters and annoying suitors dart in and out of his New York mansion, driving him to the brink of criminality, the cops wait outside for poor Angelo "Snaps" Provolone to finally... snap.
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8. The Boss, a.k.a. Wipeout! (1973)
Well-known in his home country but largely ignored in the states, Italian director Fernando Di Leo directed a string of crime films, or poliziotteschi, that influenced John Woo and Quentin Tarantino. His hardest boiled outing, The Boss, stars Henry Silva as a hitman who pulls off a thrilling movie theater assassination, and then has to rescue his boss's daughter when she's kidnapped in retaliation. The twist: she's a nymphomaniac, and doesn't want to be taken away from her virile captors.
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7. Johnny Stecchino (1991)
Before Roberto Benigni became an international sensation with the unlikely Holocaust dramedy Life is Beautiful, he was the toast of Italy with broad comedies like the hilarious mafia spoof Johnny Stecchino. Benigni delivers a fantastic dual performance as the smarmy Stecchino, who snitches on the mob and convinces his girlfriend to seduce a dopey lookalike (also Benigni), and trick him into taking the hit meant for the toothpick-chomping stoolpigeon. As you can imagine, nothing goes as planned.
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6. Innocent Blood (1992)
John Landis's second mafia movie, released just one year after Oscar, was this incredibly underrated horror-action hybrid about a French vampire (Anne Parillaud, the original La Femme Nikita) who makes a meal of a mobster (Robert Loggia) but doesn't finish the job because he eats too much garlic. The gangster wakes up and transforms his entire mob into unstoppable creatures of the night, so the vampire teams up with an undercover cop (Anthony LaPaglia) to end his reign of terror. A fun premise, an amazing supporting cast (including Don Rickles, Luis Guzman, Angela Bassett and Chazz Palminteri) and fabulous special effects make Innocent Blood a bloody good gangster film with a nosferatu twist.
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5. The Italian Connection (1972)
Another Fernando Di Leo gem, this one an exciting caper about a low-level goon (Mario Adorf) who's been framed by his own Mafia for a crime he didn't commit: stealing heroin from an American syndicate. With everyone in Italy after his head, it's up to this rather hapless schlub to prove his (relative) innocence. It's a little slow to get going, but once the incredible car chase begins, and Adorf starts whipping out some superhuman head butts, you'll forget that The Italian Connection was ever anything less than a blast.
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4. My Blue Heaven (1990)
Everyone loves Goodfellas, but what happened "after" Goodfellas? That's the question Herbert Ross's lighthearted comedy asks, based as it is (very loosely) and the misadventures of mob snitch Henry Hill after he joined the witness protection program. What does a lifelong mafioso do in suburbia? Steal cars, grift from local charities, boost books from B. Dalton's and, somehow, make everyone's life better in the process. Starring Steve Martin, Rick Moranis and Joan Cusack, My Blue Heaven will have you be dancing the merengue in no time.
(And yes, we know that My Blue Heaven came out a month before Goodfellas.)
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3. Gloria (1980)
Indie pioneer John Cassavetes wrote but had no intention of directing this understated thriller about a gangster's moll who accidentally winds up protecting a young boy with a price on his head, but when his wife Gena Rowlands was cast in the lead, he went behind the camera to make what may be his most entertaining film, with all the understated character work discerning audiences came to expect from him. Avoid the 1999 remake like the plague, even if it is directed by the great Sidney Lumet. (And believe it or not, it really is.)
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2. A Bronx Tale (1993)
The Family star Robert De Niro made his directorial debut with this thoughtful drama about a father (De Niro) trying to keep his son on the straight and narrow after he's tempted to a life of crime by a charismatic mafioso. That mafioso is played by Chazz Palmintieri, no stranger to mob movies himself, who also wrote the original play and adapted it to the screen. Wonderful acting and an insightful story about making the right choices, not just the lucrative ones, make A Bronx Tale a minor Mafia classic.
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1. Donnie Brasco (1997)
While certainly respected, Donnie Brasco isn't spoken of in the same hushed tones as The Godfather, Goodfellas or Mean Streets, and that's a crime, organized or otherwise. Johnny Depp and Al Pacino give some of their best performances in this near-perfect drama about an undercover cop (Depp) who forms a close bond with an aging goon (Pacino). Their friendship begins to strain as the young upstart begins to upstage - and prepare to betray - his respected mentor. Is it a gangster classic? Fuhgeddaboudit.
