(1972)
1.5
Mark Deming
Telly Savalas's performance as a powerful Mafia don is the main reason for watching I Familiari Delle Vittime Non Saranno Avvertiti (aka Crime Boss), but that's not to say he's particularly good in the film. From the first moment we see Savalas, tending to his roses while wearing a beret tilted at a stereotypically European angle, he's playing a caricature of a mob boss rather than a three-dimensional character, and there are moments where he seems to be appearing in a sketch from the old Dean Martin show rather than a serious crime drama. At the same time, Savalas has a great deal more charisma than anyone else in the movie, and at least he brings some much-needed brio to the proceedings. Antonio Sabato displays a certain stoic charm as a young mob mechanic on the rise, but even though he's the prime focus of the story the script doesn't give his character much depth and he can't seem to find it on his own, and it's almost comical how little chemistry he has with Paola Tedesco, who plays the head Mafioso's daughter as well as the young upstart's lover. Crime Boss's pacing is slow and inconsistent, the screenplay offers few fresh wrinkles on a common story, and director Alberto De Martino has trouble making the film work either visually or as an actor's showcase, even when Savalas is chewing the scenery. Crime Boss is a curiously bland example of Italian crime cinema of the 1970s, and while there's a bit of fun to be had with Savalas's overworked delivery, otherwise this is only for the most obsessive fan of European genre filmmaking.
cast-crew for Crime Boss on AllMovie
Crime Boss (1972)
