Massacre Mafia Style

Massacre Mafia Style (a.k.a. The Executioner) (1978)

Runtime: 82 minutes

Directed by Duke Mitchell

Starring: Duke Mitchell, Vic Caesar, Lorenzo Dodo, Louis Zito

From: Spartan Films

Here's a movie I saw via TCM Underground late last night. This is best known under its alternate title of Massacre Mafia Style, where it got released by Grindhouse Releasing, a company co-founded by the late son of Sly Stallone, Sage Stallone. It has an infamous reputation and now I found out why that was the case. It has to be noted that Mitchell-this was really a passion project for him-was a lounge singer in the 50's and was buddies with Sinatra and at least a few other members of the Rat Pack, and even had a ripoff act of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis with Sammy Petrillo.

To steal the plot description from Letterboxd: “Terror reigns when Mimi, the son of a deported Don, along with his associate Jolly Rizzo wage a bloody war for control of the West Coast underworld, battling hordes of hard-boiled mobsters and deadly black pimps on their rise to the top!” Oh, and the making of porno movies is also involved.

To make it clear, this movie is technically pretty crappy. It's low-budget nonsense. Yet, it's SO entertaining. To copy and paste something written by Jeremy Milks, some dude on Letterboxd I follow because he started following me: 

"One of my favourite films. I've seen this three times now and it just gets better for me. Duke Mitchell is so sincere and charismatic, yet this movie plays on any level you want. It works as a (sorta) straight crime film. It works as a piece of exploitation. It works as a comedy. 

The opening scene is a wild piece of cinema as Mitchell and his buddy just cut through an entire office building killing everyone, but find themselves getting emotional and gentle when they run into a kid in an elevator. The whole movie does this juxtaposition so well - pure exploitive violence and sleaze mixed with this sincere attempt to say something about Italians, Catholics and family. Duke also kisses everyone on the lips - his father, friends, women, men, children. He also sings the majority of the songs, directs and narrates the film. It's a hell of a performance overall.

And when Duke gets on a rant, it's epic. "When you go to sleep I want you to sleep with one eye open. 'Cause I'm gonna choke you. I'm gonna choke your mother, I'm gonna choke your father, I'm gonna choke your f*cking kids! You understand me? I'm gonna go to the f*cking phone book and look up your last name. Everyone who has your last name is gonna get choked too."

From what I understand, the wacky setpieces of the film are actual tales Duke heard from mobsters he talked to at his stage show. Now, the movie is pretty much goofy exploitation fare and it doesn't make a lot of sense. At least it's short. It's the sort of film where there's a lot of preaching about how Sicilian people are stereotyped as being all in the Mafia and are ruthless killers... alongside scenes where Sicilians are in the Mafia and they're ruthless killers. There's plenty of racism, too; as if I needed to see another film with that. As it's exploitation, you see plenty of boobs... I was fine with that.

That said, Mitchell and the other people involved with the production do try their very best to try and say something with this unique take on the mob genre. Their trying so hard does help, for sure.

I'll return tomorrow night.