Posted by jefty ***Welcome to the first installment of "Jefty week" at the BB. I'll be presenting the NOTW TV later in the week. Watch for an episode of the rare and short-lived"The Asphalt Jungle" series, I hope you enjoy! -J
on 10/18/2009, 9:04 am
75.176.18.73 | Message modified by user jefty 10/18/2009, 1:46 pm
Johnny Cool 1963 United Artists 101 or 103 min
Tagline: “Head-Line Hot The Terror Behind the Cosa Nostra The Brotherhood of Crime
Our film was produced by Chrislaw Productions with Peter Lawford as Executive Producer. Lawford who doesn’ appear in our film, starred with Sammy Davis in.”Salt And Peoper” and “One More TIme”, the only other feature films produced by Chrislaw. Chrislaw would also produce the long running tv sitcom, The Patty Duke Show”.
The film is based on John McPartland’s novel; “The Kingdom of Johnny Cool”.
CAST:
It reads like a sixties hit list of rat-packers, salty comics and venerable noir veterans and begs to be listed fully here:*.
Henny de Silva - Johnny Cool/ Sal Giordano- a heinous hit man with no heart, no soul, no future
Elizabeth Montgomery-”Bewitching” as divorcee Dare Guiness out for kicks getting more in the bargain
Richard Anderson - Correspondent appears briefly to interview Cool
Jim Backus - our myopic Mr Magoo and friend to the pack as ill-fated Bossman Louis Murphy
Joey Bishop - Used car salesman who lamely tries to add mirth but falls flat on his carlot
Hank Henry - a friend of the “pack” appearing in most of their films is the real comic relief bus driver
and is the embodiement of Rodney Dangerfield if I ever saw one
Brad Dexter - Solid as oilman and Hollywood Crime boss Lennart Crandall takes one last dip
Wanda Hendrix- Mrs Audie Murphy.and Bob Motgomery’s Pink Horse playmate plays Ms Connolly
Marc Lawrence - the original scarface is Johnny Colini, the deported “Don” who employs Cool
John McGiver - familiar face on the small screen plays Oby Hinds, crooked Casino owner
Mort Sahl - brooding comic is Ben Morrow, Hinds partner in Vegas and former Colini protege
Sammy Davis Jr - this rat packer plays gambler “Educated” .and sings the theme song
Frank Albertson - another familiar face plays Bill Blakely, yatchsman and friend of Dare’s
Elisha Cook Jr - not the young buck of so many 40’s noirs but now the venerable “Undertaker”
Robert Armstrong and Douglas Dumbrillie - these old vets play two of the gang bosses
Joseph Calleia- noirworthy veteran and Welles sidekick in TOE, plays a cameo as a tourist
Telly Savalas, - TV’s iconic “Kojak” plays Vincenzo “Vince” Santangalo, current mob boss
Joan Staley - who plays Suzy also appears in this week’s NOTW TV episode ,,,more on Thursday
Joe Turkel - plays a hoodlum...what else?
*the remainder of the cast are mostly uncredited...the above are more than worthy of mention.
NOTABLE CREW:
Director WIlliam Asher: One of the few films Asher directed without the word “beach” in it, yet this “Beach Blanket Bingo” director proves he’s no slouch at directing drama in this fast paced, violent for it’s time crime drama...yes folks, the hits just keep on coming!
Besides the cast, another big plus for the film is the work of Samuel Leavitt, acclaimed cinematographer and DP on such outstanding dark films such as, Brainstorm, Shock Treatment, Cape Fear, Advise & Consent, The Crimson Kimono, Seven Thiieves, The Fearmakers, a well deserved Oscar for his “The Defiant Ones”, Time Limit, The Thief and Anatomy of a Murder.. He makes the violence visceral, uncomfortable and at times, surreal.
A wonderful score was fashioned and executed by Billy May with an intro ane exit theme penned by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Kahn sung by Mr. Entertainment ,Sammy Davis Jr. The soundtrack is available through Amazon from private sellers at a hefty price..a real collectors item apparently.
It’s no wonder that a couple “Rat Packers” were in the cast as.another one, Peter Lawford, was the films Exec Producer...all we needed to complete the deal were the “Boss” rats, Sinatra and Martin and maybe a little fluff with Joey Heatherton.
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Our film predates Lee Marvin’s relentless revenge in “ Point Blank” by four years. Also notable are the specific references to the Mafia and La Cosa Nostra(our thing) or literally (this thing of ours) which are not onlywell ahead of Mario Puzo, but also of the many films, before and after, that refered to it only as the generic “mob”.
THE STORY: (ending not revealed)
It’s 1943, Sicilly, and a Nazi trooper has a young boy and his mother in his gunsights. When he kills the woman, the boy sets off one of the stormtrooper's grenades hanging from
his belt...his first killing with many to follow. When approached by members of the Italian resistance and asked where his family is, young Giordano holds up a machine gun and cries; “This is my family.”
The scene shifts to present day and Giordano,(Silva) has become a wealthy and legendary Don among the hillside peoples in Sicilly and is hunted down by the Italian Army and Carabenieri. One of the officers, in the employ of a deported US crime boss in Rome, fakes the death and capture of Giordano and instead, delivers him to Rome.
Crime Kingpin and lynchpin of our story, Johnny Colini(Lawrence)the original "Johnny Cool" apparently got too big for his pantaloni and was “shopped” by his partners to the Feds and sent packing back to his native Italy.
In begrudging gratitude for being saved,, the younger Capo vows to serve Colini who takes him under his wing and for two years trains him in the ways of the Mafia. Satisfied that Giordano is ready, Colini renames his protege “Johnny Cool” after himself, and orders him to return to the states to feret out his former double crossing cohorts in crime and one by one, take their breath away, literally.
Cool accepts this assignment and is off to NYC where upon his arrival, meets the lovely Dare Guiness(Montgomery) who shares his bed and helps him locate and set up his quarry. But once she is spotted with him, the mob boys rough up Dare as a warning to Johnny to “Cool it” with his violent vendetta.
Cool’s actions, extracting his mentor’s revenge is merciless, savagely cruel and violent. Two killings are by the blade, another by the gun in a crowded Grand Central Station, yet another is from a window washers perch high above the New York Skyline.
With blood in the streets and the body count climbiing, the FBI get into the act and now they and the mob are after the pernicious pair. This occurs after Johnny and Dare explode the house of West Coast oil magnate and crime kingpin Lennart Crandall (Brad Dexter). With things getting white hot the pair agree to split up, arranging to meet later at “The Real Tony’s” restaurant in NY...or so thinks Cool.
Our venemous vixen Dare, wanting to save her own darling derierre tells the mob where to find Cool and then herself is captured for complicity by the cops who pull up dockside next to Blakely’s yacht where she had been hiding.
I’ll let you find out what happens next to Johnny Cool...seek out the film, you won’t be sorry.
QUIPS & QUOTES:
“All men look like men, so few really are.” - Dare Guiness(Montgomery) describing Cool
Speaking of Cool, “Everybody remembers him but nobody knows him.” -Vince Santangalo(Savalas)
Also describing Cool and himself - “You’re(I was) his domestico messegerio de morte*” --Ben Morrow (Sahl) translation: Italian for “delivery boy of death”
REMARKS:
If ever a film was crying out for dvd release, it’s “Johnny Cool”.
Silva is superb as the detached, heartless, ,singleminded hitman who shows no mercy or remorse for his killings. Indeed, as the posters for the film would declare in big bold capital type “THE COLDEST KILLER OF KILLERS WHO EVER LIVED.’
Despite the attempts of comic relief, it will take more than Joey Bishop antics as a used car salesman or Hank Henry as Larry the Bus Driver to ameliorate the repeated viiolence and brutality of this killing machine that has been set in motion. Variety on Jan 6th, 1963 had this to say about “Johnny Cool”:
“Joseph Landon's script [from John McPartland's novel The Kingdom of Johnny Cool has more holes in it than a Swiss cheese but he stuffs most of them with action and director William Asher cuts the action in thick slices.” But the NY Times characterized Asher’s direction as “flaccid” and was less than enthusiastic about the film relating that “Johnny Cool” got a “cold reception” in NY.
The plot may take some incredulous twists and turns but there are enough dark and heavy characters to fill two casting calls. The film’s snappy pace, unmitigated violence and impenitent killer makes one think the film could have been directed by Don Siegel whose “Dancer” (Eli Wallach) in “The Line-up” is a choir boy compared to Cool.
It may not be a high flyer on the “noir-o-meter”style-wise although it has some shadowy street and parking garage scenes and some peculiar angle shots. Of particular note is a shot of the one way ceiling security mirror showing the gaming tables below....cool shot..But most of the action happens in broad daylight which only underscores Johnny Cool’s contemptous brazenness..
This is one cold, bloody and action-packed film with despicable characters in desperate situations...plus the whole Rat-Pack connection including a “Jillies” reference, a real Sixties sound and feel, nightclubs, casinos, backroom crapgames, racetracks, lots of leggy dames including some revealing shots of pouty and pretty, Elizabeth Montgomery... What more do you want ?
TRIVIA:
“Johnny Cool” is the first collaboration of Asher and Montgomery who would later marry.
Together they would later develop the long running TV sitcom “Betwitched” with the Elizabeth starring as “Samantha” .
""Is the casino vault armored? No, it's made of wood! -" Bob Le Flambeau" -1956
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