The Don Is Dead (1973)

Director: Richard Fleischer

Starring: Anthony Quinn, Frederic Forrest, Robert Forster, Al Lettieri

More info: IMDB

Tagline: Power built an empire. Passion destroyed it.

Plot: After a Mafia boss meets his maker, crime czar Don Angelo (Anthony Quinn) stands primed to take over the syndicate. When he learns that an ambitious minion (Robert Forster) is a rival for the affections of the kingpin's doxy (Angel Tompkins), Angelo promises to drench the streets with the underling's blood. The don's vow soon sets off an internecine war of orchestrated violence in director Richard Fleischer's tale of duplicity and reprisal.

My rating: 4.5/10

Will I watch it again? Aw, hell, no.

More like the movie is dead. Paid three bucks for it at Big Lots. Keep the three clams...I want my 115 minutes back. In a word...lifeless and uninspired. OK, then...two words. I honestly expected more given the cast. I've never seen Quinn more tired, Forster more out of his element and Letieri trying so hard with a poor script and poor direction. I really like all of these dudes and it was painful to see their talent so wasted. This is just bad. This isn't even in the same game as THE GODFATHER (1972) (released 20 months earlier) which it's clearly trying to ride the coat tails of (the genre, I mean). I blame Fleischer, despite how that pains me. It's like George Luca$ and the shit performances he was able to squeeze out of (mostly) otherwise good actors in the prequels. Just check out Fleischer's early directorial efforts. He did some great shit. But then you see that he directed the lame Conan sequel and RED SONJA (1985). That says everything. TDID is one huge missed opportunity. I REALLY wanted to like this. I tried...HARD. The explosions were awfully nice, though.