There's something exciting about watching an old movie and seeing an actor in it that you recognize from something a lot later.
The first time I saw Ernest Borgnine on screen was in the movie "Super Fuzz." It's a silly obscure movie about a cop who gained superpowers when he witnessed a nuclear explosion. His powers could only be undone when he saw the color red. I watched the movie over and over as a kid. Ernest Borgnine played the elder partner of the superpowered cop. Now I got to see him as a young gangster. What a thrill.
Ernest wasn't the star of "The Mob" though, he played a gangster named Castro in charge of the docks. The star was Broderick Crawford as Johnny Damico, a cop. While off duty he'd witnessed a cold blooded murder, but let the murderer walk when he showed him a fake badge. That slip up by Damico was enough to get him in trouble with his superiors, though his punishment was a bit untraditional. He was assigned to go undercover to infiltrate the mob and find Blackie Klegg, the mobster responsible for the murder.
First the police released a fake photo of Damico in the paper to throw the mob off of his trail. Then he was to come to town on a boat from New Orleans and pretend to be a hood from there named Tim Flynn. The hopes were that he could get in good with the mob and take them down from the inside.
I liked "The Mob" because of its mystery and role playing. We never saw the face of the killer, so he could've been anyone Damico met while undercover. Furthermore, while Damico was undercover he had to play it up being a hood which meant putting himself in some precarious positions. I think of it as an early version of "Donnie Brasco" or other movies of that ilk.
Free with Amazon Prime.
The first time I saw Ernest Borgnine on screen was in the movie "Super Fuzz." It's a silly obscure movie about a cop who gained superpowers when he witnessed a nuclear explosion. His powers could only be undone when he saw the color red. I watched the movie over and over as a kid. Ernest Borgnine played the elder partner of the superpowered cop. Now I got to see him as a young gangster. What a thrill.
Ernest wasn't the star of "The Mob" though, he played a gangster named Castro in charge of the docks. The star was Broderick Crawford as Johnny Damico, a cop. While off duty he'd witnessed a cold blooded murder, but let the murderer walk when he showed him a fake badge. That slip up by Damico was enough to get him in trouble with his superiors, though his punishment was a bit untraditional. He was assigned to go undercover to infiltrate the mob and find Blackie Klegg, the mobster responsible for the murder.
First the police released a fake photo of Damico in the paper to throw the mob off of his trail. Then he was to come to town on a boat from New Orleans and pretend to be a hood from there named Tim Flynn. The hopes were that he could get in good with the mob and take them down from the inside.
I liked "The Mob" because of its mystery and role playing. We never saw the face of the killer, so he could've been anyone Damico met while undercover. Furthermore, while Damico was undercover he had to play it up being a hood which meant putting himself in some precarious positions. I think of it as an early version of "Donnie Brasco" or other movies of that ilk.
Free with Amazon Prime.