L' Onorata famiglia, AKA The Big Family (1973)

Directed by: Tonino Ricci
Starring: Richard Conte, Sal Borgese, Raymond Pellegrin, Giancarlo Prete

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Mob Boss: Don't forget son... only in the bedroom are women our equals. And maybe our betters!

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Antonio Marchesi (Richard Conte) is an American businessman in Italy who wants to get into the construction business without interference from the Mafia. As The Big Family opens, Marchesi is refusing to pay a share of his profits to one of Don Peppino Scalise's men. "You understand this will... impede you" threatens the thug. Marchesi smiles and resolutely tells the mafioso that he prefers to do things his own way, and asks the man to convey his respects to the Don. "You'll have the Don's response by tomorrow," he is told. Minutes later a half-dozen uniformed policemen enter Marchesi's office and mow down his bodyguards with their machine guns. One of them approaches Marchesi and smashes the side of his face with the butt of his gun. "There's the Don's answer."

This showdown is gonna be good.

Marchesi contacts Don Peppino (Raymond Pellegrin), and asks for a peaceful man-to-man sit-down. Of course, neither man can be trusted to keep his word to show up unarmed, leading to the film's second blood-bath, and first of many truly devious surprise twists. As the war between Marchesi and Peppino escalates, Sicily receives a new chief of police, Inspector La Manna (Giancarlo Prete). La Manna is an idealist who has vowed to end the Mafia's influence on the police force. He soon finds, however, that he may be the only honest cop left in Italy.

Inspector La Manna

But not even La Manna is immune to the corruption he's fighting. When he realizes that a widow won't break the Sicilian Code of Silence and reveal the identity of her husband's killers, he tells the press that she did, and orders around-the-clock surveillance on her. Using a widow as bait? That's low, La Manna.

The movie is full of brilliant little moments that subvert your expectations from the genre. In one scene, the Inspector gets into his car, the camera zooms in close on his key as it enters the ignition. The music tenses... La Manna sloooooowly turns the key... the camera cuts to a long shot of the car... I held my breath, fully expecting the car to explode. No dice. As La Manna starts to drive off I smiled, enjoying the feeling of being had. Of course, about that time I notice La Manna's wildly pumping his brakes to no avail... they'd been cut!

This small double-switch is just an example of the way Ricci's film keeps you on your toes. Without spoiling anything, I'll say that there's a fairly significant shift in the film early-on that completely changes its basic structure. At first I was disappointed, but by the time the film ended, I was glad Ricci (who also co-wrote the film) had the balls to make a complex movie with actual character development that doesn't dumb things down. (Of course, Ricci tosses in plenty of car chases, gun fights, and hot chicks to keep the knuckleheads happy.) As in the best Mafia Films, there are no easy answers in The Big Family. Only the age-old question of whether the ends truly justify the means.

The film has a memorable score, courtesty of composer Bruno Nicolai, a man who scored almost 100 films... everything from Adiós, Sabata to Dracula Vs. Frankenstein. And I can't say enough about Sal Borgese in this movie. He has a small role as Turi, Don Peppino's right-hand man, and he is sleazily awesome in this film. Borgese is one of my favorite Italian actors, and he is absolutely out-of-control and in his prime in this film.

That's my guy.

The Big Family is an great example of why I love the Italian Crime genre, and it's just waiting to be discovered by a larger audience. As far as I know, it was never officially released on any format in the US, so if you want this one (and you really should), you'll have to get it from an online dealer. I suggest Digital Conquest or VSOM.

- Micah