Written by James M. Tate / 7/06/2017 / No comments / al lettieri , anthony quinn , crime , exploitation , frederic forrest , gangster , mob , mobster , neo noir , richard fleischer , robert forster , seventies
NEO-NOIR GANGSTER 'THE DON IS DEAD' WITH ROBERT FORSTER
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Robert Forster in THE DON IS DEAD Year: 1973 |
Probably because there's not much of a target to begin with, and yet, that's not such a bad thing since the breezy undertone provides a cushion of what feels like actor improvisation under the edgy, multi-plotted schemes going on... And on and on in what's an overly complicated yet extremely simplified take on the mobster legacy...
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DonIsScored: *** |
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Anthony Quinn, Robert Forster |
There are so many twists (everyone wants to kill everyone) you may need a scorecard after a while, or instructions: Although Robert Forster goes from a temperamental wild card to a downright awful bully that the audience winds up rooting against, he's much more likable than Quinn, a brooding know-it-all who, alas, is the sole DON IS DEAD hero since, well, he's Anthony Quinn...
And despite too much talk and not enough action, there are some decent gunfights between exposition and so, with all the twists and turns, pay attention and you may just follow this jigsaw puzzle that works better incomplete than when it attempts an 11th hour resolution. What makes it fit slightly within the Noir category despite following more of a "Modern" Classic Gangster template is that the good guys and the bad are all in the mafia i.e. where there's a moral compass in a school of sharks, it's usually within a Film Noir shoreline.
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Robert Forster in THE DON IS DEAD |
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Anthony Quinn and Robert Forster in THE DON IS DEAD |
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Robert Forster in THE DON IS DEAD |
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Robert Forster in THE DON IS DEAD with Frederic Forrest |
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Frederic Forrest, Robert Forster and Al Lettieri in THE DON IS DEAD |
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Frederic Forrest in THE DON IS DEAD |
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Frederic Forrest in THE DON IS DEAD |
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Frederic Forrest in THE DON IS DEAD |
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