Massacre: Mafia Style, aka The Executioner is a 1974 movie written and directed by Duke Mitchell.
Massacre: Mafia Style tells the story of Mimi Miceli, Jr., the son of an exiled Mafia Don. Mimi leaves Sicily and heads to Hollywood, where he attempts to take over the city’s organized crime activity. With the help of his partner, Jolly, Mimi succeeds in decimating both high ranking Mafia members and a successful street pimp. Mimi later returns home to Sicily where he faces the reckoning of his actions.
For those of you who like to get to the point, here’s a quick review: Duke Mitchell tries to make his version of The Godfather.
Or at least he wanted to make a grittier, more authentic version of The Godfather. Growing up around the Mafia and hearing their tales as a lounge singer, Mitchell decided Coppola’s epic was closer to Hollywood than the streets he knew. Rejecting the movie’s themes of honor and family, Mitchell produces a truly unique, if not conflicted vision.
Massacre: Mafia Style is perhaps best known for its opening scene, where Mimi and his longtime friend Jolly (Vic Caesar) shoot up an office. The production is sparse and the overacting abundant but you can immediately sense Mitchell’s DIY ethos – he’s the writer, director, lead actor and his way too catchy Italian wedding crooning serenades this cinematic bloodbath.
Legend is Mitchell culled a lifetime of stories told to him by Mafia types to create his work. At times, Massacre: Mafia Style feels like a collection of these greatest hits – literally. We see toilet electrocutions, hangings, a meat hook through an eye, a funeral bomb and an elaborate crucifixion. The effects of these techniques – the staging of blood and makeup – on Mimi’s various victims is highly stylized and visually impressive.
However, the action of the murder scenes is a different story.
Mitchell and Caesar are essentially two lounge singers trying to make a movie – and it shows. Each are charismatic but their acting contributions consist of walking, shooting and delivering long-winded monologues. The shooting scenes are clumsy and strangely edited and Mitchell’s pivotal fight scene is embarrassing. Throughout the movie, victims are either comatose in their responses or wildly overreaching.
Meanwhile, there is constant unheard dialogue occurring throughout scenes. I get the sense Mitchell is continually talking and giving direction to his actors – despite being an actor in the same scene. Clearly, Mitchell’s movie is low budget – he employs family and friends in many roles, which leads to some awkward scripted reading and gaps in continuity.
Speaking of which…
I would like to think that Mitchell is making a profound statement on the anarchy of the Mafia in comparison to the glorified vision created in The Godfather but I can’t do that.
In other words, Mitchell’s movie doesn’t make a lot of sense.
There are little details that are inexplicable, including Mimi’s son somehow aging from 6 to 21 in the span of a few years. Super Spook, the pimp that Mimi and Jolly are pursuing to murder, picks up one of “his girls” at a Mafia gathering and later has dinner with his future killers. Then there’s an odd interlude where Mimi and Jolly “go straight” and enter the adult film business – a move that is quickly forgotten.
Most confounding is that Mimi and Jolly basically have unfettered access to every prominent mobster in Hollywood. Their mission of killing them all is made ridiculously easy – even more so as these same mobsters continually invite Mimi to accompany them. Officially, it takes Mimi killing the representative of the Sons of Sicily Defense League on live TV, then hitting the top mobster’s son before any real retribution occurs.
At this point, Massacre: Mafia Style turns into a series of “can you top this?” feats of violence. A mobster is turned into a slab of beef at a butcher’s shop. Jolly’s demise occurs as his prized poodle is served to him on a platter before he is shot. Mimi’s pseudo girlfriend Liz is hanged in her house. Naturally, Mimi sets a bomb off at Marco’s funeral, which destroys all in attendance.
While primarily a Mafia movie, Mitchell manages to create a work that reflects an appreciation of the styles of movies he likely grew up watching. A shooting montage is lifted straight from the likes of Jimmy Cagney while the bloody remains of Mimi’s victims could be catalogued in schlocky 1950’s horror pictures. Throughout the movie, Mitchell inserts traditional Italian songs and shoots scenes at places he could have easily performed as a nightclub act.
However, what truly makes Massacre: Mafia Style unique are the tour de force monologues Mitchell gives regarding the mob life. There is genuine passion in these speeches, but then again – they don’t make much sense given the context of the movie.
Mitchell gives an effective monologue regarding the older female generation’s contributions to Sicilians. He focuses on an older woman’s hands and all they create. It’s a touching reflection on honor but then is immediately followed by Mimi stating: “Sicilians always take the rap for Mafia. So if I’m going to be known as a killer, I’m going to show you how to kill.”
Later, Mimi returns home to Sicily – stating “there’s nothing left to control” after essentially killing every mobster in Hollywood. He delivers another impassioned, confusing speech that suspiciously touches on the idea of honor – this time to his Don father. “Crime is made up of fanatics. Politicians have their own mafia. Hookers even gave up pimps. You the big Don are a joke. They made a motion picture of yourself….I’m begging you to get out.”
The BEST – The Tics
Mitchell and Caesar have a funny habit of guiding each other during walking sequences. There is never a scene in Massacre: Mafia Style where one or the other isn’t pushing, pulling or tugging the other actor toward a spot.
The BEST Part 2 – Artie’s Kung Fu
The only resistance Mimi and Jolly encounter during their mobster killing spree comes when a Mafia big shot calls in his bodyguard, who puts on a quick martial arts display before getting shot in the head.
The BEST Part 3 – Duke Mitchell Doesn’t Like to Get Hit
There’s a scene where family associate Bones roughs up Mimi in order to bring him back to reality. Punches and slaps land nearly a foot away from the aging and surprisingly delicate Mitchell.
The WORST – The Movie Doesn’t Exactly Hold up Well
It’s easy to say that a low budget movie about mobsters from 1974 is a product of its time. However, it’s also fair to say that Duke Mitchell is kind of an asshole. Either way, the movie is highly offensive – especially to women and black people. Naming a character Super Spook, then reducing him to empty stereotypes before framing his death as a symbol against Mitchell’s own faith reveals a lot.
The WORST Part 2 – The One Liners I Shouldn’t Like
Mitchell oozes sleaze but is occasionally really funny.
- Mimi after getting taught a physical lesson by family associate Bones: “I love you Bones.”
- Mimi and Jolly: “Tonight we eat. Tomorrow we shoot.”
- Mimi about Liz: “Where are you staying tonight?” “With her.”
- Liz to Mimi: “I lay them but I don’t love them. You I could like.”
- Mimi: “He told me Jesus was black. Let him make a resurrection.”
- Super Spook: “You guys have been watching too many Humphery Bogart movies.”
FOX FORCE FIVE RATING – 2/5
Massacre: Mafia Style is definitely worth a viewing. If anything, you have to respect Mitchell’s vision and effort simply to make such a movie. Mitchell truly has no business as an actor, writer or director and his message is clunky and often incoherent. The acting from top to bottom in this movie is atrocious and the action sequences are laughable. Yet, none of this stops Mitchell from fulfilling his destiny – which is something all of us should respect.
