The late 70s and 80s were a fecund period for John Huston, who’d already directed stone-cold classics such as The Maltese Falcon and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. With films such as Under the Volcano, Wise Blood, and Prizzi’s Honor, John Huston plumbed darker nights of the soul than previously thought capable.
Prizzi’s Honor isn’t exactly a happy-go-lucky film. It’s about a hired killer, and about Honor only in the worst sense of the word. In this film, family—the mob—is as dark and fatalistic as an arranged marriage. Huston, and Richard Condon, on whose novel this is based, give us a mob drama that is tinged with black comedy.
Like many other good mob films, this film is a buffet of character actors. Familiar faces include John Randolph, Robert Loggia, and Lee Richardson. It also has the virtue of having Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, and Angjelica Huston in the lead roles. Together they serve as a demented love triangle, which plays out like a protracted chess game. Safe to say the standout performance is Anjelica Huston, whose character, Maerose, has a taste for control and power. Jack Nicholson is also great, as he is in everything, and Kathleen Turner is best at bringing the dark comedy the film calls for. See Prizzi’s Honor for a mob film with great writing and a great cast.
I had to look up the word fecund. I never saw this movie back in the day. I will have to check it out. Nice review Mr. Johnson.