PRIZZI'S HONOR
A film review by Walter Frith
Copyright 1997 Walter Frith
Director John Huston who died in shortly after making this film was a master of story telling. There was always a hint of conservative ambience detailing his films and for a man who started in the 1940's and made movies for over four decades, he certainly was the right man for the very dark and off beat mob comedy, 'Prizzi's Honor' (1985). It ranks as a superlative look at a fictional New York City crime family and is based on Richard Condon's best selling novel.
The film opens in charismatic style at a wedding and each of the main characters is visually profiled. There is the ever unpredictable Jack Nicholson as a hit man for the Prizzi family and the other main characters in the film include Kathleen Turner as the woman he would fall in love with and who turns out to be more than he bargained for. Others are William Hickey as the family boss who personifies the devil in his gripping visual style of acting. Lee Richardson and Robert Loggia as his sons, John Randolph as Nicholson's father and best friend to Hickey and Anjelica Huston (daughter of director Huston and winner of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for this film) as the Prizzi family's mafia princess and a former lover of Nicholson's in the film.
Nicholson is love struck at the wedding as he glimpses Turner for the first time and tries to track her down and they eventually consumate their relationship by marrying and it turns out that while Nicholson is a slow witted hit man, she's a quick witted hit woman! This of course causes problems in their relationship as she becomes embroiled in deceiving the Prizzi family and is offered a contract to rub out Nicholson. The outrageous twists that this film offers are too numerous to mention and 'Prizzi's Honor' also serves as a cleverly inter woven and well plotted film which never loses its focus in the important moments and has one more goody up its sleeve just when you think things are ready to settle down.
If you haven't seen 'Prizzi's Honor' it's real treat and is perfect for home video viewing and is recommended for adult viewing for its mature theme. It's one of Nicholson's most pleasantly menacing performances.
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