The New Mafia Boss

The second of the two films Alberto De Martino made with Telly Savalas, this sadly is a rather weak entry in both De Martino’s filmography and the Mafia genre as a whole. Music from Francesco De Masi lacks the necessary dynamics to give the story more punch, and the usual bloody violence one comes to expect from Italian cinema of this ilk is conspicuous by its absence. Aristide Massaccesi provides the autumnal cinematography.

Antonio Mancuso (a moustachioed Antonia Sabáta), flies into Milan from Palermo; he’s been hired by a local mobster to take out a traitor in exchange for a cash settlement. The mob anticipates killing him after the hit, but they underestimate the Sicilian, and after collecting his payment in full, he travels to Hamburg to meet up with his pimping brother, Nick (Giuliano Persico).

Tired of the tealeaf life, they plan to move their way up into the criminal big league, hoping to join capo dei capi Don Vincenzo (Savalas) and his ‘family’. Tricking two of Vincenzo’s henchmen into believing that the police are onto them and their coffret of drugs, the two brothers ‘save’ Vincenzo’s drugs (after an earlier hotel switch), using this as leverage to get into the organisation. The wily Don Vincenzo is not fooled by the ruse, but trusting his instincts, allows them onboard.

The Don takes Antonio under his wing and the two become like father and son. Over time however, the ambitious Antonio — with a little persuasion from Vincenzo’s sultry niece, Monica (Paola Tedesco) — starts to believe that Vincenzo has become too soft and is jeopardising the entire Mafia family’s grip on the criminal underworld. He schedules a secret meeting with the other mob bosses: Don Vincenzo must be eliminated!