The entry begins:
Hollywood and the Mafia formed a mutual admiration pact ninety- three years ago when Edward G. Robinson played a character based loosely on Al Capone in the black-and-white movie Little Caesar. The subsequent connections and cross-pollinations are many. In the early 1930s Bugsy Siegel took up residence in a Beverly Hills mansion where he threw debauched parties. Guests included George Raft, Gary Cooper and Jean Harlow. A few years later the Murder, Inc. hitman Gangi Cohen fled Brooklyn for Hollywood where, in an odd twist on art imitating life, he played tough-guy roles under a pseudonym. In the 1970s Joe Colombo extracted concessions from Francis Ford Coppola while making The Godfather.Visit Michael T. Cannell's website.
Not surprisingly, I had the mob-and-movie connection in mind while writing Blood and the Badge: The Mafia, Two Killer Cops and a Scandal That Shocked the Nation, the true story of two decorated NYPD detectives who secretly worked for the Lucchese Crime family in the early 1990s.
If, by some miracle, I was granted the authority to cast the detectives, I would choose John Goodman to play Louie Eppolito, a stout, loud figure who was born into a mob family and rebelled by joining the police department — only to be draw back into the family’s illicit affairs. He later played small roles in a dozen movies.
Like many enduring partnerships, Eppolito and his sidekick, Stephen Caracappa, were polar opposites. If Eppolito was boastful and excitable, Caracappa was...[read on]
My Book, The Movie: The Limit.
The Page 99 Test: The Limit.
My Book, The Movie: Incendiary.
My Book, The Movie: A Brotherhood Betrayed.
Writers Read: Michael Cannell.
My Book, The Movie: Blood and the Badge.
--Marshal Zeringue
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