Great American director John Huston was really a very lucky man. He didn't just have a long prolific career and private life as interesting as his picture. He was also blessed with a rare gift of his last years and last films being as interesting as successful as those in the early zenith of his career. But the greatest luck of his life was the fact that he had directed "Oscar"-awarded acting performance both by his father and his daughter. The latter occurred in Prizzi's Honor, 1985 black comedy that was supposed to be his last film (he nevertheless managed to make another film, The Dead in 1987, shortly before his death).
The plot of this film is based on the best-selling novel by Richard Condon, who also co authored the script with Janet Roach. Protagonist of the film is Charley Partanna (played by Jack Nicholson), slow-witted yet very efficient hit man for the Mafia family led by Corrado Prizzi (played by William Hickey). Charley has all the reasons to be loyal to the family - he is Corrado's godson and his father Angelo (played by John Randolph) is Corrado's trusted advisor. Family is also loyal to Charley since Corrado feels they are in debt due to the past humiliation caused by his prodigal granddaughter and Charley's former girlfriend Maerose (played by Anjelica Huston). Charley still carries the torch for Maerose, now being exiled from family, but he nevertheless madly falls in love with Irene Walker (played by Kathleen Turner), beautiful blonde woman he met at the wedding. Two of them soon start romantic relationship which would survive many bizarre revelations - first of all, Irene was involved in the scheme to steal the money from Mafia- controlled casinos in Las Vegas and then Charley discovers that Irene used to work as freelance professional assassin herself. Torn between the love of the woman and loyalty to the family, Charley tries to conciliate both by using Irene as a hired hand during Mafia-sanctioned kidnapping scheme. Unfortunately, the stunt doesn't go as planned and Prizzi's family, together with Charley himself, gets in unenviable position. Situation further complicates when Irene gets hired to kill Charley.
John Huston was very ill when he was directing Prizzi's Honor and it shows on the final product. This film is very good, but it is rather far from perfection. Many scenes tend to be overlong, especially those in the beginning. Huston also has some problems with very complex and not very comprehensible plot finale. However, most of such problems aren't exactly Huston faults - they came from the script which simply lacked humour; Prizzi's Honor could be, in many ways, seen as rather serious drama about moral choices that await all those involved in organised crime. Because of this, Prizzi's Honor is actually closer to The Sopranos than to Tarantinoesque black comedies about criminal endeavours going sour. But Huston was lucky to compensate script's flaws with the great display of talent around him, the talent that actually made this film more charming and entertaining than expected.
First of all, Alex North provided truly memorable musical score, with clever use of elements of Italian opera that provided somewhat of the ironic comment in the key scenes of the film. But the real job was done by actors. Jack Nicholson again showed great talent by playing very believable hood who could be taken for a ride despite years of street experience. Kathleen Turner again proves to be one of the most talented leading ladies of 1980s Hollywood – her noirish femme fatale character is far away from Matty Walker in Body Heat, yet equally deadly and believable. Anjelica Huston is also quite effective as her Italian rival, and her "Oscar" for supporting performance is well justified. But the most effective "Oscar"-worthy performance comes from William Hickey in the role of Mafia patriarch; the pathetic physical appearance of this character is in deep contrast with his power and charisma. Few actors could have managed to play this role without convincingly, without turning it into farce. Unfortunately, the rest of the acting wasn't that good - Lee Richardson and Robert Loggia in the roles of Corrado's sons, as well as John Randolph in the role of Charley's father, tend to overact at times. However, even such flaws won't seriously undermine mostly positive impressions of Prizzi's Honor. This charming and entertaining film is another proof that the true masters can be capable of making great films even when they are very old.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on March 5th 2001)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/2075-prizzi-s-honor?language=en-US Critic: AA
