George Memmoli Movies

"You don't make up for your sins in church; you do it in the streets; you do it at home. The rest is bulls--t, and you know it." Returning to the autobiographical milieu of his 1968 debut Who's That Knocking at My Door? for his third feature, Martin Scorsese examined the daily struggles of a wannabe hood to keep his morals straight on the streets of Little Italy. Driven equally by his wish to become a respectable gangster like his uncle (Cesare Danova) and his desire to live his life like St. Francis, Charlie (Harvey Keitel) takes on his energetically unhinged friend Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro) as his own personal penance, intervening to get Johnny Boy to pay off a debt to the local loan shark Michael (Richard Romanus). Despite his promises to his epileptic girlfriend Teresa (Amy Robinson) that they will move out of Little Italy once he strengthens his position in his uncle's world, Charlie's involvement with Johnny Boy further ensnares him in the neighborhood. When Johnny Boy decides to mouth off to Michael rather than pay him, Charlie, Johnny Boy, and Teresa try to flee Michael's murderous anger (and an assassin played by Scorsese), forcing Charlie to realize that the rules of the streets do not mesh with absolution. Whereas fellow "film school generation" director Francis Ford Coppola transformed the Hollywood gangster movie into metaphorical epics about the Mafia and capitalism in The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974), Scorsese revised the genre in the opposite direction, focusing on the gritty minutiae of daily life and drawing from personal memory. Combining documentary-style realism (even though most of the film was shot in L.A.); kinetic editing and camera movement; and expressionistic lighting, angles, and film speed, Scorsese presents an intimate picture of the trivial incidents and latent violence of Charlie's and Johnny Boy's world, naturalistically unfolding their experiences rather than simply explaining what motivates them. They lead a claustrophobic, petty existence that Scorsese and screenwriter Mardik Martin witnessed growing up in Little Italy, complete with a soundtrack of hit songs like "Be My Baby" and "Jumping Jack Flash" that had poured out of neighborhood radios. Mean Streets opened at the New York Film Festival to excellent notices and played strongly in New York but failed to duplicate that level of business elsewhere. Even so, Mean Streets established Scorsese and De Niro as formidable young talents and marked the beginning of a long-running and fertile collaboration that continued in such films as Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1983), and Goodfellas (1990). Scorsese's exceptional grasp of the texture of day-to-day life, the rhythm and cadences of street talk, and cinema's visual and aural possibilities makes Mean Streets one of the pivotal films of the 1970s, as well as of Scorsese's career, and an influence on such future filmmakers as Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino, among many others. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Director Robert Aldrich (The Longest Yard) re-unites with Burt Reynolds for this hard-edged neo-noir. Lieutenant Phil Gaines (Reynolds) is a cynical Los Angeles police detective amorously involved with an icewater-veined Parisian call girl, Nicole Britton (Catherine Deneuve). On the job, he begins to investigate the shady death of a teenage girl that appears to lead straight to Leo Sellers (Eddie Albert), an attorney with a frightening number of connections. The problem is, Nicole herself has a direct connection to the case - Leo is one of her clients. Meanwhile, Marty Hollinger (Ben Johnson), the victim's father, decides to undertake a grassroots investigation of his own - little realizing that his seemingly murdered daughter was in up to her neck with prostitution, porno movie acting, and dancing as a stripper, facts which suggest that she may have offed herself. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), a Philadelphia boxer, is but one step removed from total bum-hood. A once-promising pugilist, Rocky is now taking nickel-and-dime bouts and running strongarm errands for local loan sharks to survive. Even his supportive trainer, Mickey (Burgess Meredith), has given up on Rocky. All this changes thanks to Muhammad Ali-like super-boxer Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers). With the Bicentennial celebration coming up, Creed must find a "Cinderella" opponent for the big July 4th bout -- some unknown whom Creed can "glorify" for a few minutes before knocking him cold. Rocky Balboa was not the only Cinderella involved here: writer/director Sylvester Stallone, himself a virtual unknown, managed to sell his Rocky script (one of 35 that he'd written over the years) on the proviso that he be given the starring role. Since the film was to be made on a shoestring and marketed on a low-level basis, the risk factor to United Artists was small. For Stallone, this was a make-or-break opportunity -- just like Rocky's million-to-one shot with Apollo Creed. Costing under a million dollars, Rocky managed to register with audiences everywhere, earning back 60 times its cost. The film won several Academy Awards, including Best Picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After writing, directing, and starring in The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother, Gene Wilder added the producer's hat to his three-headed beast in The World's Greatest Lover. Wilder plays Rudy Valentine, a Milwaukee baker who enters a talent search in the Hollywood of the 1920s, initiated by movie studio mogul Zitz (Dom DeLuise), to find a new Rudolph Valentino. He travels to Hollywood with his wife Annie (Carol Kane) in hopes of taking a screen test, but Annie falls in love with the real Valentino. Jealous of the Latin Lover, Rudy disguises himself as a sheik in an attempt to look like Valentino. Rudy then invites Annie to a rendezvous at the studio, where he tries to seduce his own wife. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In this actioner, a WW II vet attempts to run his own farm and finds himself in dire straits when he cannot pay his mortgage. In desperation, he hits up a gangster for financial aide. Unfortunately, in exchange for money, the gangster wants the vet to kill a few people. The would-be farmer does just that and each killing is quite graphically presented. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Martin Brest was a student filmmaker when he made Hot Tomorrows for $33,000 -- practically nothing even by the standards of 1977. He went on to produce major Hollywood movies, including Beverly Hills Cop. In this film, Michael (Ken Lerner) is a young New York writer who has moved to L.A. and who spends his days writing about his elderly aunt, when he is not busy exploring his obsession with death. He is spending Christmas Eve with Louis (Ray Sharkey), a visiting friend, and they choose some unusual sites in which to carry on their holiday discussions, including a mortuary and a retirement home. Though this short black-and-white feature was given high praise by critics, few have had a chance to see it. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Jim (James Garner) is summoned to the bedside of his old friend Eddie Marks (Howard Duff), who claims to be dying and desperate need of money for his medical treatment. Eddie begs Jim to get him access to high-stakes poker game presided over by Blast Gillette (George Memmoli) in order to acquire the necessary funds. Only after Jim has revealed the location of the big game does he discover that he's been scammed by Eddie, who robs the poker players in order to set up an even bigger scam involving a luxury liner. Left holding the bag for the robbery, Jim turns the tables on Eddie and his equally duplicitious daughter Christina (Joan Van Ark), aided and abetted by several cronies of the irrespressible Angel Martin (Stuart Margolin). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Martin Scorsese's American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince is both a documentary and a tragicomedy, in which the personal experiences of one twentysomething Jewish gay man are rendered universal. Surrounded by friends in a cozy living room, the sensitive and humorous Prince (Taxi Driver's gun salesman, Handy Andy) recounts his personal history, from his run-in with a gorilla, to his relationship with his parents, his childhood bagel delivery business, his coming out, his addiction to drugs, his job as Neil Diamond's road manager, and his father's falling ill. One of Prince's most exciting tales, an account of his reviving a friend's overdosing girlfriend by injecting stimulant into her heart, was re-created almost to a tee by director Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction. As wild and theatrical as the young man's accounts are, Scorsese intersperses them with childhood pictures of Prince that could be of any American, quickly reminding the entire audience of their common humanity. ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, All Movie Guide

Director Rob Reiner's The Sure Thing is essentially It Happened One Night for the 1980s, but its lack of surprise in no way impedes its entertainment value. John Cusack plays Walter "Gib" Gibson, a self-involved college freshman who makes plans to head to California, there to touch base (and a few other things) with a "sure thing" played by Nicollette Sheridan. Likewise planning a westward journey is coed Alison Bradbury (Daphne Zuniga), a control freak who has a wealthy, stuffy fiancé over there. Gib and Alison despise one another on sight -- so naturally, they are compelled to travel to California together. The fact that everyone in the audience knows precisely how this one will end up is inconsequential; Cusack and Zuniga deliver such engaging performances that we're pulling for them to wise up and discover one another from the very first scene. One of the best bits: the mismatched couple being bombarded with an ear-piercing rendition of "The Age of Aquarius" by their dippy traveling companions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide