****SPOILERS**** Somewhat fictionalized movie about the life and times of Joseph "Crazy Joe" Gallo played by a scaled down Peter Boyle who's last name-Gallo-for some reason in the film is never once mentioned and slipped in when he's in a liquor store shaking down the owner, that he ended up getting sent up the river or prison for,by showing Crazy Joe standing next to a case of Gallo wine. As for Crazy Joe himself we get to see him and his gang including his ulcer ridden big brother Richie, Rip Thorn, that feel that their getting the short end of the stick from their Mafia bosses by receiving just $100.00 a hit, knocking off someone, that they preform for them.
Wanting respect as well as a place in the mob hierarchy in the end gets Crazy Joe in hot water with his boss of bosses Mafia Don Vittorio, Eli Wallach, who at first tries to placate the crazy guy by giving him control of the Brooklyn Red Hook sections mob operations that Crazy Joe and his boys come from. This is after Don Vittorio had one of Crazy Joe's rivals for Mafia promotion Coletti, Charles Cioffi, knocked off at an Italian anti defamation rally at New York's Central Park for not keeping his big mouth shut and not drawing attention to the mobs criminal activities! Crazy Joe was in no way as crazy as a fox he was really crazy and got his name after being diagnosed by the prison doctors as suffering from sever schizophrenia which explains his actions in the movie. One of them integrating the black Harlem mob lead by his friend and former cell-mate Willy, Fred Williamson, into his at the time all white Italian gang!
This had Don Vittorio's blood boil especially when Crazy Joe invited Willy and his boys to the Don's mansion-That shocked and enraged Don Vittorio- who made a complete mess, by not showing any respect to the Don, of the place! With Crazy Joe now too big for his own bridges and completely out of control Don Vittorio ordered a hit on him and waited for his 43rd birthday, April 7, 1972, to execute it on the wild and crazy guy as well as his good friend black mob boss now known as Uncle Willy who's invited to his birthday party at the Victorio's Clam Bar in Little Italy.
P.S Crazy Joe paid the price in the saying that those who "Live by the gun die by the gun". Crazy Joe always admired Johnny Udo in the 1947 film "Kiss of Death" and styled himself after Mr. Udo in being as he always called those he hated in the film a "Big Man" or the guy in the movie-Victor Mature-who's ratting him out to the police that sent Johnny Udo up the river. In the end Crazy Joe shared the same fate as his screen idol-Johnny Udo-who unlike himself lived to face justice for the crimes that he committed.
Wanting respect as well as a place in the mob hierarchy in the end gets Crazy Joe in hot water with his boss of bosses Mafia Don Vittorio, Eli Wallach, who at first tries to placate the crazy guy by giving him control of the Brooklyn Red Hook sections mob operations that Crazy Joe and his boys come from. This is after Don Vittorio had one of Crazy Joe's rivals for Mafia promotion Coletti, Charles Cioffi, knocked off at an Italian anti defamation rally at New York's Central Park for not keeping his big mouth shut and not drawing attention to the mobs criminal activities! Crazy Joe was in no way as crazy as a fox he was really crazy and got his name after being diagnosed by the prison doctors as suffering from sever schizophrenia which explains his actions in the movie. One of them integrating the black Harlem mob lead by his friend and former cell-mate Willy, Fred Williamson, into his at the time all white Italian gang!
This had Don Vittorio's blood boil especially when Crazy Joe invited Willy and his boys to the Don's mansion-That shocked and enraged Don Vittorio- who made a complete mess, by not showing any respect to the Don, of the place! With Crazy Joe now too big for his own bridges and completely out of control Don Vittorio ordered a hit on him and waited for his 43rd birthday, April 7, 1972, to execute it on the wild and crazy guy as well as his good friend black mob boss now known as Uncle Willy who's invited to his birthday party at the Victorio's Clam Bar in Little Italy.
P.S Crazy Joe paid the price in the saying that those who "Live by the gun die by the gun". Crazy Joe always admired Johnny Udo in the 1947 film "Kiss of Death" and styled himself after Mr. Udo in being as he always called those he hated in the film a "Big Man" or the guy in the movie-Victor Mature-who's ratting him out to the police that sent Johnny Udo up the river. In the end Crazy Joe shared the same fate as his screen idol-Johnny Udo-who unlike himself lived to face justice for the crimes that he committed.