THE BROTHER HOODS

THE BROTHERHOOD (1968)
dir: Martin Ritt

THE BROTHER HOODS
MAD #129, September 1969
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Mort Drucker

A little-known gangster film when it came out. MAD would have no idea it would be so little known (i.e. a flop). In the days before home release when a film would still be in theaters several months after their lead time, they had to gamble on whether a movie would still be playing when they scheduled a parody several months in advance. They figured with a star like Kirk Douglas and a director like Martin Ritt (who'd previously done hits and MAD targets Hud, Hombre, and The Spy Who Came In From the Cold), they couldn't miss. Oh well, you can't win 'em all.

An American has flown out to Sicily. Frank Ginetta (Kirk Douglas), a Mafioso in hiding there, realizes it's a hitman with a contract out on him. That hitman is his brother Vince (Alex Cord). Frank takes him in despite knowing his brother will "paint his house". He's welcomed with wife Ida (Irene Papas). A flashback shows us how it all began.

Vince is just out of college and has just married Emma (Susan Strasberg). Her father is a crime kingpin and his brother works for the syndicate. The two brothers have a talk about what Vince plans to do now. He says that after his honeymoon he plans to join the syndicate as well.

(The corpse at the wedding refers to one of Frank's hits earlier in the movie. Stuffing one's mouth with a canary is a message gangsters in movies send to let other informants know “this is what happens to those who sing”)


His wife doesn't particularly like this but approves on the condition he doesn't tell her what he does or where the money comes from.

Frank goes to the funeral of the man he killed. He meets with the board of the syndicate later and they're not happy with his erratic behavior.

(Murray Hamilton is the name of the actor. His character is named Jim Egan.)

Frank is ordered to to take out a hit on Dominic Bertolo (Luther Adler) for bringing in outsiders to the Mafia. He doesn't want to do it, being Dominic's son-in-law, but is bound by honor. His daughter has heard about his mob ties on TV and he has to assure her (lie to her) that it's not true. Frank runs into Bertolo and invites him to lunch, butters him up, talks about old times, then whacks him when he least expects it.

Upset that he had to kill family, he escapes to Sicily. Now his brother has been ordered to do the same thing. This is where the flashback ends.


Back in the present, Frank understands his time is up and understands he must be killed to keep the family together. So before Frank goes, he throws a party for the family.

(The Sicilian food joke here is a reference to a racist joke people used to make about Chinese food: “an hour later, you're hungry again”)


Now Frankie knows he must face the music and Vince must do what he has to do, and that's how the picture ends.

But in the parody, they add a few extra panels. Vince misses and the mob in America sends another plane. It's the Italian Anti-Defamation League.

Italians were very sensitive to any portrayal of organized crime being seen as a reflection of all Italian-Americans. I remember as a kid when The Godfather was on television, there was a disclaimer between every commercial break.

In this panel are Green Bay Packers coach Vincent Lombardi, Lawrence “Yogi” Berra, Francis Albert Sinatra, Antonio Benedetto a/k/a Tony Bennett, and Dino Crocetti a/k/a Dean Martin.