Cosa Nostra (Retro Film)

“EVEN BETTER THAN THE GODFATHER” NBC TV

“BRONSON IS DOING THE ROLE OF HIS LIFE” Boston Globe

DIGITALLY RESTORED

In 1923, young Joe Valachi serves his first prison sentence for a minor crime. Forty years later, the entire United States witnesses him in front of television cameras as he becomes the voluntary target of a sensational Senate hearing in Washington. The intervening years are filled with extortion, drug smuggling, cold-blooded murders and membership in a mafia syndicate with roots in Sicily, still unknown to the public – Cosa Nostra…

Peter Maas's book about Joe Valachi became an international bestseller in 1968. However, no Hollywood company dared to touch it for fear of reprisals from the mafia. Instead, it was the Italian major producer Dino de Laurentiis and the British director Terence Young (who made three of the first four Bond films) who took the courage. However, they did not escape threats and sabotage from the mafia, which meant that filming in New York had to be interrupted and moved to Rome. Charles Bronson gives his strongest performance here and was awarded the Golden Globe award that same year for "World Film Favorite".

BONUS MATERIAL * VALACHI: THE VIOLENT ERA. Short documentary, including clips from the real Senate hearings * BEHIND THE CAMERA CLIPS * ORIGINAL TRAILERS * TV COMMERCIALS * RADIO COMMERCIALS * IMAGE GALLERY