Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Feb 9th at 7p for Prizzi’s Honor at the Harvard Film Archive . Look for Dan wearing a multicolored shirt in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.
Undaunted by his advanced age or emphysema, Huston undertook a darkly comic mafia picture based on the novel by The Manchurian Candidate author Richard Condon. Patiently toying with elements of various famous gangster movies including his own Hustons unusual wandering path through the everyday lives of the Prizzi family is skillfully guided by the strangely endearing performances of Jack Nicholson as Charley Partanna the Prizzis naive hit man and Angelica Huston as his jilted former lover. When Charley falls in love with a beautiful stranger who is also in the business, he instigates a messy wave of double-crosses crossing over and back through absurdly sticky webs of organized deception. As if they operated a standard family business, Huston wryly explores the strength of their various bonds as well as the occupational hazards of their grisly vocations.