Just so...so bad

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

****SPOILERS**** With on the lamb mobster Rudy Hamberg, Eddie Constantine, to be extradited to the US from Marseilles France to testify at the Congressional Crime Hearing against the mob it's decided to knock him off before he ever leaves the country. With top mob hit-man Schaft, Henry Silva, set to do the hit on Rudy all of a sudden retired mod hit-man now working as a counter man at the famed Katz's Delicatessen in the Lower East Side of Manhattan Phil, Jack Klugman, want's a shot at him too. And not just for the $50,000.00 he's to get for doing the job. It was, as he explained it, Phil's 16 year old sister Mandy whom Rudy knocked up which ended up her being institutionalized for life that Phil want's to avenge. In not just Rudy taking away her honor and virginity but her life,in having a normal one, as well.At first friction develops between Schaft & Phil in how just to do Rudy in whit Phil wanting to do it slow and painful and with Schaft wanting to do it quick and painless with a bullet between the eyes. It soon comes out that Phil has other ideas in what he plans to do with Rudy that's not part of the job designation he's been given by his mob higher ups. Which Schaft who up until the very end is totally unaware of.****SPOILERS**** Mind blowing surprise ending with the hit on Rudy not exactly as it was planned to be. That's with Phil doing his own thing at his partner Schaft's expense. Even though Phil planned it to perfection the job he was assigned and secretly planned to screw up didn't quit end up perfect. It was when Phil's emotions got in the way of his plan that it went haywire and fell apart. And the person he was out to save ended up dead together with his killer.P.S Mostly unknown at the time the movie was to make both Henry Silva and Jack Klugman go on the bigger and better roles mostly on TV. But it was their work or acting in "Hail, Mafia" that showed the hidden talent, that was soon to be discovered, that made then as successful as they were to become.

Very very good mob movie with Eddie Constantine the target of his former mob brothers. They want the retired gangster silenced so that there is no chance that he will come back from France to talk to the Senate committee on organized crime. To that end the mob sends two hit men (Henry Silva and Jack Klugman) to Europe to hunt down Constantine.More a drama then a "crime" film (with the action that implies) the movie really is about the relationship between the two hit men as they inter act on the hunt for their target. The performances of both Silva and Klugmen are excellent and its clear that Silva was a much better actor then his later supporting roles suggested. Equally good, and a revelation to people who only know him from the Odd Couple or Quincy, is Jack Klugman. Its a shame that Klugman kind of got lost in the TV series rut since he is clearly capable of a performances that are more complex than what a TV series require. The pairing of the two vastly under rated actors make for a superior drama that has been unfairly lost over the years. Hopefully a somewhere down the road someone will rescue this film and give it some sort of revival.This is one to search out.

Writer-director-producer Raoul Levy hit a home run with this moody, intelligent, very-well acted crime film. On the surface, the plot seems simple--mafia soldiers Henry Silva and Jack Klugman are on an assignment to kill a former mafia guy played by Eddie Constantine. But the story--and most of the film--is really about the relationship between Henry Silva's and Jack Klugman's characters, and both give brilliant performances. I would never have thought of this pair of actors together, but as well as I know each of their works, I saw only the two characters, real people, not the actors. Eddie Constantine is not in the film all that much--it's Klugman and Silva's movie. Raoul Levy is probably best known here in the US as the producer of five Bridget Bardot films and of the underrated THE DEFECTOR, the last movie of Montgomery Clift. The washed-out monochrome photography by Raoul Coutard, the brilliant jazz score by Hubert Rostaing, and Levy's intelligent, literate script all come together in a powerful film that will pack an unexpected wallop for those expecting just another euro-crime film. No wonder Henry Silva's european career took off right after this film. The existential plot could easily have been from a spaghetti western or a samurai film, and anyone who has ever considered those genres (and the euro-crime film) as metaphors for life and society should find a copy of this film as soon as possible. For me, one of the five best European-made crime films of the 1960's, and I've seen hundreds of them.

Henry Silva and Jack Klugman are hit men sent to France to kill Eddie Constantine. The two spend time on the road getting to know each other and their very different styles of life. Silva is a meticulous person with very definite ideas about his approach to his profession while Klugman is more easy going and less philosophical. This small movie boasts not only the talents of the principal actors but also high-contrast black and white photography that gives it a very new wave film noir look as the boys in their black suits and skinny ties wander around in the Paris night. The French countryside is captured in washed out tones that emphasize how far out of the water these two fish are at the moment. The jazz score for the film is excellent small combo stuff that perfectly matches the stark images. There's also a couple of nice twists in the plot and a dandy downbeat ending. This is a genuine undiscovered gem and you won't be sorry you took a chance on it.