Netflix Releases Trailer For Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Irishman’ & The South Philly Connection

Netflix has released a trailer for its much-anticipated Martin Scorsese film, The Irishman, staring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino, Harvey Keitel and a host of other fine actors.

The film, which will have a limited run in movie theaters (to be eligible for Oscar Awards) is based a supposedly true crime book called I Heard You Paint Houses, by the late Frank Sheeran, a Philadelphia hit man and Teamster official, and Charles Brant. 

You can watch the trailer, which features the technical “de-aging” of the actors, via the below link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaQ6tHK4yq8 

There is a South Philly connection to this story, as Sheeran is from Philadelphia and he received his first murder contract in South Philly from Philadelphia Cosa Nostra boss Angelo Bruno. 

De Niro portrays Sheeran, Al Pacino portrays former Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa, Joe Pesci portrays Pennsylvania Cosa Nostra boss Russell Bufalino, Harvey Keitel portrays Angelo Bruno and Bobby Cannavale portrays South Philly Cosa Nostra captain “Skinny Razor” DiTullio.

I look forward to watching the film, as I’m a huge fan of Scorsese’s crime classics, such as Goodfellas, Casino and Mean Streets, but I’ll consider the film to be a largely fictional story, as I doubt that much of what Sheeran told Brant was true. 

I don’t believe he killed Hoffa. I don’t believe he killed Crazy Joe Gallo. And I don’t believe his involvement in President Kennedy’s murder or that he had any real knowledge of a bribery scheme between President Nixon and Hoffa. 

I interviewed former Philadelphia Cosa Nostra boss and federal cooperating witness Ralph Natale, and he said Sheeran didn’t kill Hoffa and he didn't kill Galo, as he was in Prison with two of Gallo's three killers. I confirmed the names of the killers with former law enforcement officers. 

You can read my Crime Beat column on the Frank Sheeran book via the below link:

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2009/05/i-heard-you-paint-houses-man-who.html 

And you can read my Q&A with Ralph Natale via the below link:

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2017/04/my-crime-beat-column-my-q-with-ralph.html 

On This Day In History 'Goodfellas' Opened in Movie Theaters

As History.com notes, on this day in 1990 Martin Scorsese’s classic crime film Goodfellas opened in movie theaters.  

On this day in 1990, the Martin Scorsese-directed Mafia film Goodfellas, starring Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Lorraine Bracco and Joe Pesci, opens in theaters around the United States. The movie, which was based on the best-selling 1986 book Wiseguy, by the New York crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi, tells the true story of the mobster-turned-FBI informant Henry Hill (Liotta), from the 1950s to the 1980s. Goodfellas earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Pesci won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as the psychotic mobster Tommy DeVito.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/goodfellas-opens?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2017-0919-09192017&om_rid=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa&om_mid=241948734&kx_EmailCampaignID=14690&kx_EmailCampaignName=email-hist-tdih-2017-0919-09192017&kx_EmailRecipientID=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa 

My Crime Beat Column: A look Back At The Trial Of The Chicago 'Outfit' And The Deadly Family Secrets That Exposed Chicago Organized Crime

In Martin Scorsese’s classic crime film Casino, actor Joe Pesci plays a vicious mob enforcer and hitman in Las Vegas who reports to the “bosses back home,” as Pesci’s character describes them in the film’s voice-over narration.

The bosses are portrayed in the film as a group of elderly and infirm men who hang around eating, playing cards and collecting money from their criminal underlings.

Pesci’s character, based on a very real gangster named Anthony Spilotro (seen in the above photo), is brutally murdered, along with his brother Michael, in a mid-west cornfield in the film. Their murder, along with several other murders, were ordered by the bosses back home. 

"Back home" is Chicago, home of the criminal organization known as the “Outfit.”

Family Secrets: The Case That Crippled the Chicago Mob covers the Spilotro murders and much more in this revealing look at organized crime. The book, written by Chicago Tribune reporter Jeff Coen, covers the trial of the Outfit bosses in 2007.

“The scale of the case was unprecedented, for the first time naming the Chicago Outfit itself as a criminal enterprise under federal anti-racketeer laws and alleging a conspiracy that was born with Al Capone and flourished from the 1960s forward,” Coen wrote in his book. “The case included fourteen defendants, eighteen murders, and decades of bookmaking, loan sharking, extortion and violence.”

The investigation of the Outfit began in 1998 when the FBI received a letter from Frank Calabrese Jr., son of one of the Outfit’s most violent bosses, Frank Calabrese Sr (seen in the above photo).

Due to a sour relationship with his father, the son told the FBI that he was willing to wear a wire and gather evidence against his father while they were incarcerated together. The father enjoyed explaining how the Outfit worked to his son. He also allowed his son to observe how he conducted business from the prison yard.

The FBI was later able to turn Nicholas Calabrese, a hitman for his brother Frank Calabrese Sr., into the key witness against the Outfit bosses.

The FBI called the seven-year investigation “Operation Family Secrets.” According to the FBI, the list of those charged read like a “Who’s Who” of the Chicago mob.

After several mobsters pleaded guilty, the remaining five defendants were Frank Calabrese Sr., James “Jimmy Light” Marcello, the reputed boss of the outfit, Joey “the Clown” Lombardo, a tough, old school mob boss, Anthony “Twan” Doyle, a former Chicago police officer accused of leaking information to Frank Calabrese Sr., and Paul “the Indian” Schiro, an outfit enforcer.

In September of 2007 the jury convicted the five men on broad conspiracy charges.

Jeff Coen does a fine job covering the trial and he offers vivid descriptions of the defendants, the witnesses and the victims. He also offers a good portrait of the defense attorneys and the prosecutors, who were as colorful as the gangsters.

Reading this book makes you feel as if you are sitting in the courtroom. This is a very good true crime book.

Note: The above column originally appeared at GreatHistory.com in 2009.                    

The Vicious Real-Life Gangsters Behind Martin Scorsese's Chilling Mega-Budget Movie 'The Irishman'

Danya Bazaraa at the British newspaper the Mirror offers a short piece and some interesting old photos of the late Frank Sheeran (seen in the above photo), a Philadelphia mob murderer and the subject of Martin Scorsese's upcoming film, The Irishman.  

The much anticipated film is based on I Heard You Paint Houses, by Sheeran and Charles Brandt, and.will star Robert De Niro as Sheeran and Joe Pesci, Al Pacino and Harvey Keitel will also appear in the film.

You can read the piece and check out the old photos via the below link:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/meet-vicious-real-life-gangsters-9985023

You can also read my Crime Beat column on Frank Sheeran via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2009/05/i-heard-you-paint-houses-man-who.html

And you can read my piece on the South Philly connection to the story via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2016/05/scorsese-assembles-hollywood-dream-team.html

Joe Pesci’s 10 Most Brutal Movie Scenes As The Mob Actor Turns 73, From 'Goodfellas' To 'Home Alone' (Warning — Graphic content) Now Go Get Your Shine Box

Yesterday was actor Joe Pesci's birthday and to celebrate the day, Mark Emery at the New York Daily News offers a piece on the actor and presents 10 of his most brutal movie scenes.

Few can dish it — and take it — like Joe Pesci. 

The short actor with an even shorter fuse became famous for playing ruthless mobsters eager to inflict pain, and often their propensity for violence catches up to them — sometimes in savage fashion.

With Pesci turning 73 on Tuesday, here are his 10 most brutal movie scenes:

You can read the rest of the piece and watch the video clips via the below link:

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/joe-pesci-10-brutal-movie-scenes-actor-turns-73-article-1.2525617

On This Day In History: 1990 - Classic Crime Film 'Goodfellas' Opens

As History.com notes, on this day in 1990, Martin Scorsese's classic crime film Goodfellas opened in theaters.

On this day in 1990, the Martin Scorsese-directed Mafia film Goodfellas, starring Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Lorraine Bracco and Joe Pesci, opens in theaters around the United States. The movie, which was based on the best-selling 1986 book Wiseguy, by the New York crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi, tells the true story of the mobster-turned-FBI informant Henry Hill (Liotta), from the 1950s to the 1980s. Goodfellas earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Pesci won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as the psychotic mobster Tommy DeVito.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/goodfellas-opens?et_cid=80959384&et_rid=1227406676&linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.history.com%2fthis-day-in-history%2fgoodfellas-opens 

New Book Reveals John Gotti's Role In 'Goodfellas' Murder

Bill Sanderson at the New York Post reports on the claims in a new book about New York gangster John Gotti's involvement in the murder featured in Martin Scorsese's classic crime film, Goodfellas.

It was time for Tommy ­DeSimone to die.

The mobster — famously portrayed by Joe Pesci in “Goodfellas” — killed two made men, tried to rape the wife of his gangster pal Henry Hill and stupidly lifted his ski mask during 1978’s historic $6 million Lufthansa heist.

So John Gotti took care of it — personally.

The handsome capo used a silencer-equipped Colt .38 to shoot DeSimone three times in the skull in January 1979 in the basement of an Italian restaurant on Arthur Avenue in The Bronx, says an upcoming book, “The Lufthansa Heist,” written by Hill and journalist Daniel Simone.

It’s the first time the details of Gotti’s role in the death of the 28-year-old psychopath have been revealed.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://nypost.com/2015/07/12/new-book-reveals-john-gottis-role-in-goodfellas-murder/ 

Rodney Dangerfield On Johnny Carson, Cracking Jokes And Promoting His Film 'Easy Money'

Below is a link to a video clip of one of my favorite comedians, Rodney Dangerfield, cracking some great jokes and promoting his film Easy Money on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=738VLg7JJ2k

Note: Although he is not in the above clip, Joe Pesci appears in Easy Money and he is nearly as funny as Rodney Dangefield.

We Took Care Of That Thing For Ya: As 'Goodfellas' Turns 25, Here Are 25 Things You Never Knew About Martin Scorsese's Mobster Flick

In celebration of the finest and most realistic crime film ever made, Rachel Maresca and Philip Caulfield at the New York Daily News made a list of 25 things you may not know about Godfellas.

We took care of that thing for ya.

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of "Goodfellas" this year, the Daily News has compiled a list of 25 things every movie nut should know about the classic gangster flick, which is being honored on the closing night of The Tribeca Film Festival Saturday.

To celebrate, the cast of the Martin Scorsese movie will reunite and participate in a sit-down conversation hosted by Jon Stewart.

The violent, profane and often funny film, based on Nicholas Pileggi's book "Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family," featured several cameos by the story's real-life characters, and is revered by movie fans for its colorful dialogue and memorable lines.

Now go home and get your shinebox . . .

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/25-didn-goodfellas-article-1.2194719

You can also read an earlier post on the making of Goodfellas via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2015/04/25th-anniversary-of-martin-scorseses.html

25th Anniversary of Martin Scorsese's 'Goodfellas': 21 Facts You May Not Know About The Classic Crime Film

I believe that Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas is the greatest crime film ever made. Based on a true story, it is the most realistic film made about organized crime. 

Cory Mahoney at hollywood.com offers 21 facts you may not know about the classic crime film.

How well do you know the iconic gangster movie?

1. Real-life gangster Henry Hill, whose story inspired the book Wiseguy that inspired the film, had said that Joe Pesci's performance was a 90-99% accurate portrayal of Tommy DeSimone.

The difference? The real DeSimone was a massively built, strapping man. Joe Pesci? Not so much.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.hollywood.com/news/movies/60015767/goodfellas-movie-facts-you-didn-t-know

You can also read my Crime Beat column, Goodfellas Don't Sue Goodfellas, via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2011/09/goodfellas-dont-sue-goodfellas-look.html

And you can read my Crime Beat column on Martin Scorsese's world of crime via the below link: 

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2010/11/happy-birthday-to-martin-scorsese.html

Funny, How? I Amuse You, Like A Clown? Happy 71st Birthday To Actor Joe Pesci

As Biography.com notes, today is the birthday of one my favorite actors, Joe Pesci. He appeared in several of Martin Scorsese's classic crime films, including Raging Bull, Goodfellas and Casino. He also appeared in comedy films such as Easy Money and My Cousin Vinny.

Joe Pesci was born February 9, 1943 in Newark, New Jersey. After Robert De Niro saw Pesci's performance in The Death Collector, he brought the film to the attention of director Martin Scorsese, who cast Joe Pesci in his 1980 masterpiece Raging Bull. This was the beginning of a long line of supporting roles for Pesci, who soon became one of the busiest character actors in the business.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.biography.com/people/joe-pesci-9542518

You can also read an earlier post on Joe Pesci via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/09/funny-how-i-amuse-you-like-clown.html   

Funny How? I Amuse You, Like A Clown?: The Funniest-Scariest Scene In 'Goodfellas'

John Semley at Esquire offers a piece on the funniest-scariest scene in the classic crime film Goodfellas.

Take Joe Pesci's hot-head mobster, Tommy DeVito. After cracking up a table of career criminals with a violent anecdote, Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) tells him he's "a funny guy." The mood immediately drops. Tommy begins interrogating his friend about the comment. "Like a clown? Like I make you laugh? How am I funny?" Scorsese invites the viewer to enjoy his character's good humor, then, on a dime, shifts to tense throat-in-the-chest anxiety — and back again. In one scene, Scorsese demonstrates how totally seductive a sharpened sense of humor can be, and how we so often use our appreciation of that quality to skate over the larger fissures in a character's personality.

You can read the piece and watch a clip of the Martin Scorsese film via the below link:

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/goodfellas-scene-0913

In one of my Crime Beat columns, Goddfellas Don't Sue Goddfellas, I noted that I grew up in South Philly with guys like the Joe Pesci character.

Over the years I've heard from a number of law enforcement officials who complain that The Godfather and the other mob books and movies glamorize crime. When I was a producer and on-air host on Inside Government, a public affairs radio program that aired on WPEN AM and WMGK FM on Sunday mornings a few years ago, I interviewed the assistant U.S. attorney in charge of organized crime in the Philadelphia area

He did not agree with my assessment of Goodfellas, which I said was the most realistic film portrayal of organized crime. He felt that audiences liked the actor Joe Pesci in the film because he was funny and charming, but they failed to realize that he and the other criminals in the film were vicious and murderous.

I countered by saying that I’ve found some of the real mob guys to be funny, charming and even generous. And I’ve also seen them quickly turn vicious, cold and heartless – just as Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro portrayed them on the screen. They can be good friends and good company - unless you owe them money or you have something they want. Serial killers and con artists have also been known to be quite charming.

 You can read the rest of my column via the below lnk:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2011/09/goodfellas-dont-sue-goodfellas-look.html

Note: I read somewhere that Joe Pesci suggested the scene to director Martin Scorsese, as he was on the other end of this kind of situation when he worked in a restaurant and he told a real goodfella that he thought the guy was funny. The mob guy responded like the character Pesci portrays in Goodfellas. 

Take The Lead: Encore's 'The Take' Is A Four-Star TV Crime Series

Linda Stasi at the New York Post rates the new crime series on cable a four-star series.

If you missed the first episode of Encore’s original miniseries, “The Take,” then be sure to order it up on OnDemand before you watch tonight’s knock-you-on-your-butt two-part episode.

The series from Martina Cole’s best-selling crime thriller centers around an East End London crime family in the 1980s and it’s every bit as good as “The Sopranos” was in its prime — which was all the time.

You can read the rest of Linda Stasi's piece via the below link:

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/tv/take_the_lead_01il9DYFAR9yWsX5dpbrkN

I saw the first episode of The Take and I liked it. I plan to catch the second episode tonight, or I'll catch it later Comcast's On Demand.

Linda Stasi compared the British crime series to The Sopranos, but although Goodfellas was a film, not a TV series, I see The Take as more of a British version of Martin Scorsese's great crime film.

Tom Hardy (seen in the above photo) portrays a half-crazed British hood similar to Joe Pesci's wild and violent character Tommy in Goodfellas. I also liked Brian Cox as the crime boss. The character is like a British Paulie, the mob captain portrayed by Paul Sorvino in Goodfellas.

I look forward to watching the rest of this excellent crime series.

Behind the Scenes on the Making of Martin Scorsese's Classic Crime Film, Goodfellas

As this month is the 20th anniversary of Goodfellas, perhaps the finest crime film ever made, GQ magazine offered an assortment of comments from the actors and film makers involved in producing this classic film.

You can read the piece via the below link:

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/movies-and-tv/201010/goodfellas-making-of-behind-the-scenes-interview-scorsese-deniro?printable=true

The above Joe Pesci photo is from GQ.

Scorsese, De Niro, and Possibly Pesci and Pacino, in New Mob Movie "The Irishman"

The online publication Deadline.com, along with many other Internet sites, reports that Joe Pesci and Al Pacino are signing on to the upcoming Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro film The Irishman.

The film is based on the life of Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran, a mob hit man who confessed to murdering union boss Jimmy Hoffa and many other people. His lawyer, Charles Brant, heard Sheeran's "confessions" and wrote I Heard You Paint Houses.

De Niro, who is half-Irish, is set to portray Sheeran, a Philadelphia native, and I'd like to see Pesci portray Jimmy Hoffa. Pacino could portray several mobsters from that era.

You can read the Deadline.com piece via the below link:

http://www.deadline.com/2010/09/old-and-new-goodfellas-gathering/

You can also read my GreatHistory.com piece on Sheeran via the below link:

*

http://greathistory.com/i-heard-you-paint-houses-the-man-who-claimed-to-murder-jimmy-hoffa.htm

*

My Crime Beat Column: The Outfit's Family Secrets, The Case That Crippled the Chicago Mob

In Martin Scorsese's great crime film Casino Joe Pesci plays a vicious mob enforcer and hit man in Las Vegas who reports to the bosses "back home," as Pesci's character describes them in the film's voice-over narration.

 

The bosses are portrayed in the film as a group of elderly and infirm men who hang around eating, playing cards and collecting money from their criminal underlings.

 

Pesci's character, based on on a very real gangster named Anthony "Tony Ant" Spilotro, is brutally murdered, along with his brother Michael, in a mid-west cornfield in the film. Their murder, along with several other murders, were ordered by the bosses back home.

Back home is Chicago, home of the criminal organization known as "the Outfit."

 

Family Secrets: The Case That Crippled the Chicago Mob (Chicago Review Press) covers the Spilotro murders and much more in this revealing look at organized crime. The book, written by  Chicago Tribune reporter Jeff Coen, covers the trial of the outfit bosses in 2007.

 

"The scale of the case was unprecedented, for the first time naming the Chicago Outfit itself as a criminal enterprise under federal anti-racketeering laws and alleging a conspiracy that was born with Al Capone and flourished from the 1960s forward," Coen wrote in the book. "The case included fourteen defendants, eighteen murders and decades of bookmaking, loan sharking, extortion and violence."

 

The investigation of the Outfit began in 1998 when the FBI received a letter from Frank Calabrese, Jr., son of one of the Outfit's most violent bosses, Frank Calabrese, Sr.

 

Due to a sour relationship with his father, the son told the FBI that he was willing to wear a wire and gather evidence against his father while they were incarcerated together. The father enjoyed explaining how the Outfit worked to his son. He also allowed his son to observe how he conducted business from the prison yard.

 

The FBI was later able to turn Nicholas Calabrese, a hit man for his brother Frank Calabrese, Sr., into a key witness against the Outfit bosses.

 

The FBI called the seven-year investigation "Operation Family Secrets." According to the FBI, the list of those charged read like a "Who's Who" of the Chicago mob.

 

After several mobsters pleaded guilty, the remaining five defendants were Frank Calabrese, Sr., James "Jimmy Light" Marcello, the reputed boss of the Outfit, Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, a tough, old-school mob boss, Anthony "Twan" Doyle, a former Chicago police officer accused of leaking information to Frank Calabrese, Sr., and Outfit enforcer Paul "the Indian' Schiro.

 

In September of 2007 the jury convicted the five men on broad conspiracy charges.

 

Jeff Coen does a fine job of covering the trial and he offers vivid descriptions of the defendants, the witnesses and the prosecutors, who are as colorful as the gangsters.

 

Reading the book makes you feel like you are sitting in the courtroom. This is a very good true crime book.

 

Note: The above column originally appeared at Greathistory.com.