The Valachi Papers

The Valachi Papers is a 1972 crime neo noir directed by Terence Young. It is an adaptation of the 1968 non-fiction book of the same name by Peter Maas, with a screenplay by Stephen Geller. It tells the story of Joseph Valachi, a Mafia informant in the early 1960s who was the first ever mafioso to acknowledge the organization's existence. The film stars Charles Bronson as Valachi and Lino Ventura as crime boss Vito Genovese, with Jill Ireland, Walter Chiari, Joseph Wiseman, Gerald S. O'Loughlin, Guido Leontini, Amedeo Nazzari, Fausto Tozzi, Pupella Maggio, and Angelo Infanti. Plot Joseph Valachi is an aging prisoner in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, who was imprisoned for smuggling heroin. The boss of his crime family, Vito Genovese, is imprisoned there as well. Genovese is certain that Valachi is an informant, and gives him the "kiss of death," whereupon Valachi kisses him back. Valachi is also the recipient of an attempted attack in the shower days before, which might have been caused by Genovese. Valachi mistakenly kills a fellow prisoner, Joseph Saupp, who he wrongly thinks is a mob assassin. Told of the mistake by federal agent Ryan, Valachi becomes an informant, and is then transferred to Quantico to begin telling Ryan all that he knows. He tells his life story in flashbacks, from when he was a young criminal to a gangster associating with bosses such as Salvatore Maranzano. Maranzano initiates Valachi into the Mafia, and then assigns Gaetano Renia to be Valachi's boss. Valachi serves Renia well until the day that Renia is murdered in a drive-by shooting during the Castellammarese War, forcing Valachi to hide out at Renia's house, where he meets and falls in love with Renia's daughter, Maria. At the funeral for Renia, Maranzano consoles Renia's widow by saying "I cannot bring back the dead. I can only kill the living." After the funeral, Joe Masseria--Renia's murderer--is himself killed by 'Lucky' Luciano. Valachi then marries Maria after getting the blessing to do so by her mother. Valachi's rise in the Mafia is hampered by his poor relations with his capo, Tony Bender. Bender orders the castration of Valachi's business partner, Dominick 'The Gap' Petrilli for having relations with Genovese's wife. Valachi shoots the victim to put him out of his misery.