Prince of the City
Encyclopedia
Prince of the City is an American crime drama film about an NYPD officer who chooses to expose police corruption for idealistic reasons. The character of Daniel Ciello (played by Treat Williams
Treat Williams
Richard Treat Williams is a Screen Actors Guild Award–nominated American actor and children's book author who has appeared on film, stage and television...

) was based on real-life NYPD Narcotics Detective Robert Leuci
Robert Leuci
Robert Leuci is a former New York City Police detective known for his work exposing corruption in the police department and the criminal justice system. Since his retirement from the NYPD he has written novels, short stories, TV episodes and a memoir of his years on the force...

 and the script was based on Robert Daley
Robert Daley
Robert Daley , is an American novelist. He is the author of 28 books, five of which have been adapted for film.Daley graduated from Fordham University in 1951 and served in the Air Force during the Korean War...

's 1978 book of the same name. The film was directed by Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet was an American director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his credit. He was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director for 12 Angry Men , Dog Day Afternoon , Network and The Verdict...

 and also featured Jerry Orbach
Jerry Orbach
Jerome Bernard "Jerry" Orbach was an American actor and singer. He was well known for his starring role as Detective Lennie Briscoe in the Law & Order television series and as the voice of Lumière in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. As well, Orbach was a noted musical theatre star...

.

Prince of the City was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, but lost to On Golden Pond
On Golden Pond (1981 film)
On Golden Pond is a 1981 American drama film directed by Mark Rydell. The screenplay by Ernest Thompson was adapted from his 1979 play of the same title. Henry Fonda won the Academy Award in what was his final film role. Co-star Katharine Hepburn also received an Oscar, as did Thompson for his...

.

Cast

  • Treat Williams
    Treat Williams
    Richard Treat Williams is a Screen Actors Guild Award–nominated American actor and children's book author who has appeared on film, stage and television...

    ... Daniel Ciello
  • Jerry Orbach
    Jerry Orbach
    Jerome Bernard "Jerry" Orbach was an American actor and singer. He was well known for his starring role as Detective Lennie Briscoe in the Law & Order television series and as the voice of Lumière in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. As well, Orbach was a noted musical theatre star...

    ... Gus Levy
  • Richard Foronjy ... Joe Marinaro
  • Don Billett ... Bill Mayo
  • Kenny Marino
    Kenny Marino
    Kenneth "Kenny" Marino was an American actor who was known to have bit roles in the 1980s.- Career :Marino first appeared in the 1981 film Prince of the City as Dom Bando...

    ... Dom Bando
  • Carmine Caridi
    Carmine Caridi
    Carmine Caridi is an American television and film actor. He has appeared in a wide variety of roles over the past 30 years. He lives in West Hollywood.- Career :...

    ... Gino Mascone
  • Tony Page ... Raf Alvarez
  • Norman Parker ... Rick Cappalino
  • Paul Roebling ... Brooks Paige
  • Bob Balaban
    Bob Balaban
    Robert Elmer "Bob" Balaban is an American actor, author and director.-Personal life:Balaban was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Eleanor and Elmer Balaban, who owned several movie theatres and later was a pioneer in cable television...

    ... Santimassino
  • James Tolkan
    James Tolkan
    James S. Tolkan is an American actor, often cast as a strict, overbearing, bald-headed authority figure.-Personal life:He was born in Calumet, Michigan, the son of Ralph M. Tolkan, a cattle dealer, and attended the University of Iowa, Coe College, the Actors Studio and Eastern Arizona College...

    ... District Attorney Polito
  • Steve Inwood ... Mario Vincente
  • Lindsay Crouse
    Lindsay Crouse
    -Early life:Crouse was born in New York City, the daughter of Anna and Russel Crouse, a playwright. Her full name—Lindsay Ann Crouse—is an intentional tribute to the Broadway writing partnership of Lindsay and Crouse. Her father and his writing partner, Howard Lindsay, wrote much of...

    ... Carla Ciello
  • Matthew Laurance ... Ronnie Ciello
  • Tony Turco ... Socks Ciello
  • Ronald Maccone ... Nick Napoli (as Ron Maccone)
  • Ron Karabatsos ... Dave DeBennedeto
  • Tony DiBenedetto ... Carl Alagretti
  • Tony Munafo ... Rocky Gazzo
  • Robert Christian ... The King
  • Lee Richardson ... Sam Heinsdorff
  • Lane Smith
    Lane Smith
    Walter Lane Smith III was an American actor. Some of his well known roles included portraying collaborator entrepreneur Nathan Bates in the NBC television series V, Mayor Bates in the film Red Dawn, newspaper editor Perry White in the ABC series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,...

    ... Tug Barnes
  • Cosmo Allegretti ... Marcel Sardino
  • Bobby Alto
    Bobby Alto
    Robert Altomare , known professionally as Bobby Alto, is an American actor, comedian and performer. He and Buddy Mantia made up the Brooklyn-based comedy team Alto & Mantia...

    ... Mr. Kanter
  • Michael Beckett ... Michael Blomberg
  • Burton Collins ... Monty
  • Henry Ferrentino ... Older Virginia Guard
  • Carmine Foresta ... Ernie Fallacci
  • Conard Fowkes
    Conard Fowkes
    Conard Fowkes was an American actor. He is most known for his roles in various soap operas. He appeared in Dark Shadows, As the World Turns and The Edge of Night....

    ... Elroy Pendleton


  • Peter Friedman
    Peter Friedman
    Peter Friedman is an American stage, film and television actor.Born in New York City, Friedman graduated from Hofstra University before making his Broadway debut in The Great God Brown in 1972...

    ... D.A. Goldman
  • Peter Michael Goetz
    Peter Michael Goetz
    Peter Michael Goetz is an American actor.Goetz was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of Esther L. and Irving A. Goetz, a construction engineer. Goetz studied at the State University of New York at Fredonia, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and the University of Minnesota, from which he...

    ... Attorney Charles Deluth
  • Lance Henriksen
    Lance Henriksen
    Lance James Henriksen is an American actor and artist best known to film and television audiences for his roles in science fiction, action, and horror films such as the Alien film franchise, and on television shows such as Millennium....

    ... D.A. Burano
  • Eddie Jones
    Eddie Jones (actor)
    Eddie Jones is an American actor known for playing Clark Kent's father Jonathan Kent in the ABC television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and Charles Broden Eddie Jones (born 1937 Washington, Pennsylvania) is an American actor known for playing Clark Kent's father Jonathan...

    ... Ned Chippy
  • Don Leslie ... D.A. D'Amato

  • Dana Lorge ... Ann Mascone
  • Harry Madsen ... Bubba Harris
  • E.D. Miller ... Sergeant Edelman
  • Cynthia Nixon
    Cynthia Nixon
    Cynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City . She has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award....

    ... Jeannie
  • Ron Perkins ... Virginia Trooper

  • Lionel Pina ... Sancho
  • José Angel Santana ... José (as José Santana)

  • Walter Brooke
    Walter Brooke
    Walter Brooke was an American actor. Brooke is best known for playing Mr. McGuire in The Graduate, where he said his famous line, "Plastics"....

    ... Judge (uncredited)
  • Alan King
    Alan King (comedian)
    Alan King was an American actor and comedian known for his biting wit and often angry humorous rants. King became well known as a Jewish comedian and satirist. He was also a serious actor who appeared in a number of movies and television shows. King wrote several books, produced films, and...

    ... Himself (uncredited)
  • Ilana Rapp ... Beach Player (uncredited)


Production

When producer and screenwriter Jay Presson Allen
Jay Presson Allen
Jay Presson Allen was an American screenwriter, playwright, stage director, television producer and novelist. Known for her withering wit and sometimes-off-color wisecracks, she was one of the few women making a living as a screenwriter at a time when women were a rarity in the profession...

 read Robert Daley
Robert Daley
Robert Daley , is an American novelist. He is the author of 28 books, five of which have been adapted for film.Daley graduated from Fordham University in 1951 and served in the Air Force during the Korean War...

's book, Prince of the City (1978), she was convinced it was an ideal Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet was an American director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his credit. He was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director for 12 Angry Men , Dog Day Afternoon , Network and The Verdict...

 project, but the film rights had already been sold to Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures Corporation was an American independent production company that produced movies from 1978 until 1998. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former top-level executives of United Artists. Although it was never a large motion picture producer, Orion...

 for Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...

 and David Rabe. Allen let it be known that if that deal should fall through, then she wanted the picture for Sidney. Just as Lumet was about to sign for a different picture, they got the call that Prince of the City was theirs. Allen hadn't wanted to write Prince of the City; just produce it. She was put off by the book's non-linear story structure, but Lumet wouldn't make the picture without her, and agreed to write the outline for her. Lumet and Allen went over the book and agreed on what they could use and what they could do without. To her horror, Lumet would come in every day for weeks and scribble on legal pads. She was terrified that she would have to tell him that his stuff was unusable, but to her delight the outline was wonderful and she went to work. It was her first project with living subjects, and Allen interviewed nearly everyone in the book and had endless hours of Bob Leuci’s tapes for back-up. With all her research and Lumet's outline, she eventually turned out a 365-page script in 10 days. It was nearly impossible to sell the studio on a three-hour picture, but by offering to slash the budget to $10 million they agreed. (When asked if the original author ever has anything to say about how their book is treated, Allen replied: "Not if I can help it. You cannot open that can of worms. You sell your book, you go to the bank, you shut up.")

Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures Corporation was an American independent production company that produced movies from 1978 until 1998. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former top-level executives of United Artists. Although it was never a large motion picture producer, Orion...

 had bought Daley's book for $500,000 in 1978. Daley was a former New York Deputy Police Commissioner for Public Affairs who wrote about Robert Leuci
Robert Leuci
Robert Leuci is a former New York City Police detective known for his work exposing corruption in the police department and the criminal justice system. Since his retirement from the NYPD he has written novels, short stories, TV episodes and a memoir of his years on the force...

, an NYPD detective whose testimony and secret tape recordings helped indict 52 members of the Special Investigation Unit and convict them of income tax evasion. Originally, Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...

 was going to direct with David Rabe adapting the book and Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...

 playing Leuci but the project fell through. Sidney Lumet came aboard to direct under two conditions: he did not want a big name movie star playing Leuci because he did not "want to spend two reels getting over past associations," and the movie's running time would be at least three hours long. Lumet cast Treat Williams after spending three weeks talking to him and listening to the actor read the script and then reading it again with 50 other cast members. In order to research the role, the actor spent a month learning about police work, hung out at 23rd Precinct in New York City, went on a drug bust and lived with Leuci for some time. By the time rehearsals started, Williams said, "I was thinking like a cop." Lumet felt guilty about the two-dimensional way he had treated cops in the 1973 film Serpico
Serpico
Serpico is a 1973 American crime film directed by Sidney Lumet. It is based on the true story of New York City policeman Frank Serpico, who went undercover to expose the corruption of his fellow officers, after being pushed to the brink at first by their distrust and later by the threats and...

and said that Prince of the City was his way to rectify this depiction. He and Jay Presson Allen wrote a 240-page script in 30 days. The film was budgeted at $10 million but the director was able to bring it in for under $8.6 million.

Distribution

Orion decided to open the film initially in select theaters in order to allow good reviews and word-of-mouth to build. They were unable to buy television advertising because of the cost and relied heavily on print ads, including an unusual three-page spread in the New York Times.

Reaction

The film was considered authentic enough by the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...

 that he called Lumet for a copy of the movie for the DEA training program. Some law enforcement officials, however, criticized the film for glamorizing Leuci and other corrupt detectives while portraying most of the prosecutors who uncovered the crimes negatively. John Guido, Chief of Inspectional Services said, "The corrupt guys are the only good guys in the film." Nicholas Scoppetta, the Special Prosecutor who helped convince Leuci to go undercover against his fellow officers, said, "In the film, it seems to be the prosecutors who are disregarding the issue of where real justice lies and the prosecutors seem to be as bad or worse than the corrupt police." In fact, only two of the five prosecutors the film focuses on were portrayed negatively. In particular District Attorney Polito, played by James Tolkan, is shown as petty and vindictive. The character is based on Thomas P. Puccio, the assistant United States Attorney in charge of the Federal Organized Crime Strike Force in Brooklyn, and Robert Daley agrees that he was treated unfairly in the screenplay.

Interestingly, one of the prosecutors who befriended the Ciello character and is shown in a very positive light was based on then rookie federal prosecutor Rudolf Guiliani. The character, Mario Vincente, played by Steve Inwood, is portrayed as threatening to resign if the U.S. Attorney's office indicts Ciello (Leuci) for past transgressions. In general, the prosecutors who argued against the prosecution of Leuci are treated sympathetically, while those who sought his indictment are shown as officious and vindictive.

The initial release of Prince of the City garnered both positive and negative reviews, some the latter complaining of what was considered its excessive length. The film was not commercially successful in its theatrical release. The film currently (December 2010) scores a 94% (among 16 reviews) on the review aggregator
Review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services . This system stores the reviews and then uses them for purposes such as: creating a website for users to view the reviews, selling information to third parties about consumer tendencies and creating databases for...

 Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

.

Other sources

  • Prince of the City: The Real Story (2006), 30-minute featurette
    Featurette
    Featurette is a term used in the American film industry to designate a film whose length is approximately three quarters of a reel, or about 20–44 minutes in running time - thus midway between a short subject and a feature film; thus it is a "small feature"...

    on the main film's DVD

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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