Legendary film director John Huston, the man behind The Maltese Falcon, Key Largo, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen, and Beat the Devil (all with Humphrey Bogart) had a career behind the motion picture camera that spanned more that four decades with collaborations with many of the biggest actors and actresses in Hollywood. He remained prolific throughout all those years, making films right up until his death in the summer of 1987. The last film he saw completed before his death, Prizzi’s Honor, would see him get nominated for a director Academy Award, one of fifteen nominations he would receive over the span of his career. He would hold the record for the oldest nominated director of all time until Martin Scorsese took the record in 2023 for Killers of the Flower Moon. Houston also has the distinction of directing both his father and his daughter into Oscar winning performances making his family the first ever to have three generations of Academy Award winners. After decades of movies spanning nearly every genre imaginable his second to last film ends up being a black comedy about the mafia.
Charley Partanna (Jack Nicholson) is a mafia hitman working for a New York family, the Prizzi’s, headed by Don Carrado Prizzi (William Hickey) Most of the family business is handled by the don’s two sons, Dominic (Lee Richardson) and Eduardo (Robert Loggia), as well as Charley’s father Angelo (John Randolph), the right-hand man. While attending a family wedding, Charley is instantly infatuated with a non-Italian woman he doesn’t recognize. He asks around about the woman including asking Maerose (Anjelica Huston), unaware that she still has strong feelings for him having once been his lover. Their relationship turned sour when he intentionally tried to make her jealous and she ended up running away with another man, ending their relationship and falling in disfavor with her father, Dominic.
Charley is sent to California on family business, assigned to recover a large amount of money stolen from one of the family casinos in Vegas. He kills the man involved, then discovers that the man’s wife is Irene Walker (Kathleen Turner), the woman from the wedding. She claims to be estranged from her husband, waiting for him to pass away from an obvious terminal illness, and shows Charley where he hid the money from the robbery, half of it at least. Supposedly he had help from someone unknown that took the other half. Charley believes she is being honest with him and that she had nothing to do with taking the money. The two begin a romantic relationship and eventually marry. Meanwhile Maerose travels west on her own to uncover that Irene was involved and is double-crossing the organization. This information gets her back in her father’s good graces. It also puts Charley is a bad spot as Dominic wants to put a contract out on him while Don Carrado wants to retire Dominic and install Charley in his spot on one major condition, Irene must be taken out of the picture, permanently.
While John Huston still had one other film left to make, Prizzi’s Honor would be the last one he would live to see released. As such it is fitting that it would be so highly reviewed as it is. It was not without some low level controversy, though. Casting his daughter in a key role in the film led to cries of nepotism and more than a few harsh words behind her back. She was accused of being untalented and riding on the coattails of her famous father. Fittingly she shut her nay-sayers up by winning an Oscar for this role. She was in a relationship with Jack Nicholson during this time in their lives, too, which contributed to their on-screen chemistry even though they were supposed to be estranged former lovers on screen. Their one scene where she seduces him back into bed with her is played broadly enough to emphasize this but there is an underlying feeling to it that can be quantified with the foreknowledge of their real life relationship.
It’s always a little off-putting seeing a well known actor invoking a heavy accent that is not their own. Jack Nicholson is doing just that with his New York accent. It is rare for him to put on a fake voice like this and it really calls attention to itself every time he speaks. He’s a great actor and that accent stays consistent throughout but things would have felt more natural had the decision been made not to do it in the first place. This is an Oscar nominated performance so what do I know but for me it took me out of the scenes more often than not because of just how recognizable his normal voice is. I was never convinced by that accent. I’m sure it was a perfectly believable New York accent but it came off wrong for him. It would be like having Tom Hanks doing a Boston accent. He may nail it but it would be very distracting.
This film is considered a black comedy. Honestly it’s more farcical than outright comedy. Charley is too easily convinced that Irene is innocent in her husband’s Vegas scheme. He’s also quick to jump into marriage mere weeks after having met her. Sure, he is shown to fall in love with her on first sight but he’s way too quick to turn that into marriage, especially with how high up in the ranks of the mafia he is. It is revealed early on that she is a skilled assassin known to the mob. When Dominic decides on his own to have Charley bumped off he unwittingly tries to hire Irene to do the job, unaware that she is Charley’s wife. Later, after all the cards are on the table and Charley is being offered a chance to step up into Dominic’s role, he is told he will have to kill Irene. She has foolishly set a condition that the family will pay her back for the money she stole from them and then was forced to pay back with interest. Charley calls her up, lying over the phone that the family has agreed to her demands but she can tell when she is being lied to. The final scene between the two ends violently yet feels too over-the-top to be taken too seriously.
As mafia movies go this is no The Godfather. It doesn’t need to be, though. It’s a John Huston film and thus has a bit of irreverent humor to it akin to some of the funnier moments in films like The Maltese Falcon and Key Largo. Those movies were hardly comedies but had moments that were firmly tongue-in-cheek. The humor here comes naturally, more ironic than silly, and some of it is a bit absurd but it never goes overboard. This isn’t a parody of mafia films nor is it an all out comedy. It has an inherited pessimism to it, especially in the latter third, that begins when Don Prizzi puts Irene on the spot for the money she stole and builds up steadily until she and Charley are in a room together preparing to kill each other. This is not the type of movie that will end with the two of them fleeing with each other to some far away country and living happily ever after. Such an ending would feel cheap and unearned.
John Huston has crafted a film that, while not a masterpiece, is still a darn good film for a man whose career is wrapping up. Retirement was not for him and he worked right up until he died. Prizzi’s Honor is a pessimistic look at love and honor but it has a strange energy to it that really showcases the lead actors. Kathleen Turner may not have gotten any love from the Academy but she deserved it. She is cold and calculating, able to look into Charley’s eyes and lie convincingly and without hesitation. Maybe Charley is naive and gullible or maybe he is being willful when he accepts her explanations, we’ll never really know. The film doesn’t give us enough insight into his thought processes to know for sure. He will wear his heart on his sleeve, professing his love to a woman he barely even knows, but he will also be guarded about his thoughts and mind beyond that. It’s an interesting choice for this character and makes it all the more interesting to watch. This one is another winner for the legendary director.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: John Foreman
Best Director: John Huston
Best Actor: Jack Nicholson
Best Supporting Actor: William Hickey
Best Supporting Actress: Anjelica Huston (won)
Best Screenplay - Based on Material from Another Medium: Richard Cordon and Janet Roach
Best Costume Design: Donfeld
Best Film Editing: Rudi Fehr and Kaja Fehr
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Release Date: June 14, 1985
Running Time: 129 Minutes
Rated R
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, Anjelica Huston and William Hickey
Directed By: John Huston
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