Killers by day become lovers by night

Press, 20 February 1986, Page 10

Killers by day become lovers by night

"Prizzi’s Honour,” John Huston’s black comedy about two Mafia killers who fall in love, starts at the Savoy Two tomorrow. The film has made just about every critic’s list as one of the 10 best from last year, and is nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Director, Best Actor (Jack Nicholson) and Best Supporting Actress (Anjelica Huston). It has already won four Golden Globe awards.

Charley Partanna (Nicholson) is an enforcer for the Prizzis, one of the richest crime syndicate families in the United States. Irene Walker (Kathleen Turner) is a free-lance killer secretly hired by the Prizzis to eliminate someone who betrayed them.

Charley doesn’t know about Irene until after he has lost his heart. She knows who he is, but she doesn’t . know about Maerose Prizzi (Huston), the beautiful grand-daugh-ter of the don, who is still in love with Charley.

Huston came across the galleys of Richard Condon’s best-selling book in his library in 1984. “I thought it was wonderful motion, picture material, and that someone should get hold of it quickly,” he said. Huston has long been a fan of Condon and his “paranoid realism” school, to which authors such as Joseph Heller and William Burroughs also belong. In this case, Condon, who has known and collaborated with Huston over 30 years, had sent

the galleys straight to his friend — and they were misplaced for two years. Once found, Huston called John Foreman, the producer, and the project was launched. The Foreman-Huston partnership has brought “The Man Who Would Be King,” “The Mackintosh Man” and “The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean” to the screen.

In every way, John Huston has had a charmed and exceptional career in films: there surely would not be anyone else who has directed both his father, Walter (“The Treasure of Sierra Madre”), and daughter (“Prizzi’s”).

After stabs at art school and journalism, Huston began writing and acting in the theatre. His name was soon appearing as a scriptwriter’s credit.

After several successful films and a Broadway play, Huston was given his first chance to direct in 1941. He chose the twicefilmed Dashiell Hammett novel, “The Maltese Falcon,” and by the “innovation” of respecting the book, created a screen classic. Humphrey Bogart’s Sam Spade became part of modern American folk-lore.

Walter Huston picked up an Oscar for the muchpraised “Sierra Madre,” and his son took two, for Best Screenplay and Best Director. He went on to co-write and direct “The African Queen,” then made, among others, “The Asphalt Jungle” (introducing Marilyn Monroe) and "The Red Badge of Courage.”

The communist witch hunts of the 1950 s drove Huston to Ireland, and he took out the citizenship which he retains to this day. From his home near Galway, he germinated a string of classy films, including “The Misfits.” Eventually he drifted to a villa in his much-loved Mexico. During the 70s audiences saw a lot of his towering presence and heard that rich, gravelly voice before the cameras, in “Chinatown,” and “The Wind and the Lion.” More recently, he returned to directing for the musical “Annie” and “Under the Volcano.”

With the praise heaped on “Prizzi’s Honour,” Huston, at 78, shows no signs of weariness in his enormous talent.

For Jack Nicholson, “Prizzi’s” is the film his famous killer smile could

have been tailor-made r; for. X' Nicholson began his ~ film career in 1958, as a •, vengeful teenager in “The Cry-Baby Killer.!’ For ten ‘, years he starred in, and .. helped write and produce low-budget Roger Corman “ . films, some of which, notably “Little Shop of Hor- :, rors,” have become cult classics In another low-budget , film in 1969, “Easy . Rider,” Nicholson became an "overnight” star. Since then he has received Oscar nominations for “Five Easy . Pieces,” “The Last Detail” and "Chinatown,” finally winning with “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” He won again for his last film, “Terms of ;, Endearment.” It remains to be seen if “Prizzi’s ;. Honour” brings up the triple. Kathleen Turner _, steamed to stardom in 1981’s sultry “Body Heat.” *. She charged through the jungle with Michael Douglas in “Romancing The Stone,” then returned ; to - erotic terrain in “Crimes of Passion,” 1 mainly just to work with the director, Ken Russell. Anjelica Huston spent a long time tramping the streets of Brooklyn for her role in “Prizzi’s Hon-' our.” She plays a wild and wacky granddaughter of the don, a wronged woman who gets even with a vengeance. It is her most substantial role since her debut film, “A Walk With Love and Death” (directed by her father) at age 15. “Some things are in your blood, I guess,” she says of her acting career.