Grade: A

Watching the extraordinary 1962 “Mafioso” is a bit mind-blowing. Imagine seeing an unofficial prequel to “The Godfather” - but from Sicily’s point of view.

Alberto Lattuada’s wrenching look at Sicilian mores and “family” values is like a window into a world that quite possibly will never change. Alberto Sordi’s dazzling turn as the returning homeboy is a scary acknowledgement of the way most people react when faced with a morally repulsive life-or-death choice.

Shot in widescreen black-and-white, "Mafioso," is a melancholy, almost documentarylike study of the ties that bind. Sordi’s Antonio Badalamenti has risen in the world to become an efficiency expert in a Milan Fiat factory. On his first vacation in years, he proudly returns to Catanao, his Sicilian hometown, with his blond, Northern Italian wife (Norma Bengell) and daughters.

Antonio is a people-pleasing guy with his family, old friends and especially local Mafia boss Don Vincenzo (Ugo Attanasio, the filmmaker’s father-in-law).

As his wife helps his sister with tips on how to remove unwanted body hair, the better to be an appealing bride, Antonio finds himself targeted for a job he cannot refuse. Antonio’s rise was greased by the Don’s political muscle, and now he learns he will be taking an overnight hunting trip.

What follows, as Antonio becomes sickeningly aware, is a hit ordered by the New York Mafia. Antonio’s journey - on a plane, bypassing airport customs, and then in the hands of English-speaking goons in a convertible through Times Square - is a descent into hell, but one as efficiently organized as anything in his factory.

 In its unblinking gaze into the abyss, “Mafioso” retains its power to shock. With its realistic, downbeat finale, it is understandable why it took so long to reach America. It would take Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola to consider America’s loss of innocence.

    (“Mafioso” contains violence and sexually suggestive scenes.)