'Mafioso' revival looks to be a hit
In a poster touting the original 1962 run of the Italian film "Mafioso," now happily in American re-release after a 45-year vanishing act, the actor Alberto Sordi, rifle slung over his right shoulder, stands above his co-star, Norma Bengell, looking like Vito Corleone's worst enemy. It is an image suited to dead-serious drama.

For the re-release, Rialto Pictures is treating "Mafioso," like a merry Cosa Nostra romp, featuring the two faces of Sordi's character -- ebullient businessman, eagle-eyed assassin -- in comic contrast. So which is it? Can both posters be right?

They can, if director Alberto Lattuada's seminal Mafia picture confounds a 21st Century audience's expectations no less than audiences of its own time.
Guided by a meticulous and sly star turn from Sordi, who came to prominence in the early 1950s thanks to Fellini's "The White Sheik" and "I Vitteloni" and later made a handful of English-language pictures (including "Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines"), "Mafioso," is unlike any other mobbed-up affair ever filmed. It's a fish-out-of-water fable with an unexpectedly sharp edge. You're better off going into Lattuada's rediscovered gem, small but sparkling, not expecting an Italian "Analyze This." Tonally it's more unpredictable and stranger, by a Sicilian mile.

Our first image of Sordi is in a spotless white coat and a molto respectable little mustache, surveying the goings-on in the equally pristine Milan Fiat auto plant where he works as foreman. Sicilian by birth, Sordi's character plans a vacation to his beloved island, and its attendant relatives and friends, for the first time in eight years. With wary wife (Bengell) and adorable children in tow, by train and then ferry, he journeys southward. "This is Sicily, hospitable and joyful!" he crows, transforming into a different, ebullient creature the moment he sets foot on his homeland.

By degrees, director Lattuada and his screenwriters let us in a few secrets. "Nino," as the foreman is nicknamed, is a favorite of the local crime kingpin Don Vincenzo (Ugo Attanasio), whose minions note Nino's skill as a marksman. They invite him on a two-day hunting trip, which turns out to be a front for a more sinister excursion.

"Mafioso," is shaped like a comedy, and it is one, but its intentionally jarring clashes of tone and rhythm are truly out there. Once Nino arrives in New York City on assignment, the film transforms into an ecstatic travelogue scored to the hopped-up jazz rhythms of composer Piero Piccioni, reveling in the marvels of 1962 Manhattan and what looks like Bergen, N.J. (At one point Lattuada, who went to New York with a skeleton crew for a few unauthorized days and nights, catches a glimpse of Sophia Loren, all over a Times Square billboard for "Boccaccio '70.") The one-two-three punch of the film's resolution is startling. No details are necessary; besides, they're part of why the film lingers in the mind.
It takes a while to adjust to its rhythm, but this is essential viewing for cinephiles. So much came from it, yet so few know it. And Sordi, with his big, soulful eyes and farceur's zest (think Peter Sellers, Italian neorealism division) delivers a performance of unusually subtle coloration, owing a little something to the Sicilian comedies of Pirandello, a little something to Fellini and a lot to Lattuada.

No MPAA rating (parents cautioned for some language and violence)         'Mafioso' *** 1/2
Directed by Alberto Lattuada; screenplay by Rafael Azcona, Marco Ferreri, Agenore Incrocci and Furio Scarpelli; cinematography by Armando Nannuzzi; edited by Nino Baragli; production design by Carlo Edigi; music by Piero Piccioni; produced by Antonio Cervi. In Italian, with English subtitles. A Rialto Pictures re-release; opens Friday at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave. Running time: 1:39.
Antonio ... Alberto Sordi         Marta ... Norma Bengell         Don Vincenzo ...... Ugo Attanasio
No MPAA rating (parents cautioned for some language and violence)
**** EXCELLENT     *** GOOD     ** FAIR     * POOR    
mjphillips@tribune.com      Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune