The Film (3.5/5)

John Huston is a household name in Hollywood and in my humble opinion; he was a wonderful writer, actor and director of films. Arguably, he is one of the best among many American writers/directors. His first directorial assignment was the iconic timeless classic, The Maltese Falcon. He would go on to direct a number of great Film Noirs and dramas over the next forty years, directing some of the greatest actors in cinema, such as Humphrey Bogart, Sterling Hayden, Katharine Hepburn and Clark Gable. In 1985, he directed his second to last film which starred the iconic, great Jack Nicholson along with Kathleen Turner, with Robert Loggia and his own daughter Anjelica Huston in a comedy crime drama entitled Prizzi’s Honor

Charley Partanna (Nicholson) is a hit-man for the Prizzi family which includes Maerose Prizzi (Anjelica Huston), Eduardo Prizzi (Robert Loggia, who was in many popular television shows along with major hits such as Scarface, and Psycho II)  Don Corrado Prizzi (William Hickey, A Stranger is Watching) which is one of the richest crime syndicates out there,  who falls in love with Irene Walker(Turner), a thief and a killer, that was hired by the Prizzi’s to kill someone who double-crossed them. Their romance has caused a conflict of interest especially when it comes to their next assignment, which they can’t come to grips with about doing.

Prizzi’s Honor is a really good, entertaining film; director Huston captures that Italian crime atmosphere and will maintain your interest for the nearly two hour running time. The film reminded me of a milder, tamer version of The Godfather. Admittedly The Godfather is a far superior film, but Prizzi’s Honor is also a terrific gem. There are a few killings to spice things up a bit. I noticed that in this film, there is a lot of use of the color red, which may or may not have symbolized something; or perhaps his inner Mario Bava came out!

Performances by the cast are as expected, fantastic; Jack Nicholson carries the movie with that great New York Mafia type of accent. He pulls it off really well. The remaining cast of veteran actors also do their usual superb job with their roles. 

Audio/Video (3/5)

Kino presents Prizzi’s Honor in its original 1:85: aspect ratio, in 1080p with an MPEG-4 AVC encode and the results to be honest are just average. Some parts of the film do look superb and crisp while other scenes look a tiny step above DVD quality. I’m not sure what happened here, but the image often appears murky and appears somewhat soft frequently.

Reds and greens do look really strong, but the other colors look drab and flesh tones of the characters look pink at times

The 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio used for this release is very satisfactory with crisp dialog and musical scores. Nothing is overwhelming or underwhelming in the noise department. Optional English subtitles are offered for this release.

Extras (1.5/5)

There is an audio commentary featuring film historians Howard S. Berger and Nathaniel Thompson. Other than that, there are trailers for other films such as The Missouri Breaks, Still of the Night and a few others

Overall (3/5)

Kino Lorber releases another overlooked gem of a film and while it wasn’t the most glamorous looking release, it’s still more than watchable and glad it’s in HD for consumers to add to their collection.