****SPOILERS**** With on the lamb mobster Rudy Hamberg, Eddie Constantine, to be extradited to the US from Marseilles France to testify at the Congressional Crime Hearing against the mob it's decided to knock him off before he ever leaves the country. With top mob hit-man Schaft, Henry Silva, set to do the hit on Rudy all of a sudden retired mod hit-man now working as a counter man at the famed Katz's Delicatessen in the Lower East Side of Manhattan Phil, Jack Klugman, want's a shot at him too. And not just for the $50,000.00 he's to get for doing the job. It was, as he explained it, Phil's 16 year old sister Mandy whom Rudy knocked up which ended up her being institutionalized for life that Phil want's to avenge. In not just Rudy taking away her honor and virginity but her life,in having a normal one, as well.At first friction develops between Schaft & Phil in how just to do Rudy in whit Phil wanting to do it slow and painful and with Schaft wanting to do it quick and painless with a bullet between the eyes. It soon comes out that Phil has other ideas in what he plans to do with Rudy that's not part of the job designation he's been given by his mob higher ups. Which Schaft who up until the very end is totally unaware of.****SPOILERS**** Mind blowing surprise ending with the hit on Rudy not exactly as it was planned to be. That's with Phil doing his own thing at his partner Schaft's expense. Even though Phil planned it to perfection the job he was assigned and secretly planned to screw up didn't quit end up perfect. It was when Phil's emotions got in the way of his plan that it went haywire and fell apart. And the person he was out to save ended up dead together with his killer.P.S Mostly unknown at the time the movie was to make both Henry Silva and Jack Klugman go on the bigger and better roles mostly on TV. But it was their work or acting in "Hail, Mafia" that showed the hidden talent, that was soon to be discovered, that made then as successful as they were to become.

If this film had been directed by Jean Pierre Melville, Criterion or someone else would have already have made a DVD special edition. It concerns two men, played by Henry Silva and Jack Klugman who travel to France to kill a man, a former gangster played by Eddie Constantine. They are sent to kill this man because they fear that he may testify and bring some underworld figures down. What happens on this journey is a story of fate, and some ironic twists.While the beginning of the film starts out kind of chessie, (the shots of New York) so we are to get the feeling that the scenes with the actors were filmed in New York. When the two men get to France, that is when the film really takes off. It is almost like a road picture, as they travel from Paris to Marseille, two Americans, who don't speak French traveling in a strange land, Country much more foreign then, than it would be today.Klugmans character has personal reasons why he wants to kill the character played by Constantine, while Silva, playing a guy called SHAFT, is only doing this job because it is his job. This film was based I believe on an American novel, and what is different here is that while usually in stories such as this the older man acts more the professional, while the younger is more carefree, HAIL MAFIA defies these conventions. Though Silva I believe is only 8 years younger than Klugman, he the younger man seems to live by codes, (he doesn't even smoke) and is the boss of the two, while Klugman seems to have the more easy going attitude, and not as careful. Their relationship is a very interesting on this road to a murder.I think that this film paved the way for Silva to get starting roles in Europe, and while it did not do that for Klugman, the film should be famous for his line regarding 'what would make a man quit smoking, Which he would have to do some 30 years latter due to throat cancer. The photography on the French scenes is first rate, filmed by the famous cinematographer of the New Wave, Raoul Coutard. Their are some other interesting touches, such as when Constantine's girl friend (I think his wife at the time) looks at a picture of John F Kennedy, and when she offers him a glass of Orange Juice, he says yes but with some Scotch (Constantine had a drinking problem).If this film were ever remade, and took place in the 21'st Century, one problem would be technology is a bit different than in 1965. I hope more people get to see this buried treasure.

Henry Silva and Jack Klugman are hit men sent to France to kill Eddie Constantine. The two spend time on the road getting to know each other and their very different styles of life. Silva is a meticulous person with very definite ideas about his approach to his profession while Klugman is more easy going and less philosophical. This small movie boasts not only the talents of the principal actors but also high-contrast black and white photography that gives it a very new wave film noir look as the boys in their black suits and skinny ties wander around in the Paris night. The French countryside is captured in washed out tones that emphasize how far out of the water these two fish are at the moment. The jazz score for the film is excellent small combo stuff that perfectly matches the stark images. There's also a couple of nice twists in the plot and a dandy downbeat ending. This is a genuine undiscovered gem and you won't be sorry you took a chance on it.

At the time in Paris, Eddie Constantine was much bigger than Jack Klugman. I haven't seen the film since its release, but I recall it as a fast-paced hard-bitten policier. My Dad was in there as the Mafia boss Hyman, and he calmly dispatched his enemies with one word from the putting green. Great fun.