Offbeat, Violent, and incredibly Intense Gangster Movie Cobbled together by Rat Packers and a host of Character Actors. This Lively, but Depressing and sometimes Gruesome Mob Movie is Fascinating and Frightening at times.Henry Silva plays a Mafia Protégé sent to America by an Italian Gang Leader to Wipe Out the Competition and does so in many Varied and Brutal ways. Elizabeth Montgomery makes quite an Impression as a somewhat Naive Society Girl that is Mesmerized by Johnny Cool's Cool and Machismo and it unleashes Her Libido and She is Hooked, "I need you, I need you now!"Almost every Scene Features a Recognizable Actor or Two and the whole Movie is so Breathtakingly Fast Paced that there Isn't Time to Figure out who They are or why They are there. The Movie is Sleek and Snake Like winding its way from NY to Las Vegas.The Third Act has a couple of Scenes displaying some Nasty Torture Devices that can Send Chills even Today. Overall, the Movie is Different and while Not quite Stylish it makes up for it with a very Downbeat Demeanor, Rapid Pacing, and a Terrifying Tone. It Pushes the Production Code to its Limit.

Johnny Cool is a real revelation. that it was produced by Peter Lawford, and directed by a William Asher, whose Beach Party movies seemed to celebrate American life as this film condemns it. It also may seem stranger when one sees the people who participated in it, some in only cameos, like Sammy Davis Junior, or Joey Bishop. However, when you consider that Vitoria De Sica, who had once been considered the Cary Grant of Italian films, you may realize, that some of these people who we looked at as entertainers, may have also had ambitions to create art. Johnny Cool is art.Many have commented that it is similar to Point Blank. This is true in many ways,however, another film that no one seems to have mentioned that has also some connection to, I think is John Frankenheimers Seconds. Those who have seen Seconds I think will know what I mean.Whereas Johnny Cool came out in 63, Seconds and Point Blank came out in 66 and 67. Silva I think was so good in this film as Jonny Cool, that he was encouraged to come to Europe to become a film star their. However, the only film that I think of his European films that matches Johnny Cool at this time as a good film is 'Hail Mafia, that he would make some 2 to three years later with Jack Klugman and Eddie Constantine. Johnny Cool I think also bears resemblances to Machine Gun McCain with John Casavetes, which has a theme Song Similar to John Cools by Sammy Davis Junior. he last killing of Johnny Cool in this film also reminds me somewhat of Seijun Suzuki's 'Branded to Kill', and has some similarities for me to another dark Japanese crime film of the time, 'Blackmail Is My Business.' When we see Johnny Cool, first he is a young Italian boy in Sicily who has just saved his Mother, but it will be to no avail, as she is killed right after wards, and perhaps foreshadows Silva's character's failure at the end of the film. As a young boy, he will meet right after wards Salvatore Gulliano, a real life person who would lead a Sicilian resistance movement. The inclusion of Guilliano is interesting, in that though he was apparently killed in 1950, their was a belief by some that his death was faked, and that he would end up in the US. In this way Johnny Cool runs with this premise, and suggests what might have been of Guilianno in America.That also, the first scenes we see of Silva, as his real person in the mountains of Sicily, will remind one of Neo Realism with its black and white photography. Also, does not Silva as that person not remind one of Fidel Castro, with his beard.Though this is in Sicliy, one cannot help in these scenes to feel that their is some Latin American feel. The people in the village seem more down to earth people, than the ones we will see in America.Also here, Richard Anderson as the American Correspondent, asks Silva's character about having once fought with the Americans, to which Silva's character replies that a man fights for himself. This gives the implications that the Silva character at this time may be fighting against the Americans. When he says, from the Germans we got these guns, holding a machine gun, one can't help but feel some present equation between the Germans of the 40's, to the Americans of the 60's, as they were aiding totalitarian regimes against the communists.When we jump to America, we will be introduced to a very sinister and unpleasant America. Perhaps this film would have had a bigger box office (I don't know what that was) had it been filmed in Color. This is however one film that benefits artistically with black and white, especially when one goes to LA and Las Vegas. With its black and white photography, one does not get a feeling of beauty, but instead a dreary feeling, especially during a swimming pool scene, that might have looked too beautiful in color. Also surprising to me, Las Vegas when one considers the participation of Davis, Lawford, and Bishop, is not shown as a place one should really want to go to, as perhaps the earlier Rat Pack film Oceans 11 did. One gets the feeling that this town is really the place of losers, and people who can't really pay their bills.Elizabeth Montgomery, as the love interest of Silva, is presented as I think the mixed up, naive American. She is drawn to his tough guy persona. However she will bring destruction to him, even though one should consider that he has saved her life from possibly a similar fate that he will have. First, after killing Mort Sahl's character, he will have plans to leave and abandon what he is doing. However, she will sadly convince him to continue. The next two victims that he does in we will have no sympathy for, so we continue to root for him. However, she betrays him stupidly when she realizes two children of one of his victims could have been killed. Instead of calling the police, she will out of her own cowardliness, because she is guilty as an accessory to murder, call the very criminals he has been fighting against. In many ways, her character, represents 'the common American' of the time, just before American involvement in Viet Nam, unaware that even in wars sanctioned by the US, innocent children could get killed, or not have really thought about that. A very dark, disturbing view of Americana, from people you would not expect from. Get a load of one of the law enforcement people, with his glasses, one dark, one regular. What is the meaning behind that. I wanted to writer more, but with only a 1000 limit, could not.

***SPOILERS*** Extremely violent mobster movie staring in one of his few, if not only, leading roles the zombie like and ice water for blood Henry Silva as Sicilian gangster Johnn Cool. Johnny is a man on a mission who's job it is to repay those who put his mentor the real Johnny Cool Johnny Colini, Marc Lawrence, out of business by having him deported, with the help of the US Justice Department, back to his native Italy.Arriving in New York City Johnny gets down to business in letting out the word that he's there to put the mob out of business and going about it in the most brutal like fashion. What turned out to be the "Achilles Heel" in Johnny's plan was his involvement with pretty Scarsdale New York divorcée Darien Guinness, Elizabeth Montgmery. Darien fell madly in love with Johnny after seeing him in action, breaking heads, in a swanky New York City bar that she got so stuck up on him that it in the end effected his ability do do his job. ***SPOILERS****It was after Johnny's next to last hit of mobbed up oil man Lennart Crandall, Brad Dexter, that Darien lost her nerve when the rented car,in her name, was ticketed by an L.A policeman. With Darien knowing that the car, which had explosive material in it, would lead to her arrest in the Crandell murder she quickly changed her mind about Johnny and, in order to save her own neck, ratted him out to the police. This also lead to Johnny's enemies in the Mafia to set him up him up in a secret meeting he was to have with Darien at a local New York City restaurant. That's after Johnny posing as a window washer got to knock off Mr. Big himself mob boss Vince Satangelo,Telly Savalas,in a high rise building assassin! Released at the very time of the notorious Joe Valachi hearings before congress on the Mafia's grip on US politics and local police departments the movie was a forerunner to much more popular and bigger gangster films like "The Godfather" and "Valachi Papers" that were released some ten years later. There's also in the film co produced by Rat Pack member Peter Lawford members of the famous Rat Pack of the late 1950's and early 1960's Sammy Davis Jr as someone called "Educated" an exert mob controlled crap shooter and Joey Bishop as Holmes a sleazy as they come L.A TV used car salesman. The movie also has in it as comedy relief a Rodney Dangerfield, before anybody ever heard of him, look and talk alike Hank Henry as Las Vegas bus driver Larry.

This movie doesn't seem to be well known, beyond devoted gangster movie fans. It's a small, black and white thriller, about two or three days in the life of a ruthless contract killer, sent from Italy to America to seek revenge,and demand tribute on behalf of a deported Mafioso. He becomes involved with a thrill seeking society woman, who aids him in his crimes. Whether their unusual relationship can be considered a love affair in any normal sense ,is open to interpretation.The movie was considered quite violent in its day, and still has some pretty nasty action, by implication. It's fast moving, and unpredictable, with an oddly charismatic performance by Henry Silva in the title role. Elizabeth Montgomery's character is a little under developed, but she makes a memorable impression nonetheless. A lot of the cast is made up of familiar faces, some in very odd roles. Jim Backus as a jovial, crooked contractor, John McGiver as a grumpy casino manager, Sammy Davis Jr. as a nervous gambler, all help to make the atmosphere of this picture a mix of humor and ambiguity. More traditional hoodlum roles are played by Marc Lawrence and Telly Savalas, with such crime movie reliables as sleazy Joe Turkel and creepy Elisha Cook, Jr appearing as various mobsters and hangers on.The movie isn't quite like anything I've ever seen. It's hard to define what it is that gives this picture its unique atmosphere, but it makes for a fascinating, if unnerving viewing experience. This is well worth the effort, if you can manage to find it on cable, or home video.