After the spies comes the criminals of the prohibition era and recent times Rome and then it will back to rioting and the future of journalism in all its facets as I prepare for Halloween night but avoid thinking about Christmas.
Three weeks ago saw the return of the Boardwalk Empire which links the prohibition rackets of Atlantic City and the world of Nucky Thompson with Chicago and a young Al Capone and New York and with Lucky Luciano and their respective bosses
From the first three programmes there is the sense of the old order fighting to keep the new order from squeezing them out and not minding how much harm they generate. It is difficult for those who age to relinquish their position, their identities, and their involvement in the present beyond their immediate lives.
The oldest generation is portrayed by Commodore Louis Kaestner based on the real life character the German Hotelier and Politician Louis Kuehnle. He was the actual power in Atlantic City in the latter part of the 19th century and early part of the 20th effectively being first Republican boss of the boardwalk holiday resort with its gambling, prostitution and drinking which continued throughout prohibition making more money than ever. These were complicated characters who also undertook valuable social benefiting ventures although in the series he is also portrayed as being a sponsor of the Klu Klux Klan which appears to have the support of the entire Christian based middle and working white class. He narrowly escaped being poisoned in the last series, now dyes his hair but shows that he has the physical strength of men half his age.
He was the mentor of Nucky Thompson who branched out on his own and became the elected City Treasurer and also a controlling and funding politician for the Republican Party and is based on the real life character Enoch L Johnson who had power throughout prohibition through the control of rackets until his successful prosecution and imprisonment with the outbreak of World War II, serving 4 years after which he appears to have led a quieter life until his death in the late sixties. He lives the life of a gentleman with a personal manservant and wears the latest clothes with an apartment in a hotel but he now also has settled into life with Irish immigrant Margaret Schroeder whose violent husband he arranged to swim with the fishes and who he has now set up in a fine house with a personal maid, a house maid and a cook and where he plays the kind father to her children. Margaret is no innocent and is fully aware what a crook her husband is and over the series has become his protector.
The Commodore has become angry with Nucky and has arranged for him to be charged with election fraud, which is amusing since in reality it was he real life Commodore who was investigated for election fraud but where indictments were not achieved against any of the principals which can also be assumed will be the outcome of the present dramatic series in relation to Nucky, especially as Margaret sneaks into his apartment while law enforcement officers are turning it over for evidence and removes his records ledger and cash stash from under their noses while he is in prison. She burns the book and says he will have to learn to keep his dealings in his head. Nucky like his real life mentor arranges to fix political offices in the city and ensures employee loyalty by insisting that everyone contributes a slice of their wages to the Republic Party funds.
The two city founders and leaders also bribe and blackmail their way into lucrative state and federal contracts and in the present series Nucky is part of a consortium who has been buying up wide tracks of useless dirt land where it is known a new state highway connecting the City to New York is to be built.
One of the ways the two men in reality were able to maintain power was to persuade the local black community leaders they were on their side as long as they did nothing to antagonise the Klan.
Nucky has befriended Chalky White who runs the Black rackets and acts as a Godfather using part of his wealth for social purposes. One of his operations is to manufacture diluted whisky and at the commencement of the second series this is raided by the Klan using a machine gun to kill four workers but they fail to assassinate Chalky who manages to kill one of the attackers as well as severely wounding another. He is held in custody at the instigation of Nucky to prevent him being lynched. There are an amusing couple of scenes where Nucky first delivers a political type sermon from the pupil of the black audience church in which he promises to avenge the deaths while at the same time delivering as passionate a sermon to the white congregation about needing an iron fist to keep the blacks in their place.
In the jail Chalky is kept in a separate cell from the other blacks until a white man is arrested and he is moved with the other blacks who which includes an out of town loud mouth who starts the ridicule the fine clothes and manner of Chalky who in fact lives in a big house with a middle class family whose son goes to college and is a pianist among many talents. When the loud mouth goes to far the other blacks who regard Chalky with awe beat the stranger to pulp.
In fact the raid on Chalk’s distillery had been primed by the former ward of Nucky and for a time his hard man, Jimmy Darmody who is in fact the love child of the Commodore and the young promiscuous Gillian who was only fourteen years of age when Nucky pimped her for the Commodore. Jimmy wanted to kill the Commodore at first but is now under his wing and the move to regain power by ending that of Nucky.
Jimmy was in the First World War which has affected him greatly and made him a cold and calculated killer as well as racketeer who with Al Capone killed and stole the alcohol being imported by Nucky for a distributor to set themselves up. Al Capone had to flee to Chicago where he lives in a whorehouse and works for the current Chicago Mafia crime boss Johnny Torrio. Jimmy has recently married and set up in a coastal home with the mother of his children. Although he has branched out from Nucky he still has fond memories of the days when they went hunting and fishing together and has commenced to do likewise with his young son. The mother of his children had social ambitions and nearly ran off with the wife of the local photographer to Paris and with whom she had a lesbian affair in a ménage a trios while Jimmy was in Europe. She now battles with Jimmy’s mother when she visits given the proximity in ages between the two women. Among his mother’s affairs is one with Sicilian born Lucky Luciano of New York who works for the Jewish Mafia boss Arnold Rothstein.
Two other characters remain central to the story. The first is Nucky’s brother Eli, who is married with a brood of children and care for their senile and demanding father. He is full of resentment for his brother having done some for his dirty work in the past as city Sheriff, having to care for their father and being dropped when he was badly shot when collecting funds for Nucky, Eli has also thrown his lot in with the Commodore as has all of Nucky’s closest allies in the City with the exception of the Mayor who he planted on the electorate and one other individual who appears to be trying to keep a foot in both camps.
The other central character is Nelson Van Arden the previously Protestant fundamentalist Federal Prohibition Agent who fell as they say for a whore who is now in the last stages of pregnancy and is kept as a recluse by Van Arden. When his partner worked out that his boss was using funds for his own purposes he was murdered by Van Arden whose wife is even more zealous than he. She comes for the weekend to Atlantic city to celebrate their wedding anniversary and is shocked by the licentiousness all around especially when one of her husband’s staff gives her a booklet advertising what appears to be things to do on a visit for Christians, except this is in fact lists the gambling joints, brothels and gin houses. Nucky first met Margaret when he was addressing the local temperance league which he financially supported. Van Arden takes his wife out for meal in a local hotel and she is shocked when they are offered their choice of alcohol to accompany the meal. Later he traps the head waiter into offering them celebratory champagne and this is the signal for a violent raid on the establishment which he closes down and confiscates the till, part of which he uses to fund his prostitute mistress.
The second series commenced in 1921 when New Orleans was also in its drink, drugs, gambling Prostitution heyday covered in the film Pretty Baby recently reviewed. In the first episode Chicago gangster Torrio is offered a great deal with a Canadian Racketeer and sends Capone to tell Nucky he no longer wants to trade with him because of the better deal. Capone combines the visit to settle the affairs of his father who has died and visits Jimmy for cakes and coffee. In the second episode Ourselves Jimmy goes to New York to do a deal with Rothstein and is told to negotiate with one of his younger officers Meyer Lanski. Luciano taunt Jimmy about his relationship with Jimmy’s mother. Jimmy does not take his enforcer on this trip. Richard Harrow who has lost half his face in the First World War and who Jimmy also uses as an assassin. Eventually Lanski offers Jimmy a deal in which Jimmy supplies the alcohol while Jimmy agrees to start a heroin distribution which is going to be bigger money earner in time.
Released from prison Nucky arrives back in time for a meal and meeting with a visiting IRA fund raiser. He has brought with him young cocky IRA hood who he asks Nucky to find a role as things have got too hot for him to return to Ireland, The young man flirts with Margaret and one of the maids takes a great shine to him, Lucky at first rejects the offer from the young man to use his talent for stopping people who get in the way until he learns that in another move the Commodore has leaned on he Coastguard to raid the ships smuggling in the alcohol.
In the third episode "A Dangerous Maid" Nucky takes Margaret out for a meal as a reward for her support and finds the Commodore with his cronies including his brother. He declares all out war including on his brother who he gives one minute to come back into his fold. Nucky calls on the new White House Justice Chief to intervene on the election fraud case brought against him, reminding that the man owes him a big favour.
There have been four episodes to-date of the famous 22 episode Italian gangster series, Romanzo Criminale based on a book written by judge and which is said to chronicles the development of a disparate group of petty Roman criminals in the 1970’s into a major crime gang which dominated the capital’s underworld for over a decade independently of the Mafia. I have seen the film previously but this is the first time series has appeared on UK TV.
The scene is the Magliana District of Rome which over the past century has become occupied by migrants from other parts of Italy and the rest of Europe. The forty thousand or so population live in substandard and illegally constructed tenement owner occupied flats on the bank of the Tiber River below flood safety levels and represent one of the poorer areas of the capital which has led to crime and political activism Italian style.
The TV series opens in the District in the present day when a middle aged Lebanese man is mugged by three young thugs. Soon after the man locates and shoots dead the leader of the trio reminding everyone of who he was in the past. The series then begins proper in 1977 when known as the Lebanese (Liban) led a small band of petty criminals with ambition. He lives with his mother abandoned by his father and dreams for wealth and power and is the brains for the take over Rome plan when their latest undertaking goes wrong. They steal Olivetti Typewriters from a truck by prior arrangement and instead of splitting the profit decide to buy a consignment of guns from a major player in the Rome underworld with Mafia links. He orders his men to keep an eye on the young punks to find what they are up to and do not upset his interests. They want the guns to carry out their first project into the big time the kidnapping of Baron with the help of an inside man, a member of staff at the stables whose main income is from illegal gambling and fixing race results.
The car in which the guns are stored is stolen by another group from the man made hill district of Testaccio an area which these days has changed from being similar to Magliana into a more prosperous centre for restaurants and nights clubs used by Italians rather than tourists. As consequence the two gangs team up to kidnap the Baron and ransom him for a large sum. The Baron is looked after by Lebanese contacts of Liban and is unintentionally killed. His minders are also killed for messing up the situation.
Leading the investigation is a young police Commissioner who is known as the Communist because he criticises police tactics used in breaking up a political protest in the district in which his estranged sister is spotted playing a leading part. Commissioner Scialoja intervenes because the police brutally kill one of the demonstrators; the student Georgiana Masi and Scialoja becomes anxious about the welfare of his sister when the protestors come to the police station to vent their anger
The Commissioner comes unstuck with his plan to find the Baron and capture kidnappers when his loses the money en route to the kidnappers. The case is handed to another young and ambitious Commissioner. Scialoja believes the kidnappers are Roman based on finding the same brand of Menthol cigarette at the scene of both the trick robbery and the kidnapping. The presiding Magistrate does not believe any of the Roman interests are involved and suggests the Sardinians based the Tuscany region. Scialoja‘s view appears confirmed when he learns of the movement of a Rome registered motorbike which failed to stop in Tuscany on a route leading to the Baron‘s family home about the time they had received the latest ransom demand.
Liban then persuades the majority of the two gangs to “bank” the haul with a view to buying drugs and control the distribution in Rome on similar lines to the Mafia of Sicily and Naples. There is only one condition that they do not form a hierarchical band but accept each other as equal partners or spend any cash until it is laundered as the notes are marked
The second episodes starts in an amusing way in that two members of the Testaccio gang bury the bodies of the killed minders in a shallow grave in the grounds of Pine Forest unaware that the land has been sold for development and then finding out by chance they have to return and break into the site which is now fenced off to retrieve the bodies and bury them elsewhere.
The Magistrate has decided to pass the kidnapping case to a young rival of Scialoja Commissioner Rizzo, an officer well-liked by his superiors. The two police Commissioners cross swords when Scialoja refuses to give up the case and goes to investigate the remains of man in a burnt out vehicle also in the Pine Forest area but it is not that of missing Baron. Scialoja’s number two, Inspector Canton has been through the entire Baron’s staff and found out that one has a record. This is Satana who was the informant for the kidnapping but who decided to take his share of the money and go on his own.
The efforts to buy drugs from the Sardinians on an industrial scale does do not go well as they demand a high percentage of the revenue for their role and Liban refuses. They can mark time as the notes are marked. They are then approached by the Gun seller with Mafia connections for a deal which is again refused. Liban with associates The Cold of the Testaccio firm and Dandi his friend talk over the situation on learning that instead of slamming the door he should have negotiated a compromise offer. They go back to the Sardinian and agree a 50-50 profit sharing arrangement with the caveat that if they fail he will kill them all.
Dandi is told about a new beautiful prostitute in town called Patrizia. He takes her roughly and quickly without attention to her needs and then asks if it was good. She tells him the truth and that he needs to learn how to treat a woman. She agrees to teach him for an appropriate fee and he falls in love and become possessive. He uses some of the marked notes.
The head of Testaccio gang is called The Cold and is estranged from his father because of the man’s treatment of the mother. He is protective and supportive of his younger brother who is at college and has an attractive girl friend and does not know the life The Cold leads or how he manages to give his brother a new Scooter. When the brother has an accident he meets up with his father in hospital and then offers to take the girl friend back to her home. They are attracted to each other but both hold back.
The episode ends with Commissioner Scialoja being advised that marked notes have been traced to shops in one area selling quality female goods.
It is with the third episode that the action gains pace and the two gangs of eight individuals begin to take off in their ambition to control Rome but as with all such undertakings they are too prove only as strong as their weakest link.
In order to sell their first consignment of drugs and meet their obligation to the supplier, the Sardinian, they divide Rome into districts so that in pairs they take responsibility for organising the distribution chains taking over existing pushers and their clients by a process of individual and collective intimidation.
On of these, the Chinaman is resistant. They conclude that if they allow him to opt out having offered him a retainer of 10% of the income on his patch the other half of Rome they are yet to control will refuse to accept the new set up. They kidnap the Chinaman, torture and hurt, and then take him to a site with a ready open grave where he begs for his life. They urinate on him and then take him back to his district dumping him on the road outside the haunt of his associate after he has accepted the deal.
In order to have brought the Chinaman into line they need their guns, which one of the group has told his school girl friend to keep under her bed. While his mate waits in the living room the other commences to have sex with the girl only to hear her father returning home unexpectedly. The two depart through the bedroom window without the guns. They return and one breaks in through the window after being refused entry by the father. Father discovers the gangster and makes him pay a small amount for the window and for the trouble before letting him take the bag containing the weapons on the understanding that he never has contact with his daughter again.
One member of the gang Buffalo is not required to organise a district but asked keep watch on one of the others. The anxiety appears to be well founded when he finds the man, called Puma, having contact with the provider of the weapons Terrible the boss of the Centocelle territory which for the moment the new order decided to leave alone with that the area of Sardinian who is also at the meet. Puma explains that he had not been able to organise the distribution and sale of a quantity of his allocation and had attempted to deal with Terrible but it had not come off. He warns that having done the hard work of creating a Rome wide system of distribution the intention of Terrible and the Sardinian is to push the new order out.
The weak link is Dandi, using marked to buy time with the girl who then buys herself a new wardrobe. Scialoja is having a drink with his Inspector in a bar who observes that the waitress has caught the eye of his boss. He advises that the girl earns extra money as a whore and recommends that every good Commissioner should have his whore informant. Scialoja thanks the Inspector for his brainwave working out that one of the kidnappers has been celebrating and asks for information on all the whores who have been arrested in the district recently and of these selects Patrizia as the most likely and keeps watch. He sees Dandi leaving the residence with the young woman, Dandi having given her what is required to spend the day with him and he takes her racing where he follows the couple and photographs them together.
This is also the event where Buffalo has been keeping watch on Puma and he reports the whereabouts of Dandi who is missing when they sort out the Chinaman in numbers as well as force. They catch up with Dandi buying presents at the store unaware their colleague is being watched by the Commissioner. As they leave the Commissioner is able to photograph the three and then tail them for a while before the driver thinks they are being followed and slows down so the Commissioner drives on to the office to develop film and consult his Inspector. The Inspector is sceptical because Dandi is regarded still as petty criminal along with his associates and unlikely to have the means to have engaged in the kidnapping. The Commissioner announces that the next step is to visit Patrizia and make her his whore.
Dandi in order to compensate for missing the confrontation with the Chinaman offer to take responsibility for warning the Sardinian (Sardo) that they are aware of his games and he has to stop. He kidnaps and drives him into the middle of nowhere takes his expensive shoes and leaves him to make his way home in his stocking feet.
Scialoja breaks in and examines Patrizia’s apartment after waiting for her leave but remains until she returns. She immediately tries to seduce the Commissioner who is tempted but sticks to his mission and asks her to name the individual who has been given the money she has been spending recently on a new wardrobe. Thinking she has got her man she says Dandi adding she will not give evidence before a judge whereupon the Commissioner leaves.
Meanwhile there been yet another change of Government with the Communists being given a role. This is said to cause another shake up in the criminal underworld where they have links with the previous or the new order thus introducing the fact of extensive political corruption between politicians and the broader Mafia underworld in Italy.
Meanwhile as well the new criminal order have acquired 2000 sq metres of storage space available in a government building together with a caretaker who has got into gambling debts which they have paid off.
It is with the fourth episode that we come to the real life event which is at the core of the book, film and series, the kidnapping of Aldo Morro former Prime Minister of Italy 1963 to 1968 and (1974 to 1976) who as leader of his Party was kidnapped in 1978 by the Red Brigade and was killed after 55 days in captivity. But I am in advance of myself and the episode.
The gang have gone from strength to strength and the decision taken that having doubled their original capital and the money successfully laundered it is time to start distributing the profits on an equal share basis. Before the share out is completed, Liban calls on several comrades to help unload a vehicle which has arrived and reluctantly they go out to find that it full of young and not so young ladies of the night for the party that he has been planned. There is a riotous night of drink, drugs and sex although Liban himself remains detached from the festivities.
He instigates the move on the territory of the Terrible, the supplier of the guns by offering a new deal to one of his main drug pushers. His agent in this Scorcio is asked to return after consideration has been given to a deal and falls into a trap in which he is severely beaten and given a message to pass to Liban in private. His injured body is dropped in the yard outside their hangout and is rushed to hospital where he survives. Alerted to the hospital admission the Commissioner and the Inspector go to the hospital coincident with the visit of the partners in the two gangs and Scialoja manages to overhear the private conversation by listening through the wall of the ladies toilet.
We learn that the message relates to an incident many year ago when Liban had crossed Terrible in some way and had been overwhelmed when in his car with his girl friend. He had first made to watch as sexual acts were forced on the girlfriend and then he had his arm deeply slashed and cuts on his legs. Reference to this means that Terrible is saying if he wants war he will get war.
There is then a conference with the Sardinian supplier and his top men arranged by Puma and it is agreed that there has to be a deal negotiated, for now. Reluctantly this is agreed although Liban is incensed and vows vehemence when they are stronger. The three meet with Terrible to insist on getting a significant cut of the rest of Rome wide operation.
The Cold sees his bother’s girl friend who has been baby sitting over night to pay for her college fees where she is training to be a teacher, They have breakfast at a cafe close to her flat and the proprietor immediately knows who The Cold is. He returns later with a gun to ensure the man does not reveal how he earns his money. The man reminds that the girl is a nice young woman. Later The Cold meets the girl as she leaves from her college and he attracts admiring comments from her friends. They go to the fair for the afternoon and she says she had a great time and on dropping her off at her lodgings she goes to kiss him but he withdraws. Reminding of the relationship with her bother and other reasons. The brother then comes to see him without notice because the girl has broken off the relationship without explanation. The Cold promises to spend time with him as soon as he returns from a commitment. He promises to fix things for him. He goes to see the girl who says she does not want his brother but him. They kiss passionately.
The Commissioner breaks into the prostitute’s flat once more before she awakes ostensibly to warn her that war is to break out involving Dandi. She dismisses this and comments that there is always war breaking out between the different factions but they always settle on a handshake, thus imparting the knowledge of what has happened. She thanks the Commissioner for his concern stroking his cheek before he leaves.
He feels he has enough evidence to prove to the Magistrate that he should be put back on the case of the missing Baron, mentioning that there is now an alliance between all the criminals’ networks in the city. The Magistrate says he is too busy to give the matter any attention as the former Prime Minister has been kidnapped after his guards were shot dead and is believed to be in the hands of the Red Brigade.
However later when senior police officers and in conference with senior politicians they report that there is now a city wide criminal alliance.
Liban returns home and hands a mink coat at the end of his mother’s bed while she sleeps. Far from being delighted and impressed she is horrified asking him to leave home because she cannot bear to have him with her knowing that he will shortly be dead from his criminal activities. We see him sitting on a beach at the coast wearing the fur and crying.
Now the best dramatic serial of the season, surpassing Spooks. Next piece of writing though.....
Three weeks ago saw the return of the Boardwalk Empire which links the prohibition rackets of Atlantic City and the world of Nucky Thompson with Chicago and a young Al Capone and New York and with Lucky Luciano and their respective bosses
From the first three programmes there is the sense of the old order fighting to keep the new order from squeezing them out and not minding how much harm they generate. It is difficult for those who age to relinquish their position, their identities, and their involvement in the present beyond their immediate lives.
The oldest generation is portrayed by Commodore Louis Kaestner based on the real life character the German Hotelier and Politician Louis Kuehnle. He was the actual power in Atlantic City in the latter part of the 19th century and early part of the 20th effectively being first Republican boss of the boardwalk holiday resort with its gambling, prostitution and drinking which continued throughout prohibition making more money than ever. These were complicated characters who also undertook valuable social benefiting ventures although in the series he is also portrayed as being a sponsor of the Klu Klux Klan which appears to have the support of the entire Christian based middle and working white class. He narrowly escaped being poisoned in the last series, now dyes his hair but shows that he has the physical strength of men half his age.
He was the mentor of Nucky Thompson who branched out on his own and became the elected City Treasurer and also a controlling and funding politician for the Republican Party and is based on the real life character Enoch L Johnson who had power throughout prohibition through the control of rackets until his successful prosecution and imprisonment with the outbreak of World War II, serving 4 years after which he appears to have led a quieter life until his death in the late sixties. He lives the life of a gentleman with a personal manservant and wears the latest clothes with an apartment in a hotel but he now also has settled into life with Irish immigrant Margaret Schroeder whose violent husband he arranged to swim with the fishes and who he has now set up in a fine house with a personal maid, a house maid and a cook and where he plays the kind father to her children. Margaret is no innocent and is fully aware what a crook her husband is and over the series has become his protector.
The Commodore has become angry with Nucky and has arranged for him to be charged with election fraud, which is amusing since in reality it was he real life Commodore who was investigated for election fraud but where indictments were not achieved against any of the principals which can also be assumed will be the outcome of the present dramatic series in relation to Nucky, especially as Margaret sneaks into his apartment while law enforcement officers are turning it over for evidence and removes his records ledger and cash stash from under their noses while he is in prison. She burns the book and says he will have to learn to keep his dealings in his head. Nucky like his real life mentor arranges to fix political offices in the city and ensures employee loyalty by insisting that everyone contributes a slice of their wages to the Republic Party funds.
The two city founders and leaders also bribe and blackmail their way into lucrative state and federal contracts and in the present series Nucky is part of a consortium who has been buying up wide tracks of useless dirt land where it is known a new state highway connecting the City to New York is to be built.
One of the ways the two men in reality were able to maintain power was to persuade the local black community leaders they were on their side as long as they did nothing to antagonise the Klan.
Nucky has befriended Chalky White who runs the Black rackets and acts as a Godfather using part of his wealth for social purposes. One of his operations is to manufacture diluted whisky and at the commencement of the second series this is raided by the Klan using a machine gun to kill four workers but they fail to assassinate Chalky who manages to kill one of the attackers as well as severely wounding another. He is held in custody at the instigation of Nucky to prevent him being lynched. There are an amusing couple of scenes where Nucky first delivers a political type sermon from the pupil of the black audience church in which he promises to avenge the deaths while at the same time delivering as passionate a sermon to the white congregation about needing an iron fist to keep the blacks in their place.
In the jail Chalky is kept in a separate cell from the other blacks until a white man is arrested and he is moved with the other blacks who which includes an out of town loud mouth who starts the ridicule the fine clothes and manner of Chalky who in fact lives in a big house with a middle class family whose son goes to college and is a pianist among many talents. When the loud mouth goes to far the other blacks who regard Chalky with awe beat the stranger to pulp.
In fact the raid on Chalk’s distillery had been primed by the former ward of Nucky and for a time his hard man, Jimmy Darmody who is in fact the love child of the Commodore and the young promiscuous Gillian who was only fourteen years of age when Nucky pimped her for the Commodore. Jimmy wanted to kill the Commodore at first but is now under his wing and the move to regain power by ending that of Nucky.
Jimmy was in the First World War which has affected him greatly and made him a cold and calculated killer as well as racketeer who with Al Capone killed and stole the alcohol being imported by Nucky for a distributor to set themselves up. Al Capone had to flee to Chicago where he lives in a whorehouse and works for the current Chicago Mafia crime boss Johnny Torrio. Jimmy has recently married and set up in a coastal home with the mother of his children. Although he has branched out from Nucky he still has fond memories of the days when they went hunting and fishing together and has commenced to do likewise with his young son. The mother of his children had social ambitions and nearly ran off with the wife of the local photographer to Paris and with whom she had a lesbian affair in a ménage a trios while Jimmy was in Europe. She now battles with Jimmy’s mother when she visits given the proximity in ages between the two women. Among his mother’s affairs is one with Sicilian born Lucky Luciano of New York who works for the Jewish Mafia boss Arnold Rothstein.
Two other characters remain central to the story. The first is Nucky’s brother Eli, who is married with a brood of children and care for their senile and demanding father. He is full of resentment for his brother having done some for his dirty work in the past as city Sheriff, having to care for their father and being dropped when he was badly shot when collecting funds for Nucky, Eli has also thrown his lot in with the Commodore as has all of Nucky’s closest allies in the City with the exception of the Mayor who he planted on the electorate and one other individual who appears to be trying to keep a foot in both camps.
The other central character is Nelson Van Arden the previously Protestant fundamentalist Federal Prohibition Agent who fell as they say for a whore who is now in the last stages of pregnancy and is kept as a recluse by Van Arden. When his partner worked out that his boss was using funds for his own purposes he was murdered by Van Arden whose wife is even more zealous than he. She comes for the weekend to Atlantic city to celebrate their wedding anniversary and is shocked by the licentiousness all around especially when one of her husband’s staff gives her a booklet advertising what appears to be things to do on a visit for Christians, except this is in fact lists the gambling joints, brothels and gin houses. Nucky first met Margaret when he was addressing the local temperance league which he financially supported. Van Arden takes his wife out for meal in a local hotel and she is shocked when they are offered their choice of alcohol to accompany the meal. Later he traps the head waiter into offering them celebratory champagne and this is the signal for a violent raid on the establishment which he closes down and confiscates the till, part of which he uses to fund his prostitute mistress.
The second series commenced in 1921 when New Orleans was also in its drink, drugs, gambling Prostitution heyday covered in the film Pretty Baby recently reviewed. In the first episode Chicago gangster Torrio is offered a great deal with a Canadian Racketeer and sends Capone to tell Nucky he no longer wants to trade with him because of the better deal. Capone combines the visit to settle the affairs of his father who has died and visits Jimmy for cakes and coffee. In the second episode Ourselves Jimmy goes to New York to do a deal with Rothstein and is told to negotiate with one of his younger officers Meyer Lanski. Luciano taunt Jimmy about his relationship with Jimmy’s mother. Jimmy does not take his enforcer on this trip. Richard Harrow who has lost half his face in the First World War and who Jimmy also uses as an assassin. Eventually Lanski offers Jimmy a deal in which Jimmy supplies the alcohol while Jimmy agrees to start a heroin distribution which is going to be bigger money earner in time.
Released from prison Nucky arrives back in time for a meal and meeting with a visiting IRA fund raiser. He has brought with him young cocky IRA hood who he asks Nucky to find a role as things have got too hot for him to return to Ireland, The young man flirts with Margaret and one of the maids takes a great shine to him, Lucky at first rejects the offer from the young man to use his talent for stopping people who get in the way until he learns that in another move the Commodore has leaned on he Coastguard to raid the ships smuggling in the alcohol.
In the third episode "A Dangerous Maid" Nucky takes Margaret out for a meal as a reward for her support and finds the Commodore with his cronies including his brother. He declares all out war including on his brother who he gives one minute to come back into his fold. Nucky calls on the new White House Justice Chief to intervene on the election fraud case brought against him, reminding that the man owes him a big favour.
There have been four episodes to-date of the famous 22 episode Italian gangster series, Romanzo Criminale based on a book written by judge and which is said to chronicles the development of a disparate group of petty Roman criminals in the 1970’s into a major crime gang which dominated the capital’s underworld for over a decade independently of the Mafia. I have seen the film previously but this is the first time series has appeared on UK TV.
The scene is the Magliana District of Rome which over the past century has become occupied by migrants from other parts of Italy and the rest of Europe. The forty thousand or so population live in substandard and illegally constructed tenement owner occupied flats on the bank of the Tiber River below flood safety levels and represent one of the poorer areas of the capital which has led to crime and political activism Italian style.
The TV series opens in the District in the present day when a middle aged Lebanese man is mugged by three young thugs. Soon after the man locates and shoots dead the leader of the trio reminding everyone of who he was in the past. The series then begins proper in 1977 when known as the Lebanese (Liban) led a small band of petty criminals with ambition. He lives with his mother abandoned by his father and dreams for wealth and power and is the brains for the take over Rome plan when their latest undertaking goes wrong. They steal Olivetti Typewriters from a truck by prior arrangement and instead of splitting the profit decide to buy a consignment of guns from a major player in the Rome underworld with Mafia links. He orders his men to keep an eye on the young punks to find what they are up to and do not upset his interests. They want the guns to carry out their first project into the big time the kidnapping of Baron with the help of an inside man, a member of staff at the stables whose main income is from illegal gambling and fixing race results.
The car in which the guns are stored is stolen by another group from the man made hill district of Testaccio an area which these days has changed from being similar to Magliana into a more prosperous centre for restaurants and nights clubs used by Italians rather than tourists. As consequence the two gangs team up to kidnap the Baron and ransom him for a large sum. The Baron is looked after by Lebanese contacts of Liban and is unintentionally killed. His minders are also killed for messing up the situation.
Leading the investigation is a young police Commissioner who is known as the Communist because he criticises police tactics used in breaking up a political protest in the district in which his estranged sister is spotted playing a leading part. Commissioner Scialoja intervenes because the police brutally kill one of the demonstrators; the student Georgiana Masi and Scialoja becomes anxious about the welfare of his sister when the protestors come to the police station to vent their anger
The Commissioner comes unstuck with his plan to find the Baron and capture kidnappers when his loses the money en route to the kidnappers. The case is handed to another young and ambitious Commissioner. Scialoja believes the kidnappers are Roman based on finding the same brand of Menthol cigarette at the scene of both the trick robbery and the kidnapping. The presiding Magistrate does not believe any of the Roman interests are involved and suggests the Sardinians based the Tuscany region. Scialoja‘s view appears confirmed when he learns of the movement of a Rome registered motorbike which failed to stop in Tuscany on a route leading to the Baron‘s family home about the time they had received the latest ransom demand.
Liban then persuades the majority of the two gangs to “bank” the haul with a view to buying drugs and control the distribution in Rome on similar lines to the Mafia of Sicily and Naples. There is only one condition that they do not form a hierarchical band but accept each other as equal partners or spend any cash until it is laundered as the notes are marked
The second episodes starts in an amusing way in that two members of the Testaccio gang bury the bodies of the killed minders in a shallow grave in the grounds of Pine Forest unaware that the land has been sold for development and then finding out by chance they have to return and break into the site which is now fenced off to retrieve the bodies and bury them elsewhere.
The Magistrate has decided to pass the kidnapping case to a young rival of Scialoja Commissioner Rizzo, an officer well-liked by his superiors. The two police Commissioners cross swords when Scialoja refuses to give up the case and goes to investigate the remains of man in a burnt out vehicle also in the Pine Forest area but it is not that of missing Baron. Scialoja’s number two, Inspector Canton has been through the entire Baron’s staff and found out that one has a record. This is Satana who was the informant for the kidnapping but who decided to take his share of the money and go on his own.
The efforts to buy drugs from the Sardinians on an industrial scale does do not go well as they demand a high percentage of the revenue for their role and Liban refuses. They can mark time as the notes are marked. They are then approached by the Gun seller with Mafia connections for a deal which is again refused. Liban with associates The Cold of the Testaccio firm and Dandi his friend talk over the situation on learning that instead of slamming the door he should have negotiated a compromise offer. They go back to the Sardinian and agree a 50-50 profit sharing arrangement with the caveat that if they fail he will kill them all.
Dandi is told about a new beautiful prostitute in town called Patrizia. He takes her roughly and quickly without attention to her needs and then asks if it was good. She tells him the truth and that he needs to learn how to treat a woman. She agrees to teach him for an appropriate fee and he falls in love and become possessive. He uses some of the marked notes.
The head of Testaccio gang is called The Cold and is estranged from his father because of the man’s treatment of the mother. He is protective and supportive of his younger brother who is at college and has an attractive girl friend and does not know the life The Cold leads or how he manages to give his brother a new Scooter. When the brother has an accident he meets up with his father in hospital and then offers to take the girl friend back to her home. They are attracted to each other but both hold back.
The episode ends with Commissioner Scialoja being advised that marked notes have been traced to shops in one area selling quality female goods.
It is with the third episode that the action gains pace and the two gangs of eight individuals begin to take off in their ambition to control Rome but as with all such undertakings they are too prove only as strong as their weakest link.
In order to sell their first consignment of drugs and meet their obligation to the supplier, the Sardinian, they divide Rome into districts so that in pairs they take responsibility for organising the distribution chains taking over existing pushers and their clients by a process of individual and collective intimidation.
On of these, the Chinaman is resistant. They conclude that if they allow him to opt out having offered him a retainer of 10% of the income on his patch the other half of Rome they are yet to control will refuse to accept the new set up. They kidnap the Chinaman, torture and hurt, and then take him to a site with a ready open grave where he begs for his life. They urinate on him and then take him back to his district dumping him on the road outside the haunt of his associate after he has accepted the deal.
In order to have brought the Chinaman into line they need their guns, which one of the group has told his school girl friend to keep under her bed. While his mate waits in the living room the other commences to have sex with the girl only to hear her father returning home unexpectedly. The two depart through the bedroom window without the guns. They return and one breaks in through the window after being refused entry by the father. Father discovers the gangster and makes him pay a small amount for the window and for the trouble before letting him take the bag containing the weapons on the understanding that he never has contact with his daughter again.
One member of the gang Buffalo is not required to organise a district but asked keep watch on one of the others. The anxiety appears to be well founded when he finds the man, called Puma, having contact with the provider of the weapons Terrible the boss of the Centocelle territory which for the moment the new order decided to leave alone with that the area of Sardinian who is also at the meet. Puma explains that he had not been able to organise the distribution and sale of a quantity of his allocation and had attempted to deal with Terrible but it had not come off. He warns that having done the hard work of creating a Rome wide system of distribution the intention of Terrible and the Sardinian is to push the new order out.
The weak link is Dandi, using marked to buy time with the girl who then buys herself a new wardrobe. Scialoja is having a drink with his Inspector in a bar who observes that the waitress has caught the eye of his boss. He advises that the girl earns extra money as a whore and recommends that every good Commissioner should have his whore informant. Scialoja thanks the Inspector for his brainwave working out that one of the kidnappers has been celebrating and asks for information on all the whores who have been arrested in the district recently and of these selects Patrizia as the most likely and keeps watch. He sees Dandi leaving the residence with the young woman, Dandi having given her what is required to spend the day with him and he takes her racing where he follows the couple and photographs them together.
This is also the event where Buffalo has been keeping watch on Puma and he reports the whereabouts of Dandi who is missing when they sort out the Chinaman in numbers as well as force. They catch up with Dandi buying presents at the store unaware their colleague is being watched by the Commissioner. As they leave the Commissioner is able to photograph the three and then tail them for a while before the driver thinks they are being followed and slows down so the Commissioner drives on to the office to develop film and consult his Inspector. The Inspector is sceptical because Dandi is regarded still as petty criminal along with his associates and unlikely to have the means to have engaged in the kidnapping. The Commissioner announces that the next step is to visit Patrizia and make her his whore.
Dandi in order to compensate for missing the confrontation with the Chinaman offer to take responsibility for warning the Sardinian (Sardo) that they are aware of his games and he has to stop. He kidnaps and drives him into the middle of nowhere takes his expensive shoes and leaves him to make his way home in his stocking feet.
Scialoja breaks in and examines Patrizia’s apartment after waiting for her leave but remains until she returns. She immediately tries to seduce the Commissioner who is tempted but sticks to his mission and asks her to name the individual who has been given the money she has been spending recently on a new wardrobe. Thinking she has got her man she says Dandi adding she will not give evidence before a judge whereupon the Commissioner leaves.
Meanwhile there been yet another change of Government with the Communists being given a role. This is said to cause another shake up in the criminal underworld where they have links with the previous or the new order thus introducing the fact of extensive political corruption between politicians and the broader Mafia underworld in Italy.
Meanwhile as well the new criminal order have acquired 2000 sq metres of storage space available in a government building together with a caretaker who has got into gambling debts which they have paid off.
It is with the fourth episode that we come to the real life event which is at the core of the book, film and series, the kidnapping of Aldo Morro former Prime Minister of Italy 1963 to 1968 and (1974 to 1976) who as leader of his Party was kidnapped in 1978 by the Red Brigade and was killed after 55 days in captivity. But I am in advance of myself and the episode.
The gang have gone from strength to strength and the decision taken that having doubled their original capital and the money successfully laundered it is time to start distributing the profits on an equal share basis. Before the share out is completed, Liban calls on several comrades to help unload a vehicle which has arrived and reluctantly they go out to find that it full of young and not so young ladies of the night for the party that he has been planned. There is a riotous night of drink, drugs and sex although Liban himself remains detached from the festivities.
He instigates the move on the territory of the Terrible, the supplier of the guns by offering a new deal to one of his main drug pushers. His agent in this Scorcio is asked to return after consideration has been given to a deal and falls into a trap in which he is severely beaten and given a message to pass to Liban in private. His injured body is dropped in the yard outside their hangout and is rushed to hospital where he survives. Alerted to the hospital admission the Commissioner and the Inspector go to the hospital coincident with the visit of the partners in the two gangs and Scialoja manages to overhear the private conversation by listening through the wall of the ladies toilet.
We learn that the message relates to an incident many year ago when Liban had crossed Terrible in some way and had been overwhelmed when in his car with his girl friend. He had first made to watch as sexual acts were forced on the girlfriend and then he had his arm deeply slashed and cuts on his legs. Reference to this means that Terrible is saying if he wants war he will get war.
There is then a conference with the Sardinian supplier and his top men arranged by Puma and it is agreed that there has to be a deal negotiated, for now. Reluctantly this is agreed although Liban is incensed and vows vehemence when they are stronger. The three meet with Terrible to insist on getting a significant cut of the rest of Rome wide operation.
The Cold sees his bother’s girl friend who has been baby sitting over night to pay for her college fees where she is training to be a teacher, They have breakfast at a cafe close to her flat and the proprietor immediately knows who The Cold is. He returns later with a gun to ensure the man does not reveal how he earns his money. The man reminds that the girl is a nice young woman. Later The Cold meets the girl as she leaves from her college and he attracts admiring comments from her friends. They go to the fair for the afternoon and she says she had a great time and on dropping her off at her lodgings she goes to kiss him but he withdraws. Reminding of the relationship with her bother and other reasons. The brother then comes to see him without notice because the girl has broken off the relationship without explanation. The Cold promises to spend time with him as soon as he returns from a commitment. He promises to fix things for him. He goes to see the girl who says she does not want his brother but him. They kiss passionately.
The Commissioner breaks into the prostitute’s flat once more before she awakes ostensibly to warn her that war is to break out involving Dandi. She dismisses this and comments that there is always war breaking out between the different factions but they always settle on a handshake, thus imparting the knowledge of what has happened. She thanks the Commissioner for his concern stroking his cheek before he leaves.
He feels he has enough evidence to prove to the Magistrate that he should be put back on the case of the missing Baron, mentioning that there is now an alliance between all the criminals’ networks in the city. The Magistrate says he is too busy to give the matter any attention as the former Prime Minister has been kidnapped after his guards were shot dead and is believed to be in the hands of the Red Brigade.
However later when senior police officers and in conference with senior politicians they report that there is now a city wide criminal alliance.
Liban returns home and hands a mink coat at the end of his mother’s bed while she sleeps. Far from being delighted and impressed she is horrified asking him to leave home because she cannot bear to have him with her knowing that he will shortly be dead from his criminal activities. We see him sitting on a beach at the coast wearing the fur and crying.
Now the best dramatic serial of the season, surpassing Spooks. Next piece of writing though.....
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