Mean Frank and Crazy Tony (1973)

Mean Frank and Crazy Tony (1973)

Directed by: Michele Lupo

Starring: Lee Van Cleef, Tony Lo Bianco, Edwige Fenech

Instead of commenting on the beautiful lime-green movie poster, I’d like to talk a little about the title of this film, Mean Frank and Crazy Tony. Now, “Crazy Tony” sounds enough like a mobster’s name we can let that slide, but “Mean Frank”? Really? “MEAN”? That’s the best mobster adjective you can come up with? It makes it sound like he’s a six-year-old instead of Lee Van Cleef (who has probably never been six years old).

Frank is a famous mob boss who puts himself in jail to have the perfect alibi when he kills one of his underlings that’s been planning to take him out and take over his operation. Tony is a small-time thug who idolized Frank and tries to keep him from being arrested in the first place because he’s an idiot and he didn’t know what was going on. After Frank’s plan falls apart, he realizes that the only person he can trust to bust him out of the joint and help him take out the people who betrayed him is Tony, and thus starts a weird sort of reverse buddy cop situation.

This movie has it’s good points, but there’s really nothing new or interesting about it. Sure, you’ve got Lee Van Cleef sticking a power drill through a guy’s neck and some wacky hijinks where they steal a semi, but it’s all been done already. I guess the movie’s all right, but I can’t see ever wanting to watch it again.