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AV Club Review
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Friday, March 31, 2023
GENE SISKEL'S 4-STAR REVIEW OF 'WISE GUYS' - 1986
CRITIC WAS SHORT-SIGHTED ON 'SCARFACE' & 'BODY DOUBLE', BUT "FUNNY IS FUNNY"
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/chicagotribuneapril18th1986.jpg

Posted by Geoff at 12:01 AM CDT
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Tuesday, April 20, 2021
DAN PERRI ON DESIGNING 'WISE GUYS' TITLES
INCLUDED IN HIS NEW BOOK, 'HOLLYWOOD TITLES DESIGNER / A LIFE IN FILM'
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/wiseguystitle.jpg

Dan Perri designed the titles for Brian De Palma's Wise Guys, which is included in his new book, Hollywood Titles Designer / A Life in Film. On Instagram today, Perri shared a brief excerpt about his design for Wise Guys:
“Brian De Palma is known for his serious, violent films. But Wise Guys was broad and funny for Brian. And, he wanted a broad title treatment that signaled that it was a comedy. So, graphic animation of letter shapes and silly shoot-em-up seemed suitable for the film.

I started with messing with the MGM logo by spinning it into a dot that became the connection with the “I” in the titles. And, to bring a sense of humour to it with bright colour and “tough guy” red typography that was nicely punctuated by Ira Newborn’s funny, silly music” - an excerpt from Dan’s book “Hollywood Titles Designer / A Life in Film”.


Posted by Geoff at 11:37 PM CDT
Updated: Tuesday, April 20, 2021 11:42 PM CDT
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Sunday, April 18, 2021
'A REAL TREASURE' - SISKEL & EBERT LOVED 'WISE GUYS'
WHICH WAS RELEASED 35 YEARS AGO TODAY - APRIL 18, 1986
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/wiseguysbar.jpg

On his journey toward The Untouchables and Casualties Of War, after Scarface and Body Double, Brian De Palma made a very funny comedy called Wise Guys, which was released 35 years ago today, on April 18, 1986. Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert really loved it, giving the film "two great big thumbs up" on their TV program, At The Movies. Thanks to andyfilm, we can watch the entire episode. Here's a transcript, followed by the video:
Ebert: Our next movie is named Wise Guys, and this one's a real treasure. A great comedy about the Mafia that stars Joe Piscopo and Danny DeVito as a couple of very low-level New Jersey foot soldiers for the Mob. One day, they're given ten-thousand dollars of the Godfather's money to bet on a horse, and they bet on the wrong horse, because they think, "He doesn't know what horse is gonna win!" But you know what? He did know what horse was gonna win, and so they owe him two-hundred and fifty-thousand dollars, and they don't have a dime. So the Don decides their punishment, which is, he secretly assigns each one of them to kill the other one. Here's the scene earlier in the movie, one morning in the Mob-controlled restaurant where the Mafia boss is handing out the day's assignments:

[Scene plays]

Ebert: [laughs at the clip just shown] That giant guy that you saw there with the horrible red or maroon sport coat is the enforcer for the Mob, and later on, the boss puts him on the case of these two guys after they've stolen his two-hundred and fifty-thousand dollars. So they are desperate. They know there's no place to turn. And so DeVito gets on the phone and pretends to be talking to his uncle in Atlantic City. An uncle who is a powerful mobster, who, if he were alive, might be able to save their lives.

[Scene plays, with DeVito pretending to talk to Uncle Mike on the phone]

Ebert: Wise Guys is a movie with one big laugh after another, and yet the thing that really holds this movie together (and you could see it there) is the genial relationship between those two guys: between Moe and Harry; between Piscopo and DeVito. They like each other and they stick together. They try to fumble their way out of this mess. And they... they're neighbors in probably the worst street in New Jersey, and they are surrounded... well, I'm sure the people that very nice people live there, but the side that they live on looks pretty bad.

Siskel: You're in trouble now, Roger.

Ebert: And they are surrounded... the people across the street are great! And they are surrounded by a movie full of some of the best character actors in the business. The big surprise for me in Wise Guys, incidentally, was Danny DeVito. I've liked him before, but he has never been better than this time, and this shows what he can do in a way that I think will be used in other movies now. Wise Guys was directed by Brian De Palma, who specializes in thrillers and crime movies, and he made Scarface, and Dressed To Kill, among his serious films. This is his first comedy in a long time, and it is a good, laugh-out-loud comedy.

Siskel: I don't even think that's strong enough-- it's a GREAT laugh-out-loud comedy, and I'm gonna have a tough time at the end of the year deciding which film I laughed out loud the longest: Down And Out In Beverly Hills, this one, or Hannah And Her Sisters. I mean, this is really a riotous film, fabulous. DeVito in a starring role-- he's not supporting people now, like in Romancing The Stone. He's absolutely terrific. There's a performance that you referred to, but I want to give credit to: the guy in the big red coat-- I think he makes this movie work just as much as the two stars-- that's played by a wrestler, a former wrestler, Captain Lou Albano. He plays The Fixer. He plays this movie at a volume pitch, that if I actually started to use it, I'd blow out every TV set that's watching us. I mean, it's a screaming performance that is hilarious. This movie, I don't know how this director Brian De Palma did it, he starts out at this level and keeps it funny and intense... it's just spectacular.

Ebert: Well, one of the things he did, I'll just repeat myself, is he fills the movie with great performances. We could go down the list and start...

Siskel: [agreeing] Oh, God.

Ebert: And the thing is, each actor is able to make his little character, or his corner of the movie, into a three-dimensional person, a presence here, so that these are people who are interacting with each other, instead of, as is so often the case in crime movies, simply stereotypes, or simply one-dimensional.

Siskel: Or vehicles for setting up a physical stunt. There aren't physical stunts here, there are people running into each other, not cars!

Ebert: That's right. there are a couple of lines in this movie, now one that... I don't want to give it, I will give it... they talk about... you mentioned that the guy's name is The Fixer?

Siskel: Right.

Ebert: That he's known as The Fixer. [laughs] They said, "What will Mrs. Fixer think?" [both are laughing] I laughed for about four minutes at that point.



Posted by Geoff at 7:13 PM CDT
Updated: Sunday, April 18, 2021 11:30 PM CDT
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Saturday, September 19, 2020
DE PALMA'S WISE GUYS - HITCHCOCK'S THE MANXMAN
FACES IN THE WINDOWS, FROM 1986 AND 1929
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/windowwatchers55.jpg


Posted by Geoff at 12:01 AM CDT
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Saturday, August 8, 2020
'Don't you wanna see the expression on Mr. Castelo's face when he sees these tickets?'
"LET'S GO!"
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/wiseguysface4.jpg


Posted by Geoff at 12:01 AM CDT
Updated: Sunday, August 9, 2020 12:56 AM CDT
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Tuesday, April 28, 2020
DEVITO - FROM 'WISE GUYS' TO DIRECTING HIS OWN FILMS
3 YEARS LATER, HE WAS WORKING WITH BURUM & SPLIT DIOPTERS ON 'WAR OF THE ROSES'
https://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/wiseguysdiopter3small.jpg



After starring with Joe Piscopo in Brian De Palma's Wise Guys in 1986, Danny DeVito began directing films of his own. For 1987's Throw Momma From The Train, DeVito even brought Joe Napolitano along from Wise Guys to be first assistant director. Crítico Cítrico points out on Twitter that by the time of The War Of The Roses in 1989, DeVito was "utilizing bifocal lenses even at lunch. This last expression is literal." The War Of The Roses was shot by Stephen H. Burum, who was De Palma's go-to cinematographer from around that time, and all the way through the year 2000. Wise Guys was shot by Fred Schuler, who had been a camera operator on many of the most beloved films of the 1970s (Taxi Driver, Annie Hall, Network, Dog Day Afternoon, The Deer Hunter) before becoming a cinematographer on films by the likes of John Cassavetes (Gloria) and Martin Scorsese (The King Of Comedy), among many others.

Here are two of the four split-diopter frames from The War Of The Roses that were posted by Crítico Cítrico:


Posted by Geoff at 12:01 AM CDT
Updated: Saturday, August 12, 2023 9:28 AM CDT
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Thursday, September 14, 2017
FRANK VINCENT DIES AT 80
APPEARED IN DE PALMA'S 'WISE GUYS', SEVERAL SCORSESE FILMS, SPIKE LEE, SOPRANOS, ETC.
Frank Vincent, the actor who developed an insult comedy nightclub act while playing in a band with Joe Pesci before the pair was cast by Martin Scorsese in Raging Bull, died Wednesday from complications during open heart surgery. He was 80.

Vincent played a gangster in Brian De Palma's Wise Guys in 1986. He also had memorable roles in Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and Casino (all of which saw him acting opposite Pesci), as well as in two Spike Lee movies, Do The Right Thing and Jungle Fever. He reteamed with several of the actors in the above films for James Mangold's Cop Land in 1997.

"You usually had a good idea of a Frank Vincent character just from his name," Stephen Whitty states in an obit at nj.com. "Billy Batts. Joey Big Ears. Dino the Rat. Tommy the Bull. Or, when he was really starting out, simply, 'Mafia Thug.' But you didn't know the real Frank Vincent -- a Jersey City boy who idolized Dean Martin, once had a night-club act with buddy Joe Pesci, enjoyed a good hand-rolled cigar, and even wrote a book 'A Guy's Guide to Being a Man's Man.'"

Here's more from a profile piece Whitty re-posts in the article, from 2003:

"THERE was an article about me once, and the first line was "It's good to be a gangster'," Vincent says, finishing his frittata. "Well, I'm not a gangster. I'm an actor."

It's not that Vincent is squeamish about the subject, or in some state of denial about the Mafia. He saw plenty of mobsters in the bars he used to play. Plenty more became fans after he started playing them on screen. A few even became critics.

"They didn't like it when Joe beat me up in "Raging Bull,'" he says. ""Why'd you let that little guy beat you up?' And this one guy, Blackie something, I don't remember his name, but I remember him saying "What is it with the f------ language in that picture?' And, I thought, this guy's killed nine guys and he's concerned about the language?'"

It's not that Vincent minds playing gangsters, either. He had great parts in "Raging Bull" and "GoodFellas" (and got viciously attacked by Pesci in both of them); he had another good part in "Casino" (and finally got his old partner back, with a baseball bat). He realizes the mob roles are the ones he's remembered for and, as a character actor, believes "it's better to be typed than not typed."

Still, the shallowness of the assumptions annoys him. Vincent's a good uptempo drummer, with a genuine love of jazz; he's a natural comic, when he's gotten the chance to show it in films like "She's the One." He's worked with Scorsese, Spike Lee, Brian De Palma and John Sayles. But because he's a big, dark Italian-American, some people assume the gangster parts he's played are the only ones he can, or even the person he really is.

It's a hurdle a lot of actors have faced, and a situation that Vincent's friends protest.

"People typecast you because they're not very imaginative," says Pesci. "They need a certain kind of actor and they know you did that part before and so they come to you. And Frank can do a lot of things. He's very natural, and he's got a good sense of humor and a quick wit."


Posted by Geoff at 2:53 AM CDT
Updated: Thursday, September 14, 2017 2:56 AM CDT
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Friday, October 14, 2011
PISCOPO TO CELEBRATE 'WISE GUYS' 25TH ANNIVERSARY
FREE SCREENING WITH Q&A THIS SUNDAY AT THE ATLANTIC CITY CINEFEST


We've seen anniversary tributes this year to Carrie and Obsession, but one film in the De Palma canon that doesn't usually get much respect is celebrating its anniversary in style this weekend. That's right: Brian De Palma's Wise Guys turns 25 this year, and will play this Sunday night at the Screening Room on the 13th floor of Resorts Atlantic City Casino Hotel, where much of the film was shot. Joe Piscopo, who this past July opened Club Piscopo in the Starlight Room on the second floor at Resorts, will be on hand to introduce Wise Guys, and will also conduct a Q&A after the screening, which begins at 4:45pm (the event is scheduled to go until 7pm). Admission is free. The screening is the closing event (just prior to the Awards ceremony) at this weekend's Atlantic City Cinefest, an annual series of events presented by the Downbeach Film Festival.

Posted by Geoff at 10:35 PM CDT
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Monday, March 28, 2011
FORGOTTEN SOUNDTRACK: 'WISE GUYS'
FILM MUSIC AFICIONADO WOULD LIKE TO SEE IRA NEWBORN'S MUSIC RELEASED

New York Examiner blogger Danny Gonzalez started up a new series last week called "The Forgotten Soundtrack Spotlight," kicking it off by examining Brian De Palma's Wise Guys, and especially its whimsical score by Ira Newborn. This film always grabbed me from the start, with its animated opening credits sequence and Newman's playful theme. Even so, I never took a close look at Newborn, so I did not know until I read Gonzalez' post that he also composed the Naked Gun theme, as well as the scores for some of John Hughes' most popular movies. Gonzalez' column hopes to get some of the "forgotten soundtracks" such as the one for Wise Guys released, if the original session tapes can still be located. Here is an excerpt from Gonzalez' post:

Newborn's score not only emphisizes the comedy of the film, but it gives it flavor. The film opens and ends with a goofy Italian godfather like theme with a fun solo violin playing throughout and adding to it later on is a solo saxphone. There are other more "tense moments" like the Church killing scene and for the twist at the end of the film which add a little more dramatic weight, but still keeps the score light, yet frantic.

The reasons the score is very good is because Newborn had some very solid help in the orchestration stage with David Newman and Alf Clausen. Newman who is the brother of Thomas (who I recently revivewed The Adjustment Bureau) and cousin of Randy, (who won recently for Toy Story 3) and Clausen, who has scored virtually every season of The Simpsons since 1990, do a solid job giving the film what it needed, a strong, bouncy main theme. The work they both did with this score does transcend later on in Clausen's Simpsons' music for the mobster character Fat Tony (voiced by Joe Mantegna) and Newman would later revisit the mobster comedy film genre with the hit The Freshman starring Matthew Broderick and the late Godfather himself, Marlon Brando four years after this film came out. His score for that film is quite similar to this one and it's no surprise because the scores are sorta of interchangeable and have the same bouncy main melody and most of the instrumentation (saxophone, accordion, violin, and mandolin) are also similar. You have to give De Palma credit for going in a different direction with Newborn and to me, he does succeed in going in a more lighter, fun direction with the film and the score. He could've easily just have gone for the material straightforward and turned it into a dark, gangster film like he would with David Mamet for The Untouchables, a year later.


Posted by Geoff at 11:20 PM CDT
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Wednesday, October 14, 2009



Captain Lou Albano
1933-2009

Posted by Geoff at 7:03 PM CDT
Updated: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 7:03 PM CDT
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