BY FRED BLOSSER
In “Stiletto,†a 1969 release from Joseph E. Levine’s Avco Embassy Pictures, Cesare Cardinali (Alex Cord) enjoys a jet-setting lifestyle rivaling and maybe even surpassing those of his real-life contemporaries in the “Playboy†era. He resides in a lavish Midtown Manhattan penthouse, hobnobs with movie stars and minor European royalty at red-carpet parties, races cars on the international circuit, and romances two beautiful girlfriends. But he’s increasingly uneasy about what he has to do to keep the money coming. On the books, he earns his millions through a lucrative importing business. In reality, he’s on the Mafia’s payroll through his patron, crime boss Ettore Matteo (Joseph Wiseman). Whenever a particularly important murder contract is ordered, Cesare is called in to do the job. His specialized tool is a medieval stiletto, and although he’s good at what he does, he’s begun to worry that, sooner or later, as all those knife-punctured bodies pile up, the law will trace the murders to him. When he tells Matteo that he wants to retire before that happens, reasoning that he has more than repaid the Mafia for its support, Matteo and the big Boss in Sicily, Don Andrea (Eduardo Ciannelli), decide that the hit man has become more a liability than a valued asset. Their fears are underlined when a tenacious detective, Baker (Patrick O’Neal), finds circumstantial evidence linking Cardinali to two recent murders ordered by Matteo. With the clock ticking to bring a case against the Mafioso, Baker sends word that he’s closing in.
“Stiletto†was one of five high-profile films executive-produced by Joseph E. Levine from the best-selling novels of Harold Robbins, back in the days when people devoted as much time to light, leisure reading as they now spend on Facebook and Netflix. As movie historian David Del Valle and filmmaker David DeCoteau observe in an excellent audio commentary on a new Blu-ray edition of “Stiletto†from Kino-Lorber Studio Classics, Robbins and Levine maintained an association for several years that nearly bordered on symbiosis. One partner thrived on the other. Robbins wrote trashy but shrewdly crafted pulp novels like “The Carpetbaggers†and “The Adventurers,†and tirelessly promoted them through TV and press interviews in those ancient days before social media. Levine then processed them into equally highly publicized movies, each branded with the Robbins name, promising viewers a level of sex and glamor that they couldn’t find in the staid TV shows of the time. In turn, the movies primed audiences for Robbins’ next book. Even after the careers of Levine and Robbins eventually diverged, the novelist pursued the same strategy with other producers on properties like “The Betsy†and “The Lonely Lady.â€
If you’ve forgotten “Stiletto†or never heard of it in the first place, there are many plausible reasons why, as Del Valle and DeCoteau discuss in their commentary. As a traditional, mid-list studio release, it had the misfortune to appear in theaters in the pivotal year of 1969, when studios, critics, and audiences were focused instead on game-changing arrivals like “Midnight Cowboy,†“Easy Rider,†and “The Wild Bunch.†The cast was competent but unexciting, the direction by TV veteran Bernard L. Kowalski plodding and uninspired, and fans may have been disappointed that the production didn’t really deliver the promised goods of sex and nudity. The movie’s only topless scene occurs early on, when an enthusiastic casino patron momentarily spills out of her low-cut dress. The lady’s bare breasts appear so briefly that the scene itself readily qualifies as a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, to borrow a phrase that my brother in law likes to use. As Cesare’s girlfriends, Britt Ekland and Barbara McNair remain more or less fully clothed, and the bedroom scenes go to fade before anything becomes explicit.
Still, as with any obscure movie, there’s always the chance that new viewers will find something to like that eluded the rest of us. On that count, it’s encouraging to see “Stiletto†given new exposure on Blu-ray. Fashionistas will enjoy the garish Age of Aquarius clothing styles on display in a party scene, and there’s a nighttime escape through Midtown traffic on a motorcycle at night, with the old Hotel Manhattan looming briefly in the background, to remind us that movies didn’t always depend on computer-generated scenery. Producers used to spend money to film on actual locations. In their commentary, the two Davids have fun spotting various Cinema Retro-era actors in supporting roles who would shortly go on to bigger credits, including Charles Durning, Olympia Dukakis, Raul Julia, and as Matteo’s oily lawyer, Roy Scheider. In fact, the droll, informed exchanges between Del Valle and DeCoteau are worth the purchase price of the Blu-ray alone. Their anecdotes about Robbins, Levine, the glitzy trash literature of the ‘60s, and the downslope careers of once-famous actors suggest that a movie about the making of “Stiletto†would be more enthralling than “Stiletto†itself.
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(Fred Blosser is the author of "Sons of Ringo: The Great Spaghetti Western Heroes". Click here to order from Amazon)