What It's About:

Antonio (Sordi) is an auto-plant worker in the prosperous city of Milan, but his heart still swells at the thought of his childhood home in Sicily, so he packs up the family and makes a trip South, hoping to convince his prissy blonde wife to build a getaway home on the island. When he drops in to pay his respects to mob boss Don Vincenzo, though, Antonio himself is made an offer he can’t refuse …

Why I Love It:

Long before Don Corleone was a household name, Italian director Alberto Lattuada made this darkly hilarious little gem, one of the first films to deal with La Cosa Nostra. Casting his own father-in-law (Attanasio) in the role of the kingpin who asks Antonio to make a hit, Lattuada brilliantly caricatures the local population and mafia culture of Sicily, while coaxing a charmingly oddball performance from Sordi, the prodigal paesan who’s in over his head. Satirical yet candid, too, about its criminal subject matter, “Mafioso” is an ethnic farce even Tony Soprano would love.