Hollywood Italians : dagos, palookas, romeos, wise guys, and Sopranos / Peter Bondanella.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bondanella, Peter, 1943-2017.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Italian Americans in motion pictures.

Italian Americans in the motion picture industry.

Physical Description:

352 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Continuum, 2004.

Summary:

From the silent era and The Black Hand (1906) to HBO's hit series The Sopranos, Hollywood has had a love-hate affair with Italian Americans.

This book is a celebration of nearly a century of images of Italians in American motion pictures and their often under-appreciated, underpraised, and truly remarkable contribution to popular culture.

Hollywood Italians covers the careers of dozens of stars including Rudolph Valentino, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, John Travolta, Sylvester Stallone, Marisa Tomei, James Gandolfini, and many others. In addition, the book reviews the work of such Italian American directors as Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese in a fresh light.

In all, Hollywood Italians discusses scores of films with a concentration on the most important, including their literary and European-cinematic roots. The book is capped by a comprehensive examination of The Godfather and its two sequels, as well as the international television phenomenon The Sopranos.

Contents:

1 Dagos: Hollywood Italian Histories of Immigration, La famiglia, and Little Italies from the Silent Era to the Present 17

2 Palookas: Hollywood Italian Prize Fighters 92

3 Romeos: Hollywood Italian Lovers 132

4 Wise Guys: Hollywood Italian Gangsters 172

5 Comic Wise Guys: Hollywood Italian Gangsters Yuk It Up 282

6 Sopranos: The Postmodern Hollywood Italian Famiglia 296.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [336]-341) and index.

ISBN:

082641544X

OCLC:

53084083