Surprisingly incoherent and boring

I wanted to but couldn't!

Boring

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

When l'd watched this movie for the first time in 1986, l found it's good, after more twenty years revisiting this picture again in full restoration DVD with original audio (UGH!)...l still find a fine work from Terence Young,but have two things that could explain the movie didn't get a proper respect from the viewer, firstly was released in same time with Godfather, second the producer was Dino de Laurentiis and he is foreign and didn't has a usual critic treatment like the American has....this is absolutely a naked true, foreign producers didn't have any respect from Americans and critical, but the movie is quite good,the casting is fine, Charles Bronson, Lino Ventura,Joseph Wiseman,among others...the movie is based in a true events and has a remarkable job from Charles Bronson as Joseph Valachi who actually died in prison.Resume: First Watch: 1986 / How many: 4 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7.5

I watched the movie on demand on cable and its amazing that the Valachi Papers was released nearly within a 6 month time span of the Godfather; both films could not be further apart in the spectrum. Bronson was all wrong for the part; the forced accents from all of the principals made it look and sound more like a skit from Saturday Night Live. It was just plain horrible. It was as if they were just trying to cover a time line as if they were doing a documentary. When you watch it, its presentation comes off dated, like a low budget 1950s style movie. The music is heavy and melodramatic. This film should be remade with a director who can take his time and with writers who will work up a screenplay befitting this amazing story. I mean before Joe Valachis testimony, very few people knew the workings of La Cosa Nostra and it was years before J Edgar Hoover even admitted there was organized crime.

Just saw this film again on DVD. Really wasn't overly impressed. Of course it's old hat now and really out-dated. It rode in on the coat-tails of the Godfather and though Charles Bronson is good and Lino Ventura isn't too bad either, it's really the same old rehash of a typical mob story. The bright light of the film is sexy redhead Maria Baxa as Donna, Lino Ventura's mistress in the film. She is smoking hot and sexy as the over-sexed moll who beds both a beautiful woman and one of her boy-friend's bodyguards. It's really unbelievable that this beauty never achieved international fame.So, unless you're really a fan of Charles Bronson, Lino Ventura or the beautiful Maria Baxa, The Valachi Papers is only an above average rehashing of your typical mob movie.

"The Valachi papers" is so badly done, so cheap that not only you can spot modern cars among old ones, but you can see the wires during the shootouts ! It's really too bad, because it was an interesting subject (the first mafioso breaking the omerta) and a Bronson film is always a treat. But Bronson is definitely not Italian and everything is wrong with him in this part : his voice, his mannerisms, his looks. The wigs are terrible too, especially when Valachi is supposed to be in his twenties. Bronson was 52 at the time ! Joseph Wiseman and Lino Ventura are very good as godfathers of the old school, but with different methods. Terence Young as always, can't make a decent film. "The Valachi papers" is available in France, in a good copy, but only in french language, this being a french-Italian co-production.