Prince of the City is a 1981 American neo-noir crime drama film directed by Sidney Lumet. It is based on the life of Robert Leuci, called ‘Daniel Ciello’ in the film, an officer of the New York Police Department who chooses, for idealistic reasons, to expose corruption in the force. The screenplay, written by Lumet and Jay Presson Allen, is based on a 1978 non-fiction book by former NYPD Deputy Commissioner Robert Daley.

The film stars Treat Williams as Ciello, with a supporting cast featuring Jerry Orbach, Lindsay Crouse and Bob Balaban. Lumet had previously directed Serpico (1973), an award-winning film about corruption in the NYPD. In real life, that film's subject Frank Serpico was acquainted with Leuci and helped convince him to come forward.

Produced by Orion Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros., the film premiered on August 19, 1981. It received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics and was not a commercial success, but earned several accolades, including an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, and Golden Globe nominations for Best Motion Picture, Best Director for Lumet, and Best Actor for Treat Williams. It also earned the Pasinetti Prize at the 38th Venice International Film Festival.

Plot

Danny Ciello is a narcotics detective who works in the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) of the NYPD. He and his fellow investigators are called "Princes of the City" because they are largely unsupervised and are given wide latitude to make cases against defendants. They are also involved in numerous illegal practices, such as skimming money from criminals and supplying informants with stolen drugs to resell.

Danny has a drug-addict brother and a cousin in organized crime. After an incident in which Danny beats a junkie to steal his heroin supply, his conscience begins to bother him. He is approached by internal affairs and federal prosecutors to participate in an investigation into police corruption. In exchange for potentially avoiding prosecution and gaining federal protection for himself and his family, Ciello wears a wire and goes undercover to expose other dirty cops. He agrees to cooperate as long as he does not have to turn in his partners, but his past misdeeds and criminal associates come back to haunt him.

One of his partners commits suicide during interrogation, and his cousin in the Mafia, who has aided Danny, winds up dead. While confessing to three crimes he committed in the SIU, Danny perjures himself by denying the many other offenses he and his partners have committed. Despite repeatedly professing loyalty, he finally gives up all of his partners, most of whom turn on him. In the end, the chief prosecutor decides not to prosecute Danny and he is reassigned to work as an instructor at the Police Academy.

Cast

  • Treat Williams as Detective Daniel Ciello
  • Jerry Orbach as Detective Gus Levy
  • Lindsay Crouse as Carla Ciello
  • Bob Balaban as Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Santimassino
  • Richard Foronjy as Detective Joe Marinaro
  • Don Billett as Detective Bill Mayo
  • Kenny Marino as Detective Dom Bando
  • Carmine Caridi as Detective Gino Mascone
  • Tony Page as Detective Raf Alvarez
  • Norman Parker as Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Cappalino
  • Paul Roebling as Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Brooks Paige
  • James Tolkan as District Attorney George Polito
  • Steve Inwood as Assistant U.S. Attorney Mario Vincente
  • Matthew Laurance as Ronnie Ciello
  • Tony Turco as "Socks" Ciello
  • Ron Maccone as Nick Napoli
  • Ron Karabatsos as Dave DeBennedeto
  • Tony DiBenedetto as Carl Alagretti
  • Tony Munafo as Rocky Gazzo
  • Robert Christian as "The King"
  • Lee Richardson as Sam Heinsdorff
  • Lane Smith as U.S. Marshal "Tug" Barnes
  • Cosmo Allegretti as Marcel Sardino
  • Bobby Alto as Mr. Kanter
  • Michael Beckett as Michael Blomberg
  • Burton Collins as Monty
  • Carmine Foresta as Ernie Fallacci
  • Conard Fowkes as Elroy Pendleton
  • Peter Friedman as District Attorney Goldman
  • Peter Michael Goetz as Attorney Charles Deluth
  • Lance Henriksen as District Attorney Burano
  • Eddie Jones as U.S. Marshal Ned Chippy
  • Don Leslie as District Attorney D'Amato
  • Dana Lorge as Ann Mascone
  • Harry Madsen as Bubba Harris
  • E.D. Miller as Sergeant Edelman
  • Cynthia Nixon as Jeannie
  • Ron Perkins as Virginia Trooper
  • Lionel Pina as Sancho
  • José Santana as José
  • Alan King as Himself (uncredited)

Production

Development and writing

Orion Pictures had bought Daley's book for $500,000 in 1978. Daley was a former New York Deputy Police Commissioner for Public Affairs who wrote about Robert Leuci, an NYPD detective whose testimony and secret tape recordings helped indict 52 members of the Special Investigation Unit and convict them of income tax evasion. and Robert De Niro playing Leuci but the project fell through. Jay Presson Allen, who had read the book, had let it be known that she wanted the film for Sidney Lumet if that deal should fall through. Lumet came aboard to direct under two conditions: He did not want a big name movie star playing Leuci because he did not "want to spend two reels getting over past associations," It was her first project with living subjects, and Allen interviewed nearly everyone in the book and had endless hours of Bob Leuci's tapes for back-up. With all her research and Lumet's outline, she eventually turned out a 365-page script in 10 days. It was nearly impossible to sell the studio on a three-hour picture, but by offering to slash the budget to $10 million they agreed. When asked if the original author ever has anything to say about how their book is treated, Allen replied: "Not if I can help it. You cannot open that can of worms. You sell your book, you go to the bank, you shut up."

Casting

Lumet cast Williams after spending three weeks talking to him and listening to the actor read the script and then reading it again with 50 other cast members. In order to research the role, the actor spent a month learning about police work, hung out at 23rd Precinct in New York City, went on a drug bust, and lived with Leuci for some time. By the time rehearsals started, Williams said "I was thinking like a cop."

Filming

Prince of the City was shot entirely on-location in New York City between March 10 and May 1980. Along with The Godfather (1972), this is the only major Hollywood movie to be shot in all five New York City boroughs (Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island and Manhattan).

Distribution

Orion opened the film in a select group of theaters to allow time for good reviews and word-of-mouth to build demand ahead of wider release. Janet Maslin of The New York Times praised its "sharply detailed landscape" and states that its "brief characterizations are so keenly drawn that dozens of them stand out with the forcefulness of major performances." She concludes that it "begins with the strength and confidence of a great film, and ends merely as a good one. The achievement isn't what it first promises to be, but it's exciting and impressive all the same."

The film was not commercially successful in theatres, earning only $8.1 million of its $8.6 million cost. Prince of the City holds a 93% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 28 reviews with an average rating of 7.5/10. On Metacritic, it has a score of 81% based on reviews from 15 critics.

The film was praised by Akira Kurosawa.

Response from subjects

The film was considered sufficiently authentic by the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that he called Lumet for a copy of the movie to use for the DEA training. Some law-enforcement officials, however, criticized the film for glamorizing Leuci and other corrupt detectives while portraying most of the prosecutors who uncovered the crimes negatively. John Guido, Chief of Inspectional Services, said, "The corrupt guys are the only good guys in the film."