Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

classicsoncall It's been the better part of three decades or so since I've read the Peter Maas book upon which this was based, maybe even a tad longer. Giving the benefit of the doubt to the screenwriter, most of what you get is probably accurate historically, although I don't know about that nasty castration scene. Pretty gruesome.Stories about the Mafia have always fascinated me, and since La Cosa Nostra had such a rigid discipline, it's not surprising that a lot of stories (and lives) ended badly. I hearken back to the Fifties and Sixties when the front page of the New York Daily News would feature a large photo of the latest mob hit in the style of those on display in the movie. One downside to this film, as other reviewers have mentioned, are the anachronistic elements along with some faulty chronology. For example, Joe Valachi (Charles Bronson) becomes a Mafia made man on November 5th, 1930, and a subsequent scene when his sponsor Gaetano Reina (Amadeo Nazzari) is whacked is dated February 26th of the same year.I also thought the picture could have done a better job of putting the Apalachin Meeting of the Mafia hierarchy in context. Come to think of it, that meeting would be a good topic for a modern day movie treatment if done right.Made and released the same year as "The Godfather", I don't think there's anyone who would disagree that the Corleone saga is much more compelling and interesting as a viewing experience. As a second tier entry however, this picture has it's moments and offers some insight into the inner workings of the Cosa Nostra. Another era flick you might try came out a couple of years later with Peter Boyle in the lead role as "Crazy Joe", based on the life of murdered gangster Crazy Joe Gallo.

Bolesroor "The Valachi Papers" tells, through flashback, the true-life story of mafia driver Joseph Valachi, who became a government informant and was the first to reveal the secrets of the cosa nostra and crime syndicate to the outside world. It is a great premise for a film, rich with possibilities of "Godfather"-like drama and excitement, but is directed so poorly and lifelessly that it fails on almost every level.Charles Bronson is Joe Valachi, and he is farthest here from his tough-guy persona than in any other of his movies. It's clear that he's actually playing a Character here, an actual person, but we never quite learn what makes Joe special or different from the high-powered crime bosses above him or the everyday joe like you and me. He spends most of the movie in old-age make-up, grumbling to his Federal contact who's trying to pump him for as much information as possible, and he comes off like a dull old man sending back his soup at a diner. The flashbacks are the heart of the film, but they reduce even the most outrageous and violent episodes- like an adulterous mafioso who gets castrated for sleeping with a boss' wife- into pre-digested afterthoughts without highs, lows or impact. The real-life assassination of a mafia don at an Italian restaurant- which is brilliantly featured in "The Godfather"- is told here with all the dramatics of an afternoon stroll: the don's dinner companions excuse themselves to the bathroom and he is showered in bullets by a pair of hit-men. Yawn.This was an Italian-made film, and seems to have been made with a homogenized eye for an international release, but that's no excuse for director Terence Young's passionless and flat execution. Even the sequence in which Joe is initiated into the brotherhood of the mafia- a scene that scandalously exposed the mob's most sacred rites- is filmed like a home-video of a Cub Scout earning his Webelos merit badge. Bronson may be stretching the limits of his acting range, but his performance would have been passable if the direction was competent."The Valachi Papers" actually beat "The Godfather" to the theaters by a matter of months, but otherwise the two films don't belong in the same sentence. What should have and could have blown the lid off the most powerful crime organization on the planet has about as much impact as two hours of C-SPAN. This is a sloppy, slapdash assemblage of stories without any insight or meaning. Terence Young doesn't know why any of this is important, so why should we care? "The Valachi Papers" is just flushable filler, and not even recommended for Bronson die-hards.GRADE: D

CRCFleetwood I just viewed the Valachi Papers last night (Netflix rental) and was struck by some of the blatant anachronisms. The big goofs, some of which are mentioned elsewhere on IMDb, include:* The World Trade Towers looming in the background as a car crashes into the river in 1930;* A circa 1970 car riding along Bronson's period sedan;* A contemporary light post in the distance as Bronson carries out a hit for Genovese. Second, as memorable as Joseph Wiseman was as Dr. No, his performance as Marranzo is astonishingly bad.Given these points, I nearly turned off Valachi Papers about 20-minutes into the film, fearing I was in for a two-hour Ed Wood version of a mobster movie. Yet, I stayed with it and found myself fairly engaged for the entire thing. As the film progresses in time, the continuity issues disappear, and Charles Bronson's understated performance helps to sustain a modicum of credibility.One can appreciate how, for a 1972 audience, the film's relative realism breaks some new ground; however, when you consider that The Godfather, one of the best films ever made, was released that year, it's easy to understand why the Valachi Papers has been largely forgotten over the years.

ricanwarrior 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.