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Prince of the City
Prince of the City is a 1981 American epic 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.
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.
When producer and screenwriter Jay Presson Allen read Robert Daley's book Prince of the City (1978), she was convinced it was an ideal Sidney Lumet project, but the film rights had been sold to Orion Pictures for writer-director Brian De Palma and screenwriter David Rabe. Allen let it be known that if that deal should fall through, she wanted the deal for Lumet. Just as Lumet was about to sign for a different picture, they got the call that Prince of the City was theirs.
Allen hadn't wanted to write Prince of the City, just produce it. She was put off by the book's non-linear story structure, but Lumet wouldn't make the picture without her, and agreed to write the outline for her. Lumet and Allen went over the book and agreed on what they could use and what they could do without. To her horror, Lumet would come in every day for weeks and scribble on legal pads. She was terrified that she would have to tell him that his stuff was unusable, but to her delight the outline was wonderful and she went to work. 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."
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Prince of the City
Prince of the City is a 1981 American epic 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.
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.
When producer and screenwriter Jay Presson Allen read Robert Daley's book Prince of the City (1978), she was convinced it was an ideal Sidney Lumet project, but the film rights had been sold to Orion Pictures for writer-director Brian De Palma and screenwriter David Rabe. Allen let it be known that if that deal should fall through, she wanted the deal for Lumet. Just as Lumet was about to sign for a different picture, they got the call that Prince of the City was theirs.
Allen hadn't wanted to write Prince of the City, just produce it. She was put off by the book's non-linear story structure, but Lumet wouldn't make the picture without her, and agreed to write the outline for her. Lumet and Allen went over the book and agreed on what they could use and what they could do without. To her horror, Lumet would come in every day for weeks and scribble on legal pads. She was terrified that she would have to tell him that his stuff was unusable, but to her delight the outline was wonderful and she went to work. 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."