The Payoff (1978 film)

La mazzetta
Directed by	Sergio Corbucci
Written by	Attilio Veraldi, Dino Maiuri, Massimo De Rita, Luciano De Crescenzo, Elvio Porta
Produced by	Luigi De Laurentis, Aurelio De Laurentis
Starring	Nino Manfredi Ugo Tognazzi Paolo Stoppa
Music by	Pino Daniele
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	17 March 1978
Running time	110 min
Land	Italien
Sprache	Italian

La mazzetta (also known as The Payoff) is an Italian comedy-crime movie directed in 1978 by Sergio Corbucci. It is based on the 1976 crime novel of the same name by the writer Attilio Veraldi.

Plot

The film, a comedy and crime, offers a portrait of the society of Naples 70s in the hands of the "Mafia". Especially, with Ugo Tognazzi, the director wishes to highlight how justice is powerless because of the corruption of its amministranti by the "Camorra". In Naples, the smart Sasa Jovine lives disobeying the law by pretending to be a lawyer and also detective. One day he happens a great opportunity to do some 'money and his fortune is Don Michael Minetti, mafia boss, who asks him to retrieve his daughter Giulia, long gone. In fact, the man thinks more to try to save his legal and judicial situation, offering a bribe to Sasa, with the promise that he eradicates documents could fit it in the future. Sasa, thinking only of the money goes to work investigating lazily on the hot case and soon discovers the bodies of one of the many wives of the customer and the boyfriend Giulia Minetti. Jovine also discovers that a band, a bitter enemy of the group of Don Minetti, is headed by the famous and dangerous Don Nicola Casali, who will get their hands on the documents required to get rid of Minetti. Casali, however, is very determined to get what he wants and Sasa Jovine threat to kill him, if he had not agreed to accept another bribe to the delivery of the material secret top secret. Sasa did not know what to do, since it is driven in serious trouble, and so he went to the police station to report everything to the Lord Absence. This is a determined man and perfectly stubborn to perfectly fulfill his duty, promising that he would take care Sasa him personally the case. The reason Sasa is convinced to turn to Commissioner No, it was for fear of being killed in various clashes that have meanwhile started to check for documents. Also, the girlfriend Luisella was not safe. Sasa However, once it has established a relationship of friendship with Julia, convincing her to put her head in place and return to his family, he discovers that the Commissioner Absence, corrupted by the Mafia, has been directed to attend to other business documents and therefore burning and detectors are no longer needed. In fact, the two gangs of mobsters have now come to an agreement to manage the shady dealings of the city.

Cast

• Nino Manfredi: Sasà Jovine
• Ugo Tognazzi: Commissioner Assenza
• Paolo Stoppa: Don Michele Miletti
• Marisa Laurito: Luisella
• Imma Piro: Giulia Miletti
• Gennaro Di Napoli: Nicola Casali
• Marisa Merlini: Elena, Michele's first wife
• Sal Borgese: Tonino
• Giovanni Borgese: Pasquale
• Benito Stefanelli: Improta
• Giacomo Furia: Antonio
• Nino Vingelli: Catelli
• Lilly Furia: Miss Catelli
• Pietro De Vico: Car parking-Caretaker

Sequel

Following the commercial success of the movie it was planned a movie-adaptation from the Veraldi's second novel based on the character of Sasà Jovine, L'uomo di conseguenza (1978), still directed by Sergio Corbucci and starred by Marcello Mastroianni in the role of Jovine. After a series of meetings Mastroianni declined: he was not enthusiast to resume a character already successfully performed by Nino Manfredi and the plot of the sequel involved incest, a scabrous subject he had treated the same year in the movie Stay As You Are. The production then decided to make him play a story with a tone more similar to La mazzetta but not based on any novel, Neapolitan Mystery.

Further reading

Attilio Veraldi, La mazzetta, Rizzoli, 1976

External links

• The Payoff at IMDb