Were it not for the restrictions imposed by the 1950’s publishing convention, John McPartland could have been as obvious in details as Mario Puzo'sThe Godfather in discribing the hardboiled account of gangsters living outside real life.

The author died prematurely in 1958 at the age of forty-seven before The Kingdom of Johnny Cool was published the following year. In 1963, the book was turned into the seminal hit-man flick with the shortened title of Johnny Cool.

It’s World War II, and a young Sicilian goat-herder named Giordano kills a German soldier who is raping his mother by pulling the pin on the grenade attached to the Nazi's belt.  Eventually orphaned, he is adopted by a famous brigand named Salvatore Giuliano.  

It’s years later, and mafia boss Johnny "Cool" Colini (Mark Lawrence) is deported from the United States back to his native Sicily; and the old man isn't at all happy about his enforced exile and losing control of his U.S. organization, the Outfit. He vows somehow to get even with those who betrayed him.

Meanwhile, Salvador Giordano (Henry Silva) is now a young man with beard and sunglasses, a respected local bandit and beloved by all except the cops and the army.  In an elaborate helicopter raid to rescue him from the police, shadowy authority figures fake Giordano's death. And then dressed like a monk, the young bandit is turned over to Colini. The gangster-in-exile knows the perfect way for Giordano to pay him back. He mentors the hoodlum on the fine art of being an assassin. Trained and shaved, groomed and polished then given the nickname of his patron (Johnny Cool) Giordano is handed a short list with names of the people whom Colini believes ratted him out to U.S. authorities. In return, Colini will turn his U.S. operations over to Giordano.

So, the youthfully resurgent "Johnny Cool" turns up in America, arriving in New York and quickly goes about the cold-blooded business of taunting the hoods on his hit list now running the Outfit, Colino's organization. As he knocks them off with brutal force, it betrays the cool detachment of his personality. But when the blank-faced killer gets mixed up with Dare Guinness (Elizabeth Montgomery) a wealthy divorcée and sultry fashion designer, beautiful and promiscuous, Johnny falls in love. And she becomes his accomplice.

Two gangsters that Johnny is pursuing show up as a couple of bogus cops. Just as a warning against any further vendetta, Dare is severely beaten then raped—the two gangsters hoping this will stop Johnny’s reign of terror. But it only serves to make him all that more bloodthirsty, taking his revenge by promptly stabbing Dare's assailants with a kitchen knife...well below the waist.

There was a tradition for bodies like these two, a tradition that required the use of the knife once more on each of them. Johnny did this and left the bodies where they lay on the gray sidewalk near the garage.

—from the novel The Kingdom of Johnny Cool by John McPartland.

Dare is then dragged along on his killing spree, and predictably shocked by the horror. The FBI becomes involved when Johnny bombs the swimming pool of gangster Lennart Crandall (Brad Dexter) and the police are able to identify Dare's car. The two separate and plan to meet later.

But following the swimming pool episode, Dare betrays him, informing his enemies where Johnny can be found then surrendering herself to the authorities. Put into a strait-jacketed by the henchman for a former victim, Johnny is promised an elaborate torture. And forced to realize that Colini was just using him as “a messenger boy of death” with no intentions of turning over the Outfit to "Johnny Cool".

Johnny Cool is tortured then murdered by the henchman for one of his victims.

The anti-hero is set up to take the fall, but you’re rooting for Johnny Cool all the way, with Dare Guiness making that surprising choice. It's a cruel movie and the ending is a real downer. But before it's over Johnny gives as good as he gets, when the gangsters get theirs with a machine gun fired from a window-cleaner's platform outside a high-rise office building; karate-chopped senseless; trussed up and left to throttle, and on and on.  

Peter Lawford

Johnny Cool was produced by actor Peter Lawford through his CrisLaw production company. Filmed in January, 1963 and premiering in Chicago, Illinois on 30 August of that year, the film was released by United Artist on the 2nd of October, shot in black & white with a running time of 101 minutes. In addition to the involvement of producer Lawford, the film boasts “Rat-Pack” crony Sammy Davis, Jr. performing the catchy theme song over the soundtrack and who also pops up in the role of “Educated”—high-roller at the gaming tables. Another rat-pack hanger-on is Joey Bishop in a cameo appearance.

A few years earlier Silva had played the role of Roger Corneal, co-starring with Lawford, Davis and Bishop in Ocean’s 11 (1960) a film project that Lawford had been instrumental in bringing to Frank Sinatra’s attention. During the 1960's the link between Sinatra's Hollywood "Rat Pack" and the political glamour of Lawford’s brother-in-law, President John F. Kennedy followed the Sinatra/Lawford association. Together with Dean Martin, they would appear in several Rat Pack movies and stage acts.

Johnny Cool should have made Henry Silva in the title role a star; instead, it typecast him as a villain for the long life of his career with much of his mid-career success arising in Europe.

Directed by William Asher (Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker), a journeyman better known for his many "Beach Party" musicals, Johnny Cool marked the first time he and Elizabeth Montgomery collaborated; they would later marry the same year, and then one year later create the TV series “Bewitched”. While his work on the movie is conventional genre filmmaking, the real take-away is Montgomery’s performance. After you see her in this, you’ll never be able to think of cute"Samantha" as bewitchingly G-rated ever again. She’s incredibly sultry and dramatically effective. And it’s a shame she didn't get a chance during this period to have a film career that would have stretched her talent and shown her true acting chops.

Henry Silva as Johnny Cool/Giordano

Elizabeth Montgomery as Dare Guiness

Richard Anderson as the Correspondent

Jim Backus as Louis Murphy

Joey Bishop as Used Car Salesman

Brad Dexter as Lennart Crandall

Wanda Hendrix as Miss Connolly

Hank Henry as Bus Driver

Marc Lawrence as Johnny Colini

John McGiver as Oby Hinds

Gregory Morton as Jerry March

Mort Sahl as Ben Morro

Telly Savalas as Mr Santangelo

Joan Staley as Suzy

Sammy Davis Jr. as Educated

Katherine Bard as Mrs Krandall

Steve Peck as Kromlein

Douglas Henderson as FBI Man

Frank Albertson as Bill

Mary Scott as Margaret Huntington

Elisha Cook Jr. as Undertaker

Robert Armstrong as Gang Member

Douglas Dumbrille as Gang Member

Joseph Calleia as Tourist

 with George Neise and John Dierkes

From the big band era, Billy May’s soundtrack is about as obscure as the gangster revenge tale it underscores, featuring "The Ballad of Johnny Cool" sung by Sammy Davis Jr. It's vintage stuff.

The title song on track #12 is technically excellent, impressing upon the listener that contemporary American groove of some 45 years ago. Cool jazz that captures time and place.

I just wish they would release the film on DVD, which is long overdue. To date, Johnny Cool is not available on Home Video in the United States. The movie has been aired on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and did pop up once for a screening at the Library of Congress Pickford Theater in Washington D.C.

Hard to see and...well...very cool. I grant you, it's not a great film but deserves a look-see, if you ever get a chance. Hopefully one day we all will.

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By Frederick Louis Richardson
November 12, 2008
Copyright © 2008 DreaMerchant® All Rights Reserved