Okay, here's a weird one. Back in the early 1990s, Menahem Golan decided the best thing for his inherited company 21st Century was to shoot two gangster films back-to-back in Russia. Not sure why the prolific exploitation producer jumped on the 1920s/30s gangster bandwagon. Maybe thought Mobsters (1991) and Billy Bathgate (1991) were hits? Anyway, he took advantage of the cheap labor in Russia and the end results were Hit the Dutchman (1992) and Mad Dog Coll (1992; released in the US as Killer Instinct). He wasn't going to let anything get in his way, including an attempted coup in August 1991 (a production stance that made U. S. papers at the time).
To save money (and stick close to history), several actors play the same real-life characters as the mobsters featured were all associates. So both films feature Bruce Nozick as Arthur "Dutch Schultz" Flegenheimer; Christopher Bradley as Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll; Jeff Griggs as Peter Coll; Eddie Bowz as Joey Noe; and Will Kempe as Jack "Legs" Diamond. Naturally, they aren't as unattractive as the real life thugs. Now here the weird part - despite being connected and featuring the same cast, both films are wildly different in terms of the fates of characters. For example, in HTD Peter Coll is killed by Schultz in a shootout in the backstage of a theater; in MDC Peter Coll is gunned down on the street by a Schultz henchman. In reality he was gunned down while driving. "Mad Dog" Coll is killed the same way in both films (tommy gunned while in a phone booth in a store, which is historically accurate), but HTD has Schultz in the shop while MDC has Schultz being the one getting the phone call. Ready for more mind-bending chaos? Both films feature Lucky Luciano and in HTD he is played by Leonard Donato, while in MDC he is played by Matt Servitto, who plays the Schultz partner Bo Weinberg in HTD! And how about this: Rachel York is the singer love interest in MDC and Jenny McShane is the singer love interest in HTD and lip-synchs to songs sung by...Rachel York! I haven't been this confused since Exorcist: The Beginning/Dominion. (Insert Jackie Chan confused meme) As for the films, they are okay time killers. Golan directed HTD and does a decent job (look for him in a cameo as an assassinated mobster) with Russia sorta passing for Depression era NYC. MDC has two credited directors in Greydon Clark and Ken Stein. This one is notable in that the cinematography is by Janusz Kaminski and when MDC hit video store shelves on March 24, 1993, he was a few weeks deep into filming something called Schindler's List (1993) for which he would win something called an Oscar. The photography on the equally slick looking HTD is handled by Nicholas von Sternberg, who made his debut with Dolemite (1975). Thus, Spielberg is only separated from Rudy Ray Moore by a few people.
To save money (and stick close to history), several actors play the same real-life characters as the mobsters featured were all associates. So both films feature Bruce Nozick as Arthur "Dutch Schultz" Flegenheimer; Christopher Bradley as Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll; Jeff Griggs as Peter Coll; Eddie Bowz as Joey Noe; and Will Kempe as Jack "Legs" Diamond. Naturally, they aren't as unattractive as the real life thugs. Now here the weird part - despite being connected and featuring the same cast, both films are wildly different in terms of the fates of characters. For example, in HTD Peter Coll is killed by Schultz in a shootout in the backstage of a theater; in MDC Peter Coll is gunned down on the street by a Schultz henchman. In reality he was gunned down while driving. "Mad Dog" Coll is killed the same way in both films (tommy gunned while in a phone booth in a store, which is historically accurate), but HTD has Schultz in the shop while MDC has Schultz being the one getting the phone call. Ready for more mind-bending chaos? Both films feature Lucky Luciano and in HTD he is played by Leonard Donato, while in MDC he is played by Matt Servitto, who plays the Schultz partner Bo Weinberg in HTD! And how about this: Rachel York is the singer love interest in MDC and Jenny McShane is the singer love interest in HTD and lip-synchs to songs sung by...Rachel York! I haven't been this confused since Exorcist: The Beginning/Dominion. (Insert Jackie Chan confused meme) As for the films, they are okay time killers. Golan directed HTD and does a decent job (look for him in a cameo as an assassinated mobster) with Russia sorta passing for Depression era NYC. MDC has two credited directors in Greydon Clark and Ken Stein. This one is notable in that the cinematography is by Janusz Kaminski and when MDC hit video store shelves on March 24, 1993, he was a few weeks deep into filming something called Schindler's List (1993) for which he would win something called an Oscar. The photography on the equally slick looking HTD is handled by Nicholas von Sternberg, who made his debut with Dolemite (1975). Thus, Spielberg is only separated from Rudy Ray Moore by a few people.