User Reviews

Traditionally speaking, the influential and groundbreaking classics come from the States, while the raw and exploitative imitations come from Europe (more particularly Italy), but this time it's sort of vice versa. A number of years before there was Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" – or any other major gangster/mafia film, for that matter – there was Henri Verneuil's "The Sicilian Clan". This is the saga of a criminal Italian family in Paris; covering up their clandestine affairs through running a business of electronic bar games. Following a very ingenious but dared and risky escape plan, the family recruits the over-ambitious gangster/convicted cop killer Roger Sartet; even though patriarch Vittorio Manalese is reluctant to trust him and in spite of tough copper Le Goff obsessively hunting him down. Sartet suggests a jewelry theft worth more than 500 million dollars, but the security precautions are insurmountable. Together with an old friend, Vittorio invents a magnificently infallible plan to raid the jewels during their transportation by plane between the exhibition in Rome and another one in New York. Everything goes according to plan, apart from a couple of obstructions, but then Sartet breaks the code of honor by messing around with Vittorio's daughter-in-law. "The Sicilian Clan" literally nearly burst from all the talent that is involved; in the cast with some of the greatest names of French cinema (Alain Delon, Jean Gabin and Lino Venturo) but also in the crew with the fantastic cinematography of Henri Decaë and the immortal soundtrack of Ennio Morricone. But the one thing that probably deserves the most praise and respect is the impeccable scenario, with all its small but intelligent and creative details. It took no less than three gifted writers (including the director) to adapt Auguste Le Breton's landmark novel, but the result is worth showing off with. Sartet's escape from the prison transport is a highlight and the whole plan for the jewelry heist is astoundingly wise. The suspense is present from the beginning but gradually also builds up further along the film. Verneuil terrifically plays out the cat and mouse game between Sartet and Le Goff and, by extension, the entire Manalese family. The story is full of headstrong and robust characters, active on both sides of the law, and the film undoubtedly owes a great deal of its success to the stellar acting performances. During the seventies, and more specifically after the releases of "The Godfather" and films like "Dirty Harry", the police/crime thriller genre boomed in Europe and literally hundreds of excessively violent mafia thrillers got unleashed upon the market. "The Sicilian Clan" relies more on story and atmosphere instead of on wild action, but the film nevertheless remains an important pioneer.

Picture talks about a tough criminal convict -Alain Delon- who escapes and contacts a Siciliens clan ruled by an intelligent old man - Jean Gabin - to prepare a spectacular heist ; then they're pursued by an obstinate Police Inspector - Lino Ventura - . Meanwhile , the ex-con falls in love with a family member -Irina Demick- .

Film runtime is overlong, however is neither tiring , nor boring but amusing as the suspense and thriller is continuous . From the beginning to the end , the action pace is fast movement and for that reason is entertaining. The movie has great loads of action, emotion, drama, tension and intrigue. Actors' interpretation is excellent . Alain Delon as a cold and two-fisted delinquent is top notch . Jean Gavin as a serious and clever Paterfamilies is magnificent . Lino Ventura as a stubborn Police Inspector is awesome. Irina Demick as an attractive lover is enjoyable and enticing. Colorful and atmospheric cinematography by Henry Decae is simply riveting . Special mention to musical score by Ennio Morricone, it's sensitive and extraordinary with a feeling leitmotif . The motion picture was well directed by Henri Verneuil. The film is considered a French classic movie and one of the biggest about hold-up/mobsters genre. The flick will appeal to French noir cinema buffs and Alain Delon fans . Rating : Above average. Outstanding and worthwhile watching.

As one of the IMDb reviewers said, "The best feature of this film is the fantastic sound track by the genius composer Ennio Morricone". Morricone's catchy, wistful, longing, mourning and absolutely mesmerizing score elevates this typical (in a good sense) French crime noir to even higher level. I first heard it couple of years ago when I bought Morricone's "Once Upon A Time: The Essential Ennio Morricone Film Music Collection", a double disc superb collection. Even among legendary Morricone's scores, the music for "Le Clan des Siciliens" stands alone. It created a mood that mixed suspense, melancholy, danger, and regrets, and it made me fell in love with the movie that I had not even seen. Since I heard the score for the first time, I tried to find the film and finally I purchased a Region Free, NTSC, widescreen DVD with French, English and Russian Audio tracks and English subtitles. The film looks gorgeous and I was pleased with the clean and clear DVD transfer. I have been a fan of French crime/heist/noir/mystery of 1960-1980 films for long time and to see three of my favorite actors (Alain Delon, Jean Gabin, and Lino Ventura) who had made many classics of the beloved genres acting in the same movie added to my excitement. All three are excellent, and one of the advantages of the new DVD was the chance to see the film in its original French and to hear the real voices of three screen legends. Nobody could be cooler than Delon as Roger Santet, a convicted murderer, ruthless, violent yet irresistibly and dangerously charming, a "beautiful destructive angel of the dark street". Lino Ventura is reliable and convincing as a chief of detective inspectors who had vowed to hunt Santet down. Aging Jean Gabin, one of the most beloved French actors with the wide acting range who could play successfully the characters as diverse as inspector Maigret and Pépé le Moko is wonderful as Vittorio Manalese, the father and "the Godfather" of the Sicilian Clan, the family which is tied by blood in more ways than one. Vittorio certainly lived by an old wisdom, "Keep your friends close but your enemies closer."

This French jewel heist is always entertaining due to crisp direction by Henri Verneuil and a script that never takes the usual path. It's great seeing Jean Gabin play the sophisticated patriarch of a Sicilian crime family that plots to hijack an airliner with $50 million in jewels. Alain Delon is his usual moody, wild-man self as the cold-blooded killer who is being sought by the French police and is a constant threat to the upcoming heist. Lino Ventura is a standout as the droll police inspector who's trying to quit smoking while chasing Delon. Great 60's period score by Ennio Morricone. It's not available on DVD, but Fox Movie Channel plays it occasionally. Much more fun than "Le Cercle Rouge" which was recently released on DVD to much fanfare.

Le Clan des Siciliens is an excellent case study of the Mafia, in my opinion much better than The Godfather. I have seen it twice with more than 10 years in between. Both times I was deeply impressed. Le Clan des Siciliens has that typical French crime noir touch: from the very beginning the spectator knows that things will go wrong, but not how. Beware. This is not a fast speed action flick. Don't expect a lot of shooting and explosions. In my opinion that adds to the realism. Maffia criminals are professionals, not lunatics. They avoid unnecessary violence, because they don't want to draw attention. So Le Clan des Siciliens is a study of criminal behavior and Mafia morals. It relies heavily on character building. Thus it uses all the strong points of French cinema in the period 1960-1980. Gabin, Delon and Ventura excel. They are so much better than say Brando, Pacino and Caan. Le Clan des Siciliens is one of the best movies I know and moreover a half forgotten one.

Tightly plotted and clever, but there isn't enough space for the huge cast to hold weight. Alain Delon is a slick heartbreaker in his short screen time though.

Roger Sartet (Alain Delon) is a high profile career criminal who is top of the French police wanted list, so when he escapes from their custody for a second time under the nose of dogged cop L'inspecteur Le Goff (Lino Ventura), he goes immediately into hiding as the police try to locate him. Vittorio Manalese (Jean Gabin) a Sicilian born criminal and godfather of a mob style family, is the man who sprung him from police custody, he has long planned his retirement back in Sicily but is immediately interested in one last heist after hearing Sartet's plan for a big jewel heist in Rome. Together with some mobsters from New York, they set in motion a daring plan to steal the jewels while on route to the US. All goes well for Sartet until a child's indiscretion alters his fate for good.

Entertaining enough crime flick, with some excellent set pieces and made with plenty of style, the funky main theme by Ennio Morricone being a highlight. All three legends of French cinema are excellent although none have enough screen time to truly rank in their best. Verneuill's direction is uber stylish, with some passing similarities to Leone in framing and tone, although some elements of the main heist are quite dated they are still quite fun. Its not a film for the pc brigade however as there is plenty of sexual denouement, Sartet's affair with the beautiful Jeanne Manalese (Irina Demick) producing one of cinemas most outrageous moments of sexual symbolism, its so absurd you just have to laugh.

When I saw the film's poster for the first time, it was so impacting I thought for once that Gabin, Ventura and Delon were allies, all three members of the Sicilian clan. I was wrong but I defy anyone not to have these three legendary names pop up in their heads when they think of "The Sicilian Clan"

Alain Delon is Roger Sartet, a man sentenced to death after a failed armed robbery that cost the lives of two policemen. Lino Ventura is Le Goff, the Chief of Police who takes Sartet's case personally and can't admit the way he escaped under their nose. And Jean Gabin is Vittorio Manalese, the head of the 'Sicilian Clan', who wishes he could do a final job before retiring in Sicily. Delon is the dark, handsome and unsympathetic antihero; Ventura is the moral and solidly built law enforcer and Gabin the wise and experienced criminal patriarch, sharing with Le Goff a profound contempt for Sartet.

Henri Verneuil's 'The Sicilian Clan" is mostly renowned for having reassembled the Holy Trinity of French Cinema, maybe at the expenses of the other characters who seem underdeveloped in comparison. But it doesn't matter since the three leads fill the screen with a virile magnetism and although the "The Sicilian Clan" is adapted from a novel by Auguste Le Breton, who wrote "Bob Le Flambeur", the film borrows less from Melville's existential heist films than the Western Spaghetti genre. It's all about the magical trio that elevated the film to its legendary status, a sort of French "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly".

Befittingly, the film is scored by the Maestro Ennio Morricone who specialized in the late 60's and early 70's in the ultimate tough-guy films, from the Western to the gangster flick. The music also carries the mark of the Italian Morricone with the typical 'boing' sound and the haunting whistle, a sort of 'song of death' that foresees a tragic ending, coming from a final confrontation. Death itself is the omnipresent figure, the unsung character of the film, Sartet is a walking dead, with nothing to lose, Le Goff's determination is built on the death of his men and the Mannalese although criminals refuse to kill anyone in their job, but we know that every rule allows a few exceptions.

If the film can seem more superficial than Melville's gangster flicks, it remains nonetheless a reference of the caper sub-genre, with a perfectionist and methodical approach. The Mannaleses help Sartet escape from the cop, and the prize of his help, apart from a book of expensive stamp, is a plan drawn by an engineer he befriended in jail. The electronics expert set up the security system of a museum in Rome where a diamond exhibition is held. Mannalese trusts the engineer, but not Sartet, in one of the film's most memorable scenes, he advises him to keep his brains above the belt, he merely escaped from a second arrest when Le Goff found him in a hotel with a prostitute.

Mannalese meets a Mafioso fellow, played by a scene-stealing Amedeo Zenarri. Their visit to the museum validates the plan, but reveals some insightful surprises: a ticking watch can be detected, and the police can come one minute after the alarm. Then, in a delightful scene, they go to a toyshop, and try to conceive the plan out of a few plane and cars models. The only way to escape from security is to rob the diamonds inside the plane that will take them to New York and hi-jack it. "The Sicilian Clan" features one of the most suspenseful heist ever featured in film and incredibly well done for a French production.

Yet we're so accustomed to the genre to understand that the success of the robbery is secondary. But we follow it like Hitchcockian suspense: one of the best parts occurs when the wife of the diamond-transfer insurer, whom Sartet took the identity, comes to see her husband. At that time, both the viewers and the Mannaleses are caught by surprise, and it's difficult to anticipate the way the situation will be handled. And Mannalese proves to be the 'man of the situation' and the brains of the group. We foresee his human aptitude during his first confrontation with Le Goff, when he bluffs him enough not to raise any suspicion from the unflappable cop.

Gabin is simply astonishing; a few years before the image of the Mafia boss would forever be transfigured by the landmark performance of Marlon Brando in "The Godfather", Gabin plays in all nuance and subtlety a French 'Don'. His accent is remarkable considering how he's more associated with French popular culture, and there's never one scene that feels like caricature. Although the family background is not well developed, it is significant to the plot by making outcasts out of the two French: Sartet, and Jeanne, Irena Demick as Mannalese's sexy daughter-in-law.

He didn't touch a woman for two years, almost got himself arrested for an escapade with a prostitute, and she's fascinated by this man who, unlike her husbands, isn't reluctant to use his gun. The flaws, the mistakes to come, are predictable, but "The Sicilian Clan" is capable of surprising you even by exploiting archetypal situations. And in this cat-and-mouse thriller, one should only count on the other's flaw to lure him into his own trap. Le Goff expect one fatal mistake from Sartet, and so does Mannalese who still has to prove he's got some Sicilian blood pumping his veins, but Mannalese's sense of honor might lead him to another form of retirement.

But that's the tragic beauty of life when even experience can be outweighed by a question of principles, a sense of immanent justice, that would reconcile men as different as Le Goff and Mannalese.

Although Henri Verneuil's crime films lack the existential edge of his acknowledged master Jean-Pierre Melville, his technical expertise as a film maker is indisputable, never more so than in the set pieces from this film which feature two escapes and a mid-air hijack. Melville's regular cinematographer Henri Decae again works his visual magic and it has been adapted from the novel by Auguste le Breton who had penned the Big Daddy of all heist movies 'Rififi' and supplied the screenplay for Melville's early masterpiece 'Bob le Flambeur.' The adaptor here is convicted double murderer and Vichy collaborationist Joseph Damiani who, after paying his debt to society, changed his name to José Giovanni and contributed his criminal mentality and detailed knowledge of the Underworld to countless cops and robbers movies.

This is generally considered to be the first of the modern day mafia movies and marks Verneuil's frontal assault on the all-important North American market armed with the big guns of Jean Gabin, Alain Delon and Lino Ventura. The film is therefore more about personalities than characters and although all three do what they do very well, it is Ventura as gruff commissaire le Goff who steals the show whilst Monsieur Gabin alas fails to convince as a Mafia Don and Delon's role is merely an extension of those he had played so memorably for Melville. This charismatic actor made no secret of his Underworld connections which if anything increased his appeal whilst the scandal involving the mysterious death of his chauffeur did not exactly harm the film's box-office.

Those that pay the piper play the tune and it was at Darryl F. Zanuck's insistence that the police element was beefed up, not to mention the role played by his squeeze at the time Irina Demick who is required to be nothing more than an edible dish. Mention must be made of popular Italian star Amadeo Nazzari who has scant screen time but who registers strongly as one of Gabin's partners in crime.

Devotees of Ennio Morricone will be in seventh heaven here as his score comes from his busiest and most creative period, featuring not only whistling but also a bizarre 'boing boing' effect on a Jewish harp. It has been said that gangster films are essentially Westerns without the horses and in this regard Signor Morricone's score is spot on.

This was my introduction to Jean Gabin and I was sufficiently impressed by his persona to work backwards through his astonishing career and what a rewarding journey it has turned out to be. Former wrestler Lino Ventura had made his film debut as a hood opposite Gabin in 'Touchez-pas au Grisbi.' They became lifelong friends and Ventura was destined to assume Gabin's mantle. The dynamic here between Gabin and Delon is not nearly as effective here as it had been in their first film together for Verneuil, 'Mélodie en sous-sol' which despite a smaller budget and being shot in black-and-white is infinitely more appealing than this later offering.

'The Sicilian Clan' has a great deal to recommend it but for this viewer at any rate, does not quite live up to its classic status.

This film is very much of its time--in a bad way. There are girls with lots of hair and very little clothes, and the dizziness of the decade has got into the mood and the plot. There is no feeling of suspense, and there are multiple gaps in logic and inconsistencies. For instance (I'm keeping it vague so as not to create a spoiler), at one point a woman, a member of the public, realizes that one of the gang members, in a very high-security operation, is not in fact the man he is impersonating. She tells someone in authority. Then there is a distraction, and both she and the official apparently forget about the impersonation! They're not bothered at all!

Despite the presence of that great, gritty actor Jean Gabin and that cupcake, Alain Delon, the characters they play are not only unsympathetic, they are uninteresting. They have no personality. If you want to see what they can do in a crime caper, watch the far superior Any Number Can Win.

Women like thrillers too, but this is not one for us, just for the kind of men who are satisfied if a movie has naked women, fast cars, and guns going bang-bang.

the music. and the acting. as inspired meet. a film who remains, after almost a half of century, more than seductive. for Ventura, Gabin and Delon, sure. but, more important, for the clear/precise definition of the rules of a genre. because it is a classic. like a diamond, each line is clear and impeccable. the family spirit , the work of stubborn policeman, the charming and vulnerable - in a specific way - criminal, the " Pater familias" who knows and proposes the rules and has the solutions. short, a film who I saw in many occasion. like the first time. because not only the story is fascinating but its many details who refresh memories and gives new clues. so , a great film.

"Clan of the Sicilians" is a real French gangster movie classic from 1969 with three of the most important male actors of that time and genre - Lino Ventura as hard-boiled Parisian cop, Jean Gabin as a dominating Sicilian gangster clan "padre" and young Alain Delon as a hot-blooded, seducing robber. The whole movie is dominated by the great acting of these three characters, but with enough space left for a dark film noire atmosphere and a thrilling "big coup" plot. Henri Verneuil's direction is one of his best, and Ennio Morricone's seducing Mediterranean score is simply stunning, catchy and one of his best works of the sixties. Even after more than 30 years, this French crime classic is still fascinating, thrilling and a real pleasure to watch.

I'll be honest and say I love Jean Gabin and Alain Delon, so I definitely wanted to see The Sicilian Clan, which also stars another great, Lino Ventura. Unfortunately for me, dubbing detaches me from some foreign movies and for some reason, they seem slower. This film was no exception. I'll also add that this film was dubbed in three languages, and Gabin did his own English dubbing.

Directed by Henri Verneuil, Gabin is the head of a crime family that plans to hijack a plane with $50 million in jewels on board.

Delon is an assassin being chased by the French police and is getting in the way of the robbery plans.

My favorite by far was Lino Ventura as the police inspector who sucks lollipops while trying to quit smoking. He's wonderful.

Irina Demick, a Zanuck protégée, is absolutely beautiful as one of the Sicilian clan wives. She's very Suzy Parker-like, sexy, and does a good job, though I don't imagine doing a love scene with Alain Delon was all that difficult.

Gabin is terrific -- I'd seen so many of his old films it was a shock to see him older. Quiet, belying his hard, sinister attitude underneath, he is grandfather, father, and villain. Delon is Mr. Cool (isn't he always), one step ahead of the police, hiding behind a pair of sunglasses, as deadly as Gabin but with no capacity for human relationships.

For me, this was a little slow getting to the point, but the dubbing really took me out of the plot. Ventura's performance transcended that, though. That could have been because the character was more fleshed out than some of the others.

Definitely worth seeing. It's amazing that Gabin, Delon, and Ventura enjoyed such fame yet aren't well known to U.S. audiences for the most part.

Film is a lot less dour then you'd expect a film with these three stars to be---its not that the film is a comedy--but there are a lot of funny moments throughout entire running time leading up to the audacious jewel heist that is the film's reason for being. (I won't spoil it but lets just say when was the last time anyone used an airplane to rob jewelery?!?!?!?) From the jail break at the very beginning to the crazy ass heist at the end--this film is surprisingly entertaining. I don't know about you but sometimes i find these french crime films get so relentlessly dour and gray and existentialist...that even though they can be amazing to watch and awesome to contemplate---fun is never a term i would really use to describe them as.... that it was such a surprise to find this one so lighthearted. *maybe lighthearted is the wrong word considering that none of the characters are exactly skipping down the streets with joy--but the film itself is certainly a lot less angst filled then one would expect a french crime film like this to be.

Alain Delon is a felon who's sprung from jail while in transit (definitely an awesome scene) at the orders of the leader of this crime family (played by Jean Gabin--who for some reason is using Pinball Manufacturer as his cover--leading to the should be immortal line--Why Don't You Stay Here And Play Some Pinball Detective???) Gabin wants to pull off this daring jewel robbery of a location that Delon's character has some inside knowledge of (delon shared a cell with a guy who used to work at this museum displaying rare jewelery and in exchange for protection--delon gets inside info on both the layout of the museum and the security device triggers--he gets enough info to even map out a blueprint of the lay-out of the place--a little head start on future planning.) Gabin essentially forces Delon to commit this robbery with him and his family---and while Delon isn't exactly happy to do so--he goes along with it. Meanwhile he's making goo-goo eyes at the wife of one of Gabin's sons---oh gee i wonder if that's gonna be important to the plot later on.

Lino Ventura is on hand as the detective tracking down Delon---and he has some wonderful hard bitten one liners throughout. Ventura looking here as kind of a cross between DeNiro and middle age Depardieu--goes through with the motions of chasing down Delon and of course--well you'll see what happens. (Ventura by the way plays the standard issue grouchy detective character so wonderfully here--he really jumps off the screen in some cases--you wonder why he's not better known today among the more famous 60's and 70's french actors.) The plot of the film isn't really all that important anyways--as most of it goes out the window by the second hour anyways--Security at the museum is so airtight--it results in Gabin coming up with a another plan to rob those jewels--one so over the top, so out there, so completely ridiculous--you wonder why you've never seen something like it in a Bruckheimer film in the last 20 years. Its that kind of go for broke attitude that makes the film a lot of fun--but Ennio Morricone's nearly constant theme music also helps a great deal. (the music is so omnipresent its almost like its own character here---i would argue that the music plays more of a character here then any of Gabin's sons--many of whom help in the planning of the robbery--but all of em are so interchangeable that you never know who's who...not that it matters since your attention is going to be on Delon anyways.) I would definitely recommend this film--not just to fans of french crime films--but for fans of any ridiculous action movie since it gets so ridiculous that it actually become that rare french crime film that's also fun to watch.

Henri Verneuil was no Jean-Pierre Melville and "The Sicilian Clan" is no "Le Doulos" or no "Le Cercle Rouge" but it has its own delights, mainly in the form of Jean Gabin and Alain Delon, (the crooks), and Lino Ventura, (the cop on their heels), and a plot that involves the hi-jacking of a plane carrying a fortune in jewels. It's a very sixties crime caper, beautifully photographed in wide-screen by Henri Decae. The version I saw was in English and I'm guessing it was only partly dubbed and very well at that. The plot may be a bit on the preposterous side but Verneuil pulls out all the stops and while it is far from the greatest of heist movies, it is still very enjoyable.

This is a film that proves just how cool things were in the 1960s in Europe, particularly France and Italy. The ultra-cool Alain Delon (the French Steve McQueen) is truly superb as the loner hood, and with an excellent cast (including the legend Jean Gabin), thrilling story, stylish direction and yet another masterful score by Ennio Morricone, THE SICILIAN CLAN is a must-see for lovers of heist thrillers.

Somewhere in Sicily, Vittorio Manalase (played by Jean Gabin) plays the father/leader of a criminal family clan who hires a rather prestigious outsider, Roget Sarte (played by Alain Delon) to plan a heist of a Paris jewelry show. But Roget isn't exactly trustworthy, and he's captured the eye of LeGoff (played by Lino Ventura), who is a determined police chief that will stop at nothing and break every regulation in the book to get his man. The movie had some really strange music that sounded like it was left over from a spaghetti western, and the acting was a homogenous mixture of overacting and underacting. Yet, there are a handful of unintentionally funny scenes, like when LeGoff busts Malik, a shadowy photographer. After screwing up a handful of negatives of Roget's face, Malik comments heartily with "Dammit, they're exposed!" even though his plan to protect Roget was bloody obvious. Another good scene was when Rivelle, a junkie who was surprised by LeGoff's sudden raid on his house, blurts "I was sound asleep, and they burst into my room and turned everything upside down!" His voice was so high pitched and manic, it's always funny, no matter how often I watch this movie. Near the end, however, the enjoyment factor grinds down to a halt, except for a minor spark when Roget was in a phone booth screaming at Vittorio after an unsuccessful attempt by LeGoff to bust him in an airport. All in all, it wasn't a bad movie, but it had some flaws that turned it into an awkward comedy instead of a thriller.

The twenty-fourth feature film by French-Armenian writer and director Henri Verneuil (born Ashot Malakian in Rodosto/Tekirdag in Ottoman Turkey), "The Sicilian Clan" is a stylish thriller with a nice score by legendary Ennio Morricone.

Absolutely not a good movie, full of clichés about Sicilian mafia, even here depicted as a minor thing, concerning only a few "deviated" families, but all in all perfectly under control. On the contrary, Mafia is far from being a romantic inconvenience, with heroic and wise old bosses always ready to pay for their "mistakes" (when? where?), but rather a terrible thing, which poisons all the ECONOMY of the world. More over, in this movie almost everybody seems out of role, except in part Ventura and Delon. The two venerables, Gabin and Nazzari, were probably never explained which parts they were playing in which movie. Even the music by Morricone, beautiful but obsessively repetitive, at the end spreads a certain smell of staleness. Sorry