Prizzi's Honor

When hit man Nicholson, a thick lieutenant for the Prizzi mob, falls for unknown beauty Turner, it's bad luck that she too turns out to be a highly paid, if freelance, assassin. She's also brainy enough to take the Prizzi clan for a financial ride; so it's only a matter of time before it's a case of till death do them part. The movie's success lies in Huston's very sure manipulation of mood and tone, somehow connecting black comedy, tongue-in-cheek acting, heavy irony, and even high camp into a coherent story. For all the coast-to-coast jetting, the action is largely composed of faces talking in rooms; the period could be '50s, could be '80s; and Nicholson's thick-upper-lip impersonation of Burt Young has him moving perilously close to Brando, both in mannerism and sheer size. It is, however, a very stylish walk with love and death. CPea.