Duke Mitchell's The Executioner (1978)

The first time I was exposed to the insane trailer for this flick was as an extra on the new release of I DRINK YOUR BLOOD (1970). I knew that I would need to watch this flick sooner than later.
Yesterday was the time and I stayed up way past my bedtime, mesmerized by this low rent vision of one man, Duke Mitchell.
Duke wrote it, produced it, directed it and composed the music for it. To make sure it was perfect he also starred in the film as a crazy, power mad Sicilian who defies his deportation and returns to Los Angeles. His plan is to take over the bookies and the black pimps in town to gain power.
In the process he goes up against the mob and starts wreaking bloody havoc wherever he goes.



This film is a slice of time. It takes place in the time that it was filmed. Nothing tries to hide that fact. Consider it a time capsule of clothes, buildings and the attitude of it's people. To show it today would cause a riot as it is very proud in it's unPC behavior. This is what a gangster flick should be like. Reality based more than anything else out there. The grainy quality of the print and the use of a lot of hand held camera work makes this almost have a documentary feel to it. You can tell that Duke Mitchell took great pains to make his vision a reality.




There are some truly jaw dropping moments in the film. The opening credits with a wholesale slaughter, the bomb at the huge funeral and I caught that Duke's character could always smell out a fellow Italian and would let them make the sign of the cross before he shot them in the face. The whole film reeks of something real.
If you think you are a true fan of the gangster film, then this is a film for you to see. find it and you will not be sorry.
I'm not.
I gotta go!

UPDATE! My friend Holger, who's opinion I value greatly, suggested that I link the trailer of the film to this site. I got a better idea, Holger. Here's the trailer;