Paddy Whacked: The Irish Mob
History Channel
1 DVD, Approx. 90 mins.
Released in 2007 from an '06 broadcast.
$17

High production.

Pretty good info, history of the Irish gangsters with focuses on Whitey Bulger, Owney Madden, Jimmy Coonan etc etc...but filled with cheesy re-enactments. Very little in the way of actual footage, pics etc. Over all decent.

Interview clips with: T.J. English, Joe Coffey, Antionnette Giancana,Ray Flynn.

ABC News Nightline: Fulton Fish Market

Not gonna bother with all the info....
This will pop up under mafia documentary searches on some sites. I thought " Great!A subject you don't normally see covered" but there is no mob content at all.

So don't bother with this.

Gangland: Bullets over Hollywood
Starz Entertainment
1 DVD, Approx. 70 mins.
Released in 2006
$13

High Production.

While not strictly a gangster doc. this goes into some basic history and how the mob has influenced movies since the early 1900's. Pretty good watch.

Narrated by Paul Sorvino and Interviews with: Chaz Palminteri, Michael Madsen, Henry Hill, Joe Pistone, Angie Dickinson, Leonard Maltin, Talia Shire, James Caan.

Lords of the Mafia: New York
Koch Entertainment
1 DVD, Approx 60 mins.
Released in 2003
$8

High Production.

Focuses on the Lucchese Family from the beginning up to Vic Amuso and Gaspipe Casso. Narrated by Robert Stack. Program keeps cutting into him in an office setting which is a bit irritating but overall a pretty good program.

This is from a 7 or 8 disc set titled under LotM. This and one other disc (LotM: Sicily) have something to do with the Italian mob. The rest are other organized crime groups from around the world.You can find them for sale seperatly or as a set at various prices.

Don't Call Me Bugsy
MPI Home Productions
1 DVD, Approx. 70 mins.
Released in 2008 but from a 1992 production.
$11

Lower budget production but not too bad.

Life and times of Bugsy, doesn't quite give a clear picture of the Las Vegas story but an overall good watch.

Rogues Gallery: Mickey Cohen
Goodtimes Ent.
1 DVD, Approx 45 mins.
Released in 2004
$4

Lower budget production but not too bad.

Life and times of Mickey C. Goes into the Bugsy parts briefly. Worth a watch.

Joeseph "The Rat" Valachi
A&E Biography
1 DVD, Approx. 45 mins.
Released in 2004
$24.95

High budget but one of those burned dvdr dealio's.

The life and times of Valachi. Good watch.

Some notables interviewed: Robert Blakey, Jerry Capeci, Ernest Volkman, Peter Maas.

Got this in a package deal at a bit of a reduced rate.

So I've pretty much shot my documentary wad......have a couple more left but will probably be awhile before I get around to 'em.....noticed a pretty good amount of views so wondering if anyone has found this helpful....amusing, silly, a waste of time???? Any feedback would be good.

Ron

I've found your reviews useful. The productions seem to be pretty much of a muchness. Perhaps you cold give us your top five recommendations based on the criteria you've talked about.

Hmmmmm....
Would have'ta say these would be it for me...

The True History of the Mafia: Godfathers Collection
LCN: An Expose
Crime Inc

All these for the amount and variety of info as well as interviews and clips.

Iceman Interviews - Talking to the man himself...even though he may have...embellished a bit....you know he really was what the law (and he himself)claimed.

Excellent Cadavers - Just an all around great doc.

Still like the A&E stuff but just not worth the $$$...(but I'll still probably get one here and there...)

Glad you found 'em useful TB!

Ron

You actually may be better off $$$ wise in the long run purchasing a DVD recorder (if you don't already have one) and taping those shows.

BTW, great reviews!

Thanks for posting them, Ron.

Godfathers of the Mafia
Crystal Entertainment
2 DVD, 4 Episodes, Approx 45 mins ea., total running time 180 mins.
Released in 2007
$9

High production.

This is a re-packaging of 4 episodes of the Lords of the Mafia set.

Ep1 - Looks at OC groups worldwide.
Ep2 - The LotM New York episode which focuses on the Luchesse family.
Ep3 - The Sicily episode.Focuses on Toto Reina/Falcone.
Ep4 - Focuses on Carlos Marcello/ New Orleans.

All the episodes are pretty good. The first has quite a bit of the cheesy re-enactment stuff but overall all right. The other episodes are pretty filled up with news clips, stills etc. and stay pretty focused on the subjects.This is the series hosted by Robert Stack, filmed in the mid to late 90's period.

The price on this definatly makes it a better option than buying the LotM episodes seperately.

Couple of notables interviewed:Ed Becker, Ernest Volkman, Alexander Stille, John Davis.

Thanks DC....and you're right...I probably should go ahead and start recording stuff

Al Capone and the Machine Gun Massacre
History Channel: Man Moment and Machine
1 DVD, Approx. 45 mins
Released in 2008 from a 2006 broadcast
$24.95

High budget production.

Sketchy brief history of Torrio/Capone with some re-enactments. Focuses more on the history of the tommy gun and the effect it had on gangland. Pretty decent watch.

Found this for $11 at Tower.com.

Jimmy Hoffa
A&E Biography
1 DVD, Approx. 45 mins
Released in 2005 from a 2000 broadcast
$24.95

Not a whole lot about mob ties. Mainly the disappearance. Life and times of Hoffa. Pretty good.

Interviews with family and lawyer Frank Ragano.

Found this at Tower.com for $11.

Given the importance of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre as a turning point in American crime history, you'd think the media'd do a better job of putting it into perspective. Instead, we get the same old barking machine-gun shots, etc.

The best account of the massacre is found in Laurance Bergreen's "Capone," the most recent Snorky biography. The best perspective on the significance of the massacre is in John Kobler's "Capone."

America and the Mob: Wartime Friends
A&E Home Video
1 DVD, Approx. 45 mins.
Released in 2008
$24

Part WW2 spy history and the Normandie history.The story of the Navy/Luciano deal takes up about 20 mins of this. Worth a watch if you can find it on the cheap. Found this at Tower.com for $11. Can't recommend them however as I've had multiple problems with orders from them.

Busting the Mob
History Channel
1 DVD, Approx. 45 mins.
Released in 2007
$24

Goes through a brief history of wiretapping and into famous FBI cases where taps were used to build cases against mob guys. The Pizza Connection, the Jag Ducks Corrallo rode in, Castellano's house and Gotti. Pretty good watch. Found this for $11 somewhere out there.

Interviews with Bruce Mouw, Robert Blakey, Ronald Goldstock and Joe Coffey.

The Jaguar bug was a hellova story. Possibly the most valuable bug ever placed by law enforcement.

First of all let me start by saying hello all. Of course as you can tell I am new here. My intrest with Cosa Nostra started with GTA Vice City oddly enough. Even though that was more drug cartel it had some ways of dealing with mafia type stuff. I had always been interested by this mysterious "mafia" that I knew so little about. Then one day I was at Target and I came across a 5 disk DVD set called "La Cosa Nostra The Mafia: An Expose" so I picked that up and it all just snow balled from there. Ever since then I've been getting books, watching as many shows as I can, getting online and I found this site and I was in heaven with my mafia obsession haha. So you can say I'm an up an comer "mafia expert" heh. Still learning but I have a fair share of knowledge that I have gained. Anyways....

I was wondering if anyone remembered the Mafia New Years Day marathon on Bio channel? Well I had most of those shows recorded on my DVR until my mother deleted them, So I was wondering if anyone knew where I could find all of those documentries or if someone had them and would be willing to burn them? Or is that a no-no to ask for that? Any help would be nice. Thanks!

Howdy Chance

You can find alot of these docs for fairly cheap if you search around. I've found alot at the usual electronics sites ( Best Buy, Circuit City etc..)and Amazon.com. I've found a few at other sites also. I'll try to post some links for 'em in the next couple of days. Sometimes you gotta type in different keywords, mafia, gangster, cosa nostra etc...

Unfortunatly the site with the good stuff (A&E) is pretty expensive.

But spend some time looking around and you can find alot of the A&E stuff at other sites for much cheaper.

The Expose set is what got me into the docs (and the mob stuff in general) also. Good set!

Ron

If you're still interested you can try these;

dvdempire.com
deepdiscount.com
familyvideo.com
oldies.com
movies4wholesale.com

I also used towerrecords.com a couple of times but had probs with them.

Ron

also check out half.com they sell loads of dvds and i ahve had good experiences with them dating back many yrs

Thanks...gonna try 'em out.

Ron

The World History of Organized Crime
History Channel
2 DVD, 5 episodes, Approx. 4 hrs.
Realeased in 2002
$40

Ep.1 - Columbia
Story of Pablo Escobar and the cartels.

Ep.2 - India
History of India's underworld and OC. Focuses on Ballywood.

Ep.3 - China
History of Triads, Green Gang in Shanghai,NYC Chinatown and immigrant smuggling.

Ep.4 - Sicily
History of Sicily/Mafia, Toto Riena, Falcone/Borsolino and the Maxi Trials.

Ep.5 - Russia
The rise of the Russians in the 90's, the history of the Russian underworld and the prison Bitch Wars in the 50's and Russian activity in the States.

Pretty interesting set. Good watch even though not much of anything new in the Sicily episode the others were pretty interesting for me.

Have found this set a little cheaper at some sites but usually not much. I did however find this for $3 at movies4wholesale.com but they are currently out of it.

Cocaine Cowboys
Magnolia Home Entertainment
1 DVD, Approx. 2 hrs.
Released in 2006
$9

While not strictly a Mafia doc they are mentioned so close enough....
I thought this was a movie from the description of it on the site but it's actually a very good doc....was pleasantly surprised.

Interviews with some of the supposedly major players in the 80's coke smuggling into the States.
With the extras this actually runs closer to 2 1/2 hours.

I think anyone interested in this part of OC would enjoy this disc.

J Edgar Hoover - And the Great American Inquisitions
MPI Home Video
1 DVD, 1 1/2 hours
Released in 2006
$3

Briefly touches on the start of the FBI and Hoover's beginnings with the early Palmer raids of communists in 1920. Touches on the midwest bank robberies and Mafia. Focuses mainly on the fight against communism, Albert Hiss story, McCarthy etc... and then the later efforts to disrupt the Civil Rights movement.Touches on the relationship with the Kennedys. Not a whole lot as far as Mafia content but a pretty interesting watch overall.

Picked this up for $3 somewhere. Sure it's out there at other sites but don't remember ever seeing it elswhere.

Modern Marvels - Las Vegas
History Channel
1 DVD, Approx 45 mins.
Released in 2005 but show was from early 90's
$24

and

Biography - Mussolini: Italy's Nightmare
A&E
1 DVD, Approx 45 mins.
Released in 2005, actual show was from 1995
$24

The Vegas show spends a few minutes with the mob connection, Wayne Newton and Debbie Reynolds talk a bit about the mob days, gives the true origins of the Flamingo. While not chock fulla mob stuff a good watch to learn some of the history of the city that played a big part in the mob story.

The Mussolini story has no mention of his efforts to wipe out the Mafia unfortunatly. Still, a good watch to learn about the guy who tried.

Found both of these for $8 each out there.

Dave Courtney:Dodgey Dave
EPI Entertainment
1 DVD, 75 mins.
Released in 2007
$15

After I was done watching this I didn't really know much more about this gangster turned celeb than when I started.Clips of his movie (looks like cheese),showing up at events and telling stories but nothing really about the history of this guy.It was pretty much a chore sitting through this and the added 40 mins of bonus footage was more of the same.

This came with the Mad Frank disc I put up here awhile back.Unless you're just really big fans of these guys already and just want to see footage of 'em doing ordinary everyday things I would avoid these vids.