Prince of the City – Die Herren der Stadt (1981)

Prince of the City – Die Herren der Stadt: Directed by Sidney Lumet. With Treat Williams, Jerry Orbach, Richard Foronjy, Don Billett. A New York City narcotics detective reluctantly agrees to cooperate with a special commission investigating police corruption, and soon realises he’s in over his head, and nobody can be trusted.

“You know the gag, u0026quot;Behind the tinsel and glitter of Hollywood, thereu0026#39;s a lot more tinsel and glitter.u0026quot; Well behind the filth and corruption of the so called u0026quot;War On Drugsu0026quot;, thereu0026#39;s a lot more filth and corruption. When I was a young and naive budding trumpet player, I idolized a trumpet player by the name of Red Rodney. He played with Charley Parker. Thatu0026#39;s like starting for the Yankees. Like Parker he became addicted to heroin. To me he was royalty. The drug life for him was one of incarceration and constant police surveillance. One day he said a common occurance during an arrest was for the police to take and keep any money he had, and take AND SELL THE DRUGS THEY CONFISCATED! After seeing this movie do you have any doubts? I saw Sidney Lumet give a talk about his career. After the talk was over, I went up and asked him how could the Ciello character even dream about talking to the Feds, knowing that his entire operation was mired in illegal hanky panky. Lumet says he asked Bob Leucci, the real life Danny Ciello, and he told Lumet to this day he still canu0026#39;t truly explain it. Where did Treat Williams, a competant actor up till this movie summon the greatness he reaches. The disintegration from a cocky cop who thinks he owns New York City, to a weasel who causes suicide and ruin for his closest buddies and their families is heartbreaking. The virtuoso cast and Williams probably said after seeing the film, u0026quot;How the hell can we top this?u0026quot; You want to know something? THEY NEVER HAVE! An American classic, not to be missed!”