The Alto Knights

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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Are you a fan of Robert De Niro? If so, this is the movie for you, for you get not just one, but two Robert De Niros.

It’s like that old bubblegum ad: “Double your pleasure, double your fun.”

In “The Alto Knights,” De Niro takes on double roles. A gangster pic, like those two-time Oscar-winner De Niro is famous for, he portrays both Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, mob bosses during the 1950s.

For those of you old enough to remember, a power struggle erupted between the two Mafiosi when Vito ordered a hit on Frank. The movie shows how Frank Costello maneuvered to protect his family even as he contemplated retirement.

The story is pretty accurate. The script was written by Nicholas Pileggi, author of the non-fiction book “Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family,” and co-writer of the screenplay based on that book, “Goodfellas.” The script garnered him an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Pileggi also wrote “Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas,” and the subsequent screenplay for the movie “Casino.”

Robert De Niro appeared in both of those films. And both were directed by Martin Scorsese.

Further credibility comes from the director of “The Alto Knights,” Barry Levinson. In addition to the Mafia film “Bugsy,” he gave us such classics as “Rain Man,” “The Natural,” “Diner,” and “Good Morning, Vietnam.”

De Niro also appeared in several Barry Levinson films – from playing the parish priest in “Sleepers” to the spin doctor of “Wag the Dog” to the beleaguered producer of “What Just Happened?” to real-life fraudster Bernie Madoff in “The Wizard of Lies.”

Producer Irwin Winkler has a history with De Niro too. He worked with De Niro on “Raging Bull,” “Goodfellas,” and “The Irishman.”

Levinson credits Winkler with the idea of casting De Niro in both roles in “The Alto Knights.”

“I thought the idea of Bob playing both parts was intriguing, and certainly challenging,” says Levinson. “One is aggressive, a fast talker, and the other is more deliberate. Bob was very meticulous about shaping those rhythms and ultimately finding two distinctive looks.”

Playing two characters required precise positioning and careful coordination with cameras on dollies moving around the set. “It’s a technical thing where you have to be in a certain spot,” De Niro said.

To make the rapid-fire dialogue between his characters work, he enlisted another actor to read opposite him during filming. “When I would do Frank, he would do Vito. When I would do Vito, he would do Frank,” De Niro explained. “I couldn’t just do it with nothing. I had to have another actor, a person who understood that world.”

Originally called “Wise Guys” (plural), “The Alto Knights” film has been in the works since 1974 but got turned down by every major studio. Finally, Warner Bros. greenlit the project in late 2022.

Debra Messing and Kathrine Narducci joined the cast as the two mob wives, Bobbie Costello and Anna Genovese. Also, you’ll encounter Cosmo Jarvis as Vincent Gigante, James Cicconi as Carlo Gambino, and Michael Rispoli as Albert Anastasia.

The title “The Alto Knights” comes from the name of a social club Vito Genovese maintained in Little Italy.

De Niro asked Pileggi, “Where did you get this place, The Alto Knights? When I was a kid, I would hang out there.”

“I used to walk by it all the time,” Pileggi replied. “I knew it because I was a reporter covering that area.”

Pileggi adds, “We both had a personal knowledge of the neighborhood. I knew the club. I knew the neighborhood. Bob grew up there as a kid, so we both know that world a little bit, and we’ve been writing about or being in movies about organized crime in that world.”

Pileggi has made a career out of penning mob tales. De Niro takes credit for introducing Pileggi to the world of film.

As De Niro tells the story, “I read a great piece that Pileggi had done in New York Magazine about Little Italy. I actually told Marty Scorsese about him. I said, ‘You gotta read this thing. It’s great.’ God, this was more than 60 years ago.”

That led to “Goodfellas” … and eventually to “The Alto Knights.”

And Robert De Niro – times two.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com