How a 1969 French gangster film became a global box office success
In short: The Sicilian Clan, a 1969 French-Italian heist film, became a massive hit in France by blending hard-boiled crime with a high-stakes international plot. Directed by Henri Verneuil, the production was a complex logistical feat that required filming in two languages and navigating the influence of studio executives' personal lives.
The film follows the Manalese, a tight-knit Sicilian Mafia family in Paris, who team up with a fugitive named Roger Sartet to pull off a daring jewelry heist. The plot centers on an intricate plan to hijack a plane transporting jewels to New York City. The narrative is driven by the tension between the clan's rigid, traditional structure and the unpredictable, hot-headed nature of their outsider partner, Sartet. This dynamic leads to a violent unraveling involving betrayal, police surveillance, and a tragic conclusion.
The production was marked by significant behind-the-scenes maneuvering. Director Henri Verneuil cast legendary actors Jean Gabin, Lino Ventura, and Alain Delon, whose presence was instrumental to the film's commercial success. The script underwent revisions due to the influence of Irina Demick, who was the mistress of 20th Century Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck. Demick successfully lobbied for her character to play a more active role in the hijacking sequence, despite Verneuil's initial concerns regarding the narrative's believability.
Upon its release in December 1969, the film achieved remarkable popularity in France, drawing over 4.8 million admissions and becoming the third-most-popular movie of the year. While some contemporary critics in the United States dismissed it as a tired example of the genre, later retrospectives have praised it for reinventing the classic gangster film through its character studies and photography. Financially, the project proved successful for 20th Century Fox, earning over $9 million in worldwide rentals by late 1970 and surpassing its break-even point.
The film's creation was also caught in the orbit of real-world drama, most notably the Marković affair, a scandal involving the unsolved murder of Alain Delon's former bodyguard. Despite such external pressures and the logistical challenge of shooting both French and English versions simultaneously, the film remains a notable entry in French cinema, balancing the grit of the crime genre with the polished production standards of a major international studio collaboration.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: The Sicilian Clan
- Also: Le clan des siciliens
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