Product Details

• Actors: Jack Perkins
• Directors: Bill Harris
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: A&E Home Video
• DVD Release Date: September 27, 2005
• Run Time: 50 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000AABKVS
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #79,046 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

LUCKY LUCIANO - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "If you have a lot of what people want and can't get, then you can supply the demand and shovel in the dough." - Lucky Luciano, May 21, 2010

By 

Annie Van Auken (Planet Earth) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Biography - Lucky Luciano: Chairman of the Mob (DVD)

LUCKY LUCIANO: Chairman of the Mob" is an A&E "Mobsters" episode that combines vintage photos and film clips with modern reenactments to tell the story of this most ambitious and violent criminal.


Salvatore Lucania (aka Lucky Luciano) was born in Sicily in Nov. 1897. His family emgrated to NYC when Sal was still a child. The small-time hood came of age during Prohibition.

After an association with Arnold Rothstein (fixer of the 1919 World Series), Lucky, who got the name from surviving a near-fatal attack, branched out on his own. His vision for the future and careful networking with other gang leaders led to the partitioning of New York into five mob families and the ultimate organization of the first Mafia Commission. Luciano was thus instrumental in the birth of organized crime in Amerca.

His downfall was a racket Lucky wasn't overly involved in: prostitution. NY special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey relentlessly pursued the elusive Luciano until a convicting witness was found. Dewey then had Luciano arrested at an Arkansas spa and extradited back to New York; his trial resulted in a lengthy prison sentence.

This term was cut short after Lucky's willing assistance against German dock infiltration in WWII. Now-Governor Dewey signed release papers but also made certain that Luciano was deported to Italy, a place he hadn't seen since early childhood.

In later years, Lucky ran a hugely profitable heroin importing operation that was based in both Italy and a Cuban location. He was never allowed to enter the U.S. again, and died at age 64 of a massive coronary while waiting for someone at the Naples airport. Only after death could Sal Lucania touch American soil, and then just to be buried in it.


Related item:
BIOGRAPHY: BUGSY SIEGEL - Gambling on the Mob tells a story that intertwines with Charlie Luciano's.

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good, informative, September 5, 2010

By 

Joyce B. (California) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Biography - Lucky Luciano: Chairman of the Mob (DVD)

This is a good biopic of Luciano, although it could have been longer.
The film gives a good sense of his personality, the circumstances shaping his motivation, and some of the key turning points in his career. Interesting..