David Killen

One of the more entertaining Nicholson vehicles, apparently he was approached a few years before but he hesitated playing a "dumbed" down character, only after urging by John Huston and others was he able to warm up to the part. Alot of the charm in the film is the way the various actors interpret "Brooklynese" talk and behavior, even Kathleen Turner manages to sound a little like she was born in Bay Ridge, but she is the least convincing of the crew that ends up killing the Police Captain's wife in a botched kidnapping, that she really is part of the life.But needing to stradle the balance between hit woman and femme fatale, she does a pretty good job. One of the gems of the film is William Hickey, known to New Yorkers' as much for being a long term acting teacher at the HB Studio in the West Village, as a character actor.Here he shines as the Godfather of the Prizzi family, and no other actor ever created as creepy and as convincing a Mafia don as Hickey. The entire film works as a part puzzle, part melodrama and part comedy, as you follow the love story of two hitmen, Jack and Kathleen who fall in love, murder, and fall in love again. Highly recommended