The Alto Knights (Movie)

Robert De Niro plays the crime lords Vito Genovese and Frank Costello in this film about midcentury Mafia moves.“The Alto Knights,” a new mob movie starring Robert De Niro, carries a lot of weight from its very beginning. Not just historical weight about the Mafia — it concentrates on a stretch from the mid-1950s into the early 1970s — but cinematic weight as well.It’s the story of a gangster friendship that turns homicidally sour. The New York City crime lords Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, we’re told here by way of narration from Costello, became best friends in a Little Italy social club called Alto Knights.The criminals develop different styles. Vito stayed downtown, calling shots, literally and figuratively, from a crate-filled back room, while Frank cultivated such a high profile as a, ahem, “professional gambler” that he made the cover of Time magazine. Frank is enjoying his life so thoroughly that he doesn’t register Vito’s irritation until he survives a shooting by one of Vito’s foot soldiers, a hulking brute by the name of Vincent Gigante.Yes, it’s that Vincent Gigante, the one who eventually got the nickname “Chin” (and the actor playing him, Cosmo Jarvis, does his level best to put that facial feature forward in all his scenes). Debra Messing plays Costello’s wife, Bobbie, whose role in the marriage seems to be to smile reassuringly. Other names that will ring bells with Cosa Nostra connoisseurs include Albert Anastasia and the quaint upstate hamlet called Apalachin.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More