The Pope of Greenwich Village

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The Pope of Greenwich Village
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg
Michael Cimino (uncredited)
Produced by Gene Kirkwood
Hawk Koch
Written by Vincent Patrick (novel)
Vincent Patrick
Starring Mickey Rourke
Eric Roberts
Daryl Hannah
Geraldine Page
Kenneth McMillan
Burt Young
Cinematography John Bailey
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s) June 22, 1984
Running time 121 minutes
Language English
IMDb profile

The Pope of Greenwich Village is a 1984 American film starring Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, Daryl Hannah, Geraldine Page, Kenneth McMillan and Burt Young. Page earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film. It was adapted by screenwriter Vincent Patrick from his novel of the same name. It was directed by Stuart Rosenberg.

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[edit] Plot

Set in the Italian section of New York's Greenwich Village, the film features two characters, Charlie (Rourke), a well-dressed maître d' with aspirations of someday owning his own restaurant, and Paulie (Roberts), Charlie's ever-scheming cousin who works in the same restaurant as Charlie, as a waiter. After Paulie gets caught skimming the checks, both he and Charlie get fired. Now out of work and in debt, Charlie must find another job, but Paulie, who has plans to buy into a racehorse, comes forth with a scheme, based on a tip, of a large amount of cash located in a safe of a local business. Reluctant, but needing the money, Charlie agrees to participate, and they do manage to crack the safe with help from an accomplice, played by McMillan, but shortly things go sour, resulting in the accidental death of a cop. Charlie soon learns that the money they took belongs to a local psychotic Mob boss, `Bedbug Eddie' (Young), something Paulie neglected to mention. Eddie is more put off by the fact that someone had the nerve to rob him. The mob only knows the name of the safe man, but they try very hard to find the rest of the gang, too.

[edit] Michael Cimino

There have been some discrepencies over the directing credits in The Pope of Greenwich Village. Although it is officially credited to Rosenberg, there have been differing accounts as to who directed what scenes. According to Peter Biskind, Eric Roberts, and Mickey Rourke; Michael Cimino was the original director and was fired in the middle of filming by the studio. Other accounts claim that Cimino directed a few scenes as a favor when Stuart Rosenberg suffered from influenza.

Furthermore, in an interview with John Kerwin, Eric Roberts told a story about clashing with whom he referred to as "the original director" over Paulie's look. Roberts, who had lost 30 pounds and grew his hair into a perm specifically for the role, imagined the character as a "momma's boy", while the original director thought Paulie was more of a street tough. Because of this, Roberts says, the original director asked the actor to resign, which prompted Roberts and Mickey Rourke to call the producer, who eventually had the director replaced with Stuart Rosenberg before filming began. It is unclear if Roberts was talking about Cimino, since he never mentioned "the original director" by name in the interview.

[edit] Cultural impact

This movie inspired the name of the band Smoking Popes.

This movie is mentioned by Vincent Chase (Adrian Grennier) as his favorite film in season 1 episode 7 "the scene" of the HBO series Entourage

[edit] External links