tomsview An oddity from the 60's that has more the look and feel of a television show of the period such as "The Untouchables" or "77 Sunset Strip" only not as good.There are few reasons to watch "Johnny Cool" these days, certainly not for Henry Silva; he made a great heavy when he was four or five down the cast list – just fine in "The Manchurian Candidate" – but he's deadly as the lead in more ways than one.The main attraction for me was in spotting the host of familiar faces that pop up throughout the movie. It's almost a who's who of character actors of the time; Joe Turkel, Elisha Cooke Jnr., Brad Dexter, John McGiver; the list goes on and on. There is even Mort Stahl, Jim Bacchus and Joey Bishop, mainly as gangsters who get whacked by Johnny Cool. Most interesting are a couple of stars before they made it big on television: Elizabeth Montgomery and Telly Savalas. Sammy Davis Jnr. gets some scenes too, and sings the title song.The story of a young Sicilian outlaw who is mentored by an exiled American gangster, then sent to America to wreak vengeance on his enemies, actually seems to have too much plot, which isn't helped by a choppy script – nothing is developed before we move on to the next plot point. Director, William Asher, was the king of the TV sitcom. The shows he directed, produced and wrote read like a catalogue of TV shows of the 1950's through to the 1980's but his approach seemed pretty flat when translated to the big screen ("Beach Party" doesn't count). Despite being packed with incident, "Johnny Cool" generates little tension – "The Godfather" it is not.Asher may not have had the eye of an Elia Kazan or a Francis Ford Coppola, but he had an eye for beautiful women. This is where he met and married Elizabeth Montgomery; a year later, her career took off with "Bewitched".Now it's difficult to see her in anything without the memory of Tabitha, but she is stunning in "Johnny Cool" playing a naïve divorcée who gets caught up in the titular character's criminal activities. I think Elizabeth Montgomery was not unlike Grace Kelly, and like her, attracted men like moths to a flame – seeing her here, it's easy to see why. Although she gives it everything she's got in "Johnny Cool", it was tough going with the erratic script.The film is full of violence, which probably bucked against the censorship of the day, but now looks tame. There is a touch of irony at the end, but I can't help feeling that the central character is so one-note that it cancels out the good performances that surround it. However, "Johnny Cool" is just quirky enough to be watchable, but maybe just once.

henri sauvage There's murder and mayhem to spare in this wild ride through the underworld of the early 1960s.There's simply no one who could play a merciless killer better than Henry Silva, with his beady black eyes, and that inimitable smirk which plays across his face as he dispatches his victims. Here he's put to perfect use as a remorseless "messenger boy of death" sent by deported mobster Johnny Colini (Marc Lawrence) to settle scores with Colini's former associates in the US.In the odd and somewhat awkward opening scenes of "Johnny Cool", we're introduced to Silva's character as a young boy in Sicily. When fascists kill his mother, he's adopted by the hill bandits who rescued him. Next we see him as a bandit chief, a sort of Sicilian Robin Hood who's an honored guest at a local wedding. Which makes Silva's seemingly easy transition to a cold-blooded hit man a bit inexplicable, after Colini on his own initiative bribes the authorities to fake the bandit's death. I have a feeling there's something missing here; maybe the novel explained it better.But once Silva -- who at the mobster's behest has taken Colini's name for his own -- hits New York, the movie shifts into high gear, and from that point on it never lets up. Bouncing from New York to Vegas to LA and back, the new Johnny Colini -- or "Johnny Cool" as he's inevitably nicknamed -- eliminates his targets with icy aplomb, leaving a trail of corpses to mark his journey through the underworld.Along the way, he gets involved with bored little rich girl Darien 'Dare' Guiness (Elizabeth Montgomery), who demonstrates dramatic chops which may come as quite a surprise to those who only know her as Samantha from the TV series "Bewitched". Though she's basically a decent person, something within her is fascinated by the darkness she senses in Johnny, and she's swiftly drawn into the violence that swirls around him. He loves her, but of course in traditional "Beauty and the Beast" fashion, it will be his undoing.Besides being produced by Peter Lawford and featuring a couple of songs by fellow Rat Pack member Sammy Davis, Jr. as well as cameos by Davis and Joey Bishop, this film sports a striking assemblage of actors in supporting roles: from up-and-comers like Telly Savalas to noir and gangster flick icons like Elisha Cook, Jr. and Robert Armstrong, to some not-so-obvious choices for mob bosses in Jim Backus and Mort Sahl. In his brief appearance Sahl leaves quite an impression, as he greets the prospect of his imminent death with a sort of weary, good-humored resignation. He correctly divines Johnny's fate, offering him some rueful advice that he really should have taken.And Silva's final scene is unbelievably wrenching, incredibly disturbing for all that it lacks any gore or overt violence. I guarantee you, you will never forget it.This is a neat little film, compact and brutal as a sawed-off shotgun. While not as stylishly executed as later gangster revenge sagas like "Point Blank" or the original "Get Carter", this one still carries one hell of a punch.

Robert J. Maxwell Henry Silva is Johnny Collini, aka Johnny Cool. Adopted by the deported gangster Marc Lawrence in Sicili, he's sent to America to take over all of his former businesses, wiping out the current managers if necessary. It becomes necessary.Swept up in Johnny Cool's serial assassinations is Elizabeth Montgomery as Darien Guiness from Scarsdale -- great WASP name. She becomes Silva's love slave. We all know what great lovers Italian men are, even if they're not necessarily great actors. She aids and abets his crimes, up to and including murder by dynamite. Finally, as the agents of social control are closing in on her, she gets drunk and the next day decides to drop the dime on her boyfriend.First of all, what a cast! Movie historians will be impressed -- John Dierkes, Elisha Cook Jr., John McGiver, Robert Armstrong ("King Kong") inter alia. One of the executive producers was Peter Lawford, which may account for the Rat Pack character of some of the cast -- Joey Bishop, Sammy Davis Jr., and a reference to Jilly's, one of Sinatra's favorite bars in New York.Most of these celebrity appearances are in bit parts. The story depends on the leads, Henry Silva and Elizabeth Montgomery. Silva isn't a bravura actor nor a particularly interesting one. He's much better as part of an ensemble, in smaller roles, especially villainous ones. He was great as "Mother" in "A Hatful of Rain" but those glistening, quartzite irises can't carry a film on their own. He's given no help by the script. Not a tag line in a cartload.Elizabeth Montgomery overacts volcanically when she's not chirping away in her "Bewitched" persona. This may not be her fault. The director ought to shape the performance of a newcomer, and Montgomery was quite good in a later made-for-TV movie, "The Legend of Lizzie Borden." Besides, she's so damnably cute and sexy, in the way that Jane Fonda was at the time, that she gets a pass.The film strives for the essence of "cool" as the word was understood in the late 1950s.The score by Billy May is a good example of what I mean. It's jazz oriented but not challenging. More like big band swing, the kind of backing that Sinatra had from Nelson Riddle. I swear that the climactic phrases in the score feature Maynard Ferguson's trumpet. He's the only guy I've ever heard who can run a trumpet up into the stratosphere, like a dog whistle.But, as I say, the cool we see here is 1950s cool. It now seems a little dated. The general concept involves expensive suits, styled hair, smoking, big tips, American cars that are forty feet long, stylish mannerisms and digs, an excess of self confidence, dames (or, more commonly, "broads" or "mouses"), shades, a stride that has a bounce in it, and an air of unflappability. Think Las Vegas. Sinatra embodied it. You didn't have to be rich, though. Marlon Brando was cool in "The Wild One." Steve McQueen in "Bullet" was neo-cool.

SquirePM This is an entrancing film in which you get lost and don't even thinkabout getting out again until its stunning conclusion. I've been aHenry Silva fan ever since I saw him in it. And it features ElizabethMontgomery in her most enticing roll ever. The story starts a little rough, and you just have to stick with it for awhile, but it ripens into a headlong thriller and finally cruises to itswrenching climax. What do you think? Can a guy like this getaway with a relentless series of assaults on such powerful peopleforever? All that said, and still giving it a high rating, this movie is definitely a1963 film. What passed for heavy action back then has long beeneclipsed. There is somehow almost an innocence to theslaughter, if that's possible. Henry Silva's character, however, willalways stand up as a smart, remorseless, merciless andinexorable visitor of revenge. And he's so cool.