Mike
Mazurki
The menacing figure who claims more murders
than anyone in motion pictures saunters up to prove that life imitates art. Vince Barbi has
killed 650 people--all members of the Screen Extras Guild, who lived. The
notorious mobster Lucky Luciano died in his arms. He was Benito
Mussolini's favorite boxer, John Cassavetes' favorite heavy. RememberThe
Blob? Vince played the proprietor of the diner along with being the man
responsible for financing the picture. Using nefarious funds, he gave Steve
McQueen his first
big role as the teenage hero.Vince is in a bad mood today. The air
conditioner went on when he was napping and blew his hairpiece in the air.
Vince caught it from the corner of his eye, something moving quick against
the backlit drapes. He pulled out his pistol and shot it. The conversation
turns naturally to violence in the cinema. These corpse grinders think
there is too much. One is reminded that Leo Tolstoy, after a life of
fornication and debauchery, became convinced that the world would be
perfect if people would stop fucking. And of course he was right because
if they did, there would be no people. (Roll over, Malthus.) "I don't
think a lot of violence is necessary," pronounces Mazurki, who lived through only one picture,New
York Confidential, and that was because he squealed on Broderick
Crawford.
Abie's lizard eyes rove the room at random. Periodically he pipes up to no
one in particular, "What round is it?" The man has been knocked from
pillar to post and now he agrees that movies are too violent. No one
disagrees.