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It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Very Very strange film, far from exciting, just two killers on the road to kill discussing about their "profession" or about anything they meet in France comparing it to States or not ("it looks like California").it's more a new wave gangster movie than traditional, and the cinematography by Raoul Coutard reminds me of Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard, with lot of ordinary conversation : for example, the two hit men discuss about the song they're listening on radio, "The House Of Rising Sun", saying "look what they've done about it" (I think I recognized Johnny Halliday singing).At last, there is some action in the end with the final confrontation. So we have a movie with lot of conversation (and even lot of shots showing places around with no particular help for the fiction) ending on a slaughter. Well, I wouldn't be surprised that Quentin Tarentino loves Hail Mafia. And even Wenders and Jarmusch.The main actors, Jack Klugman, Henri Silva and Eddie Constantine are perfect in tough guys, it's just a pity the movie do not show them more in action as tough guys. But it is a good surprise seeing Eddie Constantine as a looser, without any Lemmy Caution private joke. A great noir character for him. Eddie Constantine played the same year in Alphaville by Godard. 1965 was his new wave year.Personally, I like jazz score but I found this one doesn't fit with the movie, the music being completely different from the story, but that's personal opinion.So, if you like action packed gangster movies, don't jump on it. If you like Godard style, this one is for you.

If this film had been directed by Jean Pierre Melville, Criterion or someone else would have already have made a DVD special edition. It concerns two men, played by Henry Silva and Jack Klugman who travel to France to kill a man, a former gangster played by Eddie Constantine. They are sent to kill this man because they fear that he may testify and bring some underworld figures down. What happens on this journey is a story of fate, and some ironic twists.While the beginning of the film starts out kind of chessie, (the shots of New York) so we are to get the feeling that the scenes with the actors were filmed in New York. When the two men get to France, that is when the film really takes off. It is almost like a road picture, as they travel from Paris to Marseille, two Americans, who don't speak French traveling in a strange land, Country much more foreign then, than it would be today.Klugmans character has personal reasons why he wants to kill the character played by Constantine, while Silva, playing a guy called SHAFT, is only doing this job because it is his job. This film was based I believe on an American novel, and what is different here is that while usually in stories such as this the older man acts more the professional, while the younger is more carefree, HAIL MAFIA defies these conventions. Though Silva I believe is only 8 years younger than Klugman, he the younger man seems to live by codes, (he doesn't even smoke) and is the boss of the two, while Klugman seems to have the more easy going attitude, and not as careful. Their relationship is a very interesting on this road to a murder.I think that this film paved the way for Silva to get starting roles in Europe, and while it did not do that for Klugman, the film should be famous for his line regarding 'what would make a man quit smoking, Which he would have to do some 30 years latter due to throat cancer. The photography on the French scenes is first rate, filmed by the famous cinematographer of the New Wave, Raoul Coutard. Their are some other interesting touches, such as when Constantine's girl friend (I think his wife at the time) looks at a picture of John F Kennedy, and when she offers him a glass of Orange Juice, he says yes but with some Scotch (Constantine had a drinking problem).If this film were ever remade, and took place in the 21'st Century, one problem would be technology is a bit different than in 1965. I hope more people get to see this buried treasure.

Henry Silva and Jack Klugman are hit men sent to France to kill Eddie Constantine. The two spend time on the road getting to know each other and their very different styles of life. Silva is a meticulous person with very definite ideas about his approach to his profession while Klugman is more easy going and less philosophical. This small movie boasts not only the talents of the principal actors but also high-contrast black and white photography that gives it a very new wave film noir look as the boys in their black suits and skinny ties wander around in the Paris night. The French countryside is captured in washed out tones that emphasize how far out of the water these two fish are at the moment. The jazz score for the film is excellent small combo stuff that perfectly matches the stark images. There's also a couple of nice twists in the plot and a dandy downbeat ending. This is a genuine undiscovered gem and you won't be sorry you took a chance on it.

At the time in Paris, Eddie Constantine was much bigger than Jack Klugman. I haven't seen the film since its release, but I recall it as a fast-paced hard-bitten policier. My Dad was in there as the Mafia boss Hyman, and he calmly dispatched his enemies with one word from the putting green. Great fun.