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.

A fun little gangster movie from 1963 that feels very much like a 'rat pack' picture. Henry Silva stars in an early career badass role, playing an gangster seemingly assassinated in Italy, who turns up in America to bump off some mob foes. A good toughness in the 'killer' plot here alongside an exemplary supporting cast that includes such notables as Elisha Cook, Jr., Sammy Davis, Jr. And Telly Savalas.

This film begins with a brief overview of the career of a local Sicilian hood named Salvatore Giordano. As a child, he killed Nazi soldiers and soon he's the local mob boss--but he' strictly local. Then, out of the blue, he appears to have been killed by soldiers. End of story, right? Nope...it's just the beginning. It seems that the old Giordano is dead and he's now been re-christened 'Johnny Cool'. Johnny was saved from death by a big-time hood named Colini--an ex-mob boss who has been forced into exile in the old country. His purpose for Johnny is to send him to America to be a one man killing machine--to kill all the mobsters Colini blames for the exile. And, he's been promised that he'll one day be Colini's successor.

When Johnny (Henry Silva) arrives in America, he is a cool character--and the American mob (headed by Telly Savalas) notices him. However, despite various attempts to kill Cool, he manages to use his wits to not only evade death but carry out his various contracts. The closest they come is to beat up Johnny's new lady friend (Elizabeth Montgomery). Soon, the American mob is leaderless and guess who is ready to step into the void. Colini thinks it's him, but by now Johnny realizes that Colini intends to kill him too and perhaps he can now be the big boss-man. Will Cool make it all the way to the top or will his meteoric rise come to just as swift an end? While this is not a great film, Silva is very slick in the lead--very cool, so to speak. His style is smooth as well as very cold--and it makes this average movie just a bit better than it should be. Worth watching, though it was quite inexplicable how Montgomery's character fell so hard for a man she hardly knew--particularly when she is supposedly well-educated and bright.