There had been films about the mafia long before "The Godfather" came along, both good and bad, and with the many rip offs of that 1972 Oscar Winning Best Picture, some which were bound to be decent, others rotten. This one's basically decent with a lot of great elements, a few unoriginal but nothing that I could call hideous to where it would not be worth watching. What is worth watching about it is the presence of Anthony Quinn, not quite saying sayonara to Marlon Brando, his co-star from that 1957 classic, but he basically takes on a similar role closer to what the youmger Al Pacino would do in the 1974 "Godfather" film sequel where they deal with issues in Las Vegas. So in that sense, this has some originality which would later be utilized in the Academy Award winning 1974 sequel.

As one of the heads of several families doing my business in Las Vegas, Quinn finds himself involved in mob war that is manipulated by others outside his own family. This leads to violence when a young singer whom Quinn helps seduces him, and word gets back to her jealous boyfriend. She's badly beaten and left recovering in the hospital, and violence between the family erupts because of this and other factors. Like "The Godfather", when hits happen, they are sudden and without warning, and quite brutal. People surviving an explosion in a building are brutally gunned down, throats cut, and others beaten to get into before they are assassinated.

I couldn't help but chuckle when Abe Vigoda showed up as one of the right hand menn on Quinn's team, not only because it was basically the same part but because of how he would spook this character years later on late night TV. Young Frederic Forrest has a major part, and is quite good, pretty much the adoptive heir to Quinn's legacy as he had no children. Unlike "The Godfather", this is not epic in scope and so it does not run for an extreme length. A good suppirting cast is made up of mostly obscure featured players so it's certainly not considered all-star, and aside of a few people like Vigota and Vic Tayback, which the viewer will not be distracted by that factor. I wouldn't rank this as a classic, but Quinn is obviously great enough to wear knockoffs of Don Corleone's shoes, and commands a satisfying walk back into familiar territory.

Charles Cioffi, the consigliere of a jailed Mafia chieftain decides to get a war started among the three Las Vegas crime families. Knowing that Angel Tompkins, singer girlfriend of the son of a recently deceased Mafia Don, is looking for a break, he arranges a meeting with Anthony Quinn, Godfather of the third Mafia family where nature takes its course.

When former boyfriend Robert Forster returns to America and finds out it ain't long before the bullets start flying. When the film is over there are only a couple left standing and if you want to know who does pick up all the marbles than watch the film.

Of course this film came out to take advantage of the enormous publicity reaped by The Godfather in the previous year. It's an average sort of gangster flick, it could have been done at Warner Brothers during the Thirties with their stable of gangster players.

Al Lettieri and Abe Vigoda were both in The Godfather and their presence sort of lends an aura authenticity to the film. Lettieri was just coming into his own as a great portrayer of villains and assorted gangland types. His early death was a real loss to film.

Anthony Quinn of course is always good and fans of his which are legion will want to catch The Don is Dead.

"The Don is Dead" - the title alone is worth the price of the purchase - is too often downgraded as a quick and inferior attempt to cash in on the tremendous success of Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather"; released the year before. Let me tell you, the problem doesn't lie with this perfectly enjoyable and competently made Mafia saga. The problem merely is that "The Godfather" is insanely popular and too many avid fans will bash and boycott everything that even remotely resembles their preciously favorite milestone. Popular cinematic ideas are reproduced and often even get blatantly copied, that is a fact. This doesn't mean, however, that nothing good comes out of the giant stream of imitations! Italian exploitation, for example, is my personal favorite type of cinema and that genre exists for 99% out of shameless knock-offs and stolen ideas. Regardless of what you mean read, "The Don is Dead" remains an excellent drama/thriller with an absorbing plot, splendid performances from a great cast and steady direction from the underrated Richard Fleisher. Following the death of a highly respected Don, representatives of three Mafiosi clans gather to re-divide the Las Vegas territory. The slimy Luigi Orlanda and his mistress see this as an opportunity to double-cross the others and raise a destructive gang war. They manipulate for the powerful Don Angelo DiMorra to fall in love with the girlfriend of his own protégé stepson Frank Regalbuto and things rapidly escalate into deceit, executions and mass-retaliation. The story is good, and Fleisher effortlessly finds the right balance between talky sequences and exciting action footage. There are some delightful execution-highlights, like set in a barbershop or a laundry salon. Anthony Quinn gives a fine performance, although clearly modeled after Marlon Brando - I admit, and "young" actors Frederic Forrest and Robert Forster are also very impressive.