Stilettto (1969)

A jet setting playboy (Alex Cord) has a secret life. He's also an assassin for the Mafia. But when he decides to retire, the mob won't let him. Based on the novel by Harold Robbins (THE CARPETBAGGERS) and directed by Bernard L. Kowalski (KRAKATOA EAST OF JAVA). Who else but Robbins would make a hero out of a rapist and assassin? The film is a crime/action movie set among the beautiful people without a protagonist to root for. Cord's nemesis is a Manhattan federal prosecutor (Patrick O'Neal) but his tactics are highly unethical and ultimately renders him no better than Cord's hitman. The film benefits from Jack Priestley's attractive lensing of the Puerto Rican locations and the eye candy provided by Britt Ekland and Barbara McNair as Cord's romantic interests. As a piece of pulp cinema, it goes down easily enough but one would be hard pressed to remember it a few months later. The huge cast is crammed with familiar faces including Roy Scheider, Raul Julia, Olympia Dukakis, Joseph Wiseman, Charles Durning, Eduardo Ciannelli, John Dehner and M. Emmet Walsh.