Review of Hoodlums

Hoodlums (1980)
5/10
The end is Nai
28 August 2023
Loretta Lumiere (Nai Bonet) works in a New York club run by mobster George Genero (Tony Page). Her job is to sing and entertain wealthy gamblers, but she is getting tired of the life and wants to break free with her young daughter. She finds an escape route with the normal banker Andrew (Douglas Kerr), but soon finds out that leaving the mob life ain't easy. The second film from Nai Bonet Enterprises, you can guess this is a vanity project gone wrong just like her earlier Nocturna (1979). Bonet apparently started her career as a belly dancer and produced both of these to further her acting and singing career. It didn't work. Resembling Laura Gemser a little bit, Bonet is really stiff in both capacities and that obviously hurts a film when she is in nearly every single scene. Fans of the The Godfather films might enjoy seeing Michael Gazzo in a couple of scenes as the Godfather of this world, but he mumbles so much of his dialogue I couldn't understand most of it. Fans of disco will be interested as Vicki Sue Robinson ("Turn the Beat Around") has a co-starring role as one of Loretta's friends and co-workers. Perhaps the most interesting thing for me was the film was directed by Mac Ahlberg, who went on to be one of Charles Band's go-to cinematographers. He already had a dozen Swedish films under his belt as a director by the time he made this. Sadly, it was the only full length feature he directed in America. There is also some nice NYC photography at points, but not much else going on here unless you are a true masochist when it comes to vanity projects.
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