Real-Life Tough Guys and Silver-Screen Gangsters
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: February 21, 1992

"He didn't rob nothin'. You know why he's dying? He's gonna die because he refused to come in when I called."

Did Marlon Brando mumble those words in "The Godfather"? Or was it Paul Sorvino in "Goodfellas"? Robert De Niro in "The Untouchables"?

The author of that particular snippet of tough-guy dialogue is actually John Gotti. It comes not from a screenplay, but from an evidence tape that was played in open court yesterday in Mr. Gotti's murder-and-racketeering trial in Brooklyn. The confusion is understandable, since there has been a symbiotic relationship between Hollywood and organized crime ever since James Cagney imitated the Chicago mobster Dion O'Bannion. Or is it since Joey Gallo as a young thug in the schoolyard practiced Richard Widmark's chilling laugh from "Kiss of Death"? Blurring Brutal Fact and Glamorous Fiction

John Gotti, famous for his expensively tailored suits and smug defiance, and whose taped conversations are sometimes accompanied by melancholy background radio music ("Mona Lisa") that sounds like a movie soundtrack, has blurred the line between brutal fact and glamorous fiction more than anyone since Al Capone. Or is it since Paul Muni played a Capone-like character in the 1932 movie "Scarface"?Real-Life Tough Guys and Silver-Screen Gangsters
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: February 21, 1992

"He didn't rob nothin'. You know why he's dying? He's gonna die because he refused to come in when I called."

Did Marlon Brando mumble those words in "The Godfather"? Or was it Paul Sorvino in "Goodfellas"? Robert De Niro in "The Untouchables"?

The author of that particular snippet of tough-guy dialogue is actually John Gotti. It comes not from a screenplay, but from an evidence tape that was played in open court yesterday in Mr. Gotti's murder-and-racketeering trial in Brooklyn. The confusion is understandable, since there has been a symbiotic relationship between Hollywood and organized crime ever since James Cagney imitated the Chicago mobster Dion O'Bannion. Or is it since Joey Gallo as a young thug in the schoolyard practiced Richard Widmark's chilling laugh from "Kiss of Death"? Blurring Brutal Fact and Glamorous Fiction

John Gotti, famous for his expensively tailored suits and smug defiance, and whose taped conversations are sometimes accompanied by melancholy background radio music ("Mona Lisa") that sounds like a movie soundtrack, has blurred the line between brutal fact and glamorous fiction more than anyone since Al Capone. Or is it since Paul Muni played a Capone-like character in the 1932 movie "Scarface"?Real-Life Tough Guys and Silver-Screen Gangsters
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: February 21, 1992

"He didn't rob nothin'. You know why he's dying? He's gonna die because he refused to come in when I called."

Did Marlon Brando mumble those words in "The Godfather"? Or was it Paul Sorvino in "Goodfellas"? Robert De Niro in "The Untouchables"?

The author of that particular snippet of tough-guy dialogue is actually John Gotti. It comes not from a screenplay, but from an evidence tape that was played in open court yesterday in Mr. Gotti's murder-and-racketeering trial in Brooklyn. The confusion is understandable, since there has been a symbiotic relationship between Hollywood and organized crime ever since James Cagney imitated the Chicago mobster Dion O'Bannion. Or is it since Joey Gallo as a young thug in the schoolyard practiced Richard Widmark's chilling laugh from "Kiss of Death"? Blurring Brutal Fact and Glamorous Fiction

John Gotti, famous for his expensively tailored suits and smug defiance, and whose taped conversations are sometimes accompanied by melancholy background radio music ("Mona Lisa") that sounds like a movie soundtrack, has blurred the line between brutal fact and glamorous fiction more than anyone since Al Capone. Or is it since Paul Muni