''Mob Town'' is a 2019 American crime film directed by Danny A. Abeckaser and starring

David Arquette David Arquette (born September 8, 1971) is an American actor and former professional wrestler. He is best known for his role as Dewey Riley in the slasher film franchise ''Scream'', for which he won a Teen Choice Award and two Blockbuster En ...

Jamie-Lynn Sigler Jamie-Lynn Sigler (born May 15, 1981) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Meadow Soprano on the HBO series ''The Sopranos''. Early life Jamie-Lynn Sigler was born in Jericho, New York, on May 15, 1981, the daughter of S ...

Jennifer Esposito Jennifer Esposito is an American actress. She is known for her roles in the feature films '' Summer of Sam'' (1999), ''Don't Say a Word'' (2001), ''Welcome to Collinwood'' (2002), as well as ''Crash'' and ''Taxi'' (both 2004). She has also appe ...

Nick Cordero Nicholas Eduardo Alberto Cordero (September 17, 1978 – July 5, 2020) was a Canadian actor and singer. He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his role as Cheech in the 2014 Broadway musical ''Bullets Over ...

Robert Davi Robert John Davi (born 1953) is an American actor, singer and filmmaker. Over the course of his acting career, Davi has performed in more than 130 films. Among his most known roles are opera-singing heavy Jake Fratelli in ''The Goonies'' (1985), ...

and Abeckaser.

Premise

Based on the true story of a

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

Trooper who investigates the Apalachin meeting, a gathering of high-profile

mobster A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...

s in his small

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

Apalachin, New York Apalachin ( ) is a census-designated place within the Town of Owego in Tioga County, New York, United States. The population was 1,131 in the 2010 census. The CDP is named after Apalachin Creek. ''Apalachin'' means "from where the messenger retur ...

Plot Summary

On November 14, 1957, over 100 of the most notorious organized crime figures from all over the United States held a historic meeting in the small town of

. The meeting was ordered by

Vito Genovese Vito Genovese (; November 21, 1897 – February 14, 1969) was an Italian-born American mobster who mainly operated in the United States. Genovese rose to power during Prohibition as an enforcer in the American Mafia. A long-time associate and chi ...

, who at the time successfully eliminated two of his biggest rivals,

Frank Costello Frank Costello (; born Francesco Castiglia; ; January 26, 1891 – February 18, 1973) was an Italian-American crime boss of the Luciano crime family. In 1957, Costello survived an assassination attempt ordered by Vito Genovese and carried out by ...

and

Albert Anastasia Umberto "Albert" Anastasia (, ; ; September 26, 1902 – October 25, 1957) was an Italian-American mobster, hitman, and crime boss. One of the founders of the modern American Mafia, and a co-founder and later boss of the Murder, Inc. organizat ...

. Genovese, who was the current boss of the

Luciano crime family The Genovese crime family, () also sometimes referred to as the Westside, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey as part of the American M ...

decided to consolidate power and announce to the underworld that it was his time to be Capo Dei Capi, “the boss of bosses.” In the upstate New York town of Apalachin, Sgt. Edgar Croswell, a 40 year-old divorced state trooper who lived in the police station, began noticing strange and unusual activity in the small town. A semi-retired mobster named Joseph Barbara, known as "Joe the Barber” had recently bought a nearby ginger ale bottling plant and a 53 acre estate just outside of town. Genovese decided to hold the historical summit at the Barbara Estate. Much of the film revolves around planning for the meeting. Sgt. Croswell tried to alert local law enforcement and even the FBI, but his warnings were ignored. At the time, the FBI was so focused on fighting Communism the long-time FBI director

J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation � ...

refused publicly accept the existence of a "National Crime Syndicate" and the need to address organized crime in America. Despite constant push back, Sgt. Croswell refused to back down and began investigating Joe the Barber, and his businesses in town. After stumbling on a major clue that Joe the Barber had not only purchased every piece of meat and fish in town, he also realized the every single motel room in town was booked Without any back up, Croswell and handful of local police officers busted the meeting and arrested 58 of the most notorious Mafia figures. Although all the arrests were eventually overturned, Sgt. Croswell single handedly forced the FBI to publicly acknowledge the existence of an organized crime syndicate in America, leading J. Edgar Hoover to create an organized crime task force. This also led to the creation of the

RICO The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. RICO was en ...

(Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) act which law enforcement agencies currently use to fight organized crime.

Cast

as Sgt. Ed Croswell *

as Natalie Passatino *

as Josephine Barbara *

Vincent Gigante Vincent Louis Gigante (; March 28, 1928 – December 19, 2005), also known as "The Chin", was an American mobster who was boss of the Genovese crime family in New York City from 1981 to 2005. Gigante started out as a professional boxer who fough ...

* P. J. Byrne as Vincent Vasisko *Gino Cafarelli as Carmine Galante * Danny A. Abeckaser as Joe Barbara

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

the film has a weighted average score of 24 out of 100, based on four critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

References

External links

* * {{rotten-tomatoes, mob_town_2019 American crime drama films Saban Films films Films set in 1957 2010s English-language films 2010s American films