[2][3] It stars Gian Maria Volonté as the title character, with Rod Steiger, Vincent Gardenia, Charles Cioffi, and Edmond O'Brien.

Settling in Naples, Luciano takes control of the underground drug trade, managing to avoid prosecution through the use of proxies, covertly running his operation out of a race track.

Federal Bureau of Narcotics agent Charles Siragusa is assigned to bring down Luciano, managing to turn his associate Gene Giannini informant.

Giannini attempts to contact Siragusa by sending letters through his mistress, but she has begun an affair with Luciano who reads their contents and learns of his friend's double-dealing.

"[10] Derek Smith wrote for Slant Magazine, "While ostensibly a biopic, Lucky Luciano avoids the clear-eyed, paint-by-numbers approach we’ve come to expect from modern entries in the genre.

Luciano, played with stoic immutability by Gian Maria Volontè, is instead presented as something of a cipher, whose main function is as the primary link between America and Italy in the immediate aftermath of WWI, helping both sides to exploit black markets in mutually beneficial ways.