The film also stars Rod Steiger, Stanley Tucci, Dennis Farina and Peter Boyle and is directed by William C. Reilly.

He becomes an underworld despot, deciding to kill anyone he suspects as a threat to his power, including former ally Bankie Como and his unconnected son, Philly, who survives an assassination attempt.

Battaglia puts a hit out on his chief rival, Matt Duffy, but the assassins cannot find him, instead murdering his wife and son.

Determined to get revenge for the death of his family, Duffy comes to kill Battaglia, who arrogantly proclaims that "no man of woman born" can harm him.

However the film failed to please audiences or critics: Leonard Maltin found it "pretentious" and "unintentionally comic" and Daniel Rosenthal describes it as "providing the most risible chunks of modernised Shakespeare in screen history.