However, this "supposed" capo, was a mere "crew leader", who like most of the 
low level, low lifes, seizes every opportunity to "puff himself up".

Amazing, Mr. Rifkin. You must be a "twerpy little nerd" with a "busted moral 
compass" to hold Montemarano in such high esteem. He reminds me more of a 
Bert Young "who has specialized in playing seedy roles..(and) has mostly 
played variations on cretinous archetypes...[Leonard Maltin]

You, Mr. Rifkin, have been able to plunge a "double" edge knife into the 
Italian American community, by not only using the Mafia Stereotype, but by 
using an "actual" mafioso, (instead of a "make-believe" actor) in order to 
give it a "cinema verite", so that REEL is REAL!! 

Montemarano, I live only 5 miles away. Let's get together, so I can tell you 
what a revolting despicable puttana you are! Nothing personal! 

PS. Bring your twerpy nerd "friend" along. 
========================================
HIM? ACT? BA-DA-BING!
Onetime capo, Donnie Montemarano is now the inspiration for and star of a 
movie. 

By Sorina Diaconescu
Special to the Times
Los Angeles Times
Wednesday, April 24, 2002

...When filmmaker Adam Rifkin became acquainted with Donnie Montemarano and 
his home-cooked Italian dishes...more than a year ago, he fell under a spell. 
It was as if the indie director had met muse and dream chef rolled into one.

Week after week he returned to Montemarano's kitchen, (In Westwood Calf., a 
Westside Los Angeles community, best known for UCLA, and is west of Beverly 
Hills, south of Bel Air) where the 63-year-old charismatic cook, onetime capo 
in an organized crime syndicate on New York's East Side and former federal 
convict, entertained with food and war stories.

The pasta puttanesca was good, but the banter was better. Whether Montemarano 
and his boyhood pal Vinny Argiro, 62, set out to argue politics, reminisce 
about growing up... or debate the merits of L.A. pastry shops, their dialogue 
crackled with the kind of pizazz screenwriters dream about.... 

They now have it in "Night at the Golden Eagle," a stylish neo-noir film that 
Rifkin wrote, directed and co-financed with producer and fellow gourmand 
Steve Bing. 

In the film, which opens Friday in limited release, Montemarano and Argiro 
play fictional characters loosely inspired by their real selves,...to an... 
intensely dark picture.

Montemarano makes a ...debut as Tommy, an ex-con protagonist all too eager to 
stumble back on the wrong side of the law on the day of his release from 
prison. He's the kind of guy who can only play roughhouse and wreaks havoc on 
all those around him, especially his reformed lifelong buddy Mic, played by 
Argiro. The story unfolds against the backdrop of the title's Golden Eagle, a 
crack-house hotel in downtown L.A. where ghosts of faded Hollywood glamour, 
pimping and murder are all among one night's attractions....

Montemarano: "I never acted a day in my life. I had no idea I could act."

Rifkin: "I told him, 'Did you see the movie "Babe"? That pig looked like a 
good actor, didn't he? You and Vinny are natural actors, just like the pig in 
"Babe."

[RAA Note: Rifkin tells Montemarano he acts as well as a pig, and Montemarano
takes it as a compliment!?] 

...In his earlier years, Montemarano was involved with the Colombo family, 
one of New York's organized crime clans. According to mid-'80s court 
documents, he rose to the rank of crew leader, or capo, under don Carmine 
Persico, and was known by the underworld moniker "Donny Shacks". Tried in 
1987 on charges of extorting money from New York City construction companies, 
he spent more than a decade in federal prisons serving part of an 18-year 
racketeering conviction.

It was behind bars that Montemarano took up cooking. He would fry onions and 
steam broccoli in his cell, on the back of an iron turned upside down. 

"Cooking took my mind off where I was," he says with a sigh....Yet he cannot 
enjoy it much anymore. He's on a special diet because of longtime heart 
troubles-... He lost his bladder in 1985, and a bout with cancer in prison 
proved so debilitating that it resulted in Montemarano's early release on 
probation in 1996. [RAA Note: So debilitating that he was able to put in only 
17 hour days on the film shoot?] 

When asked if he drew on experience to play the small-potatoes ex-con in 
"Night at the Golden Eagle," Montemarano said all Tommy and he had in common 
was a prolonged stint "on vacation." He certainly didn't share his 
character's basic philosophy. "This guy was robbing gas stations and stealing 
cars. He was a low-class criminal; he made $2,500 a week," Montemarano says, 
wincing in distaste. "He wasn't in the Mafia."

[RAA: Yes, "Shacks", and your claiming to be a Class Act, Right!!??]

"But both you and Vinny said that you knew guys like that," director Rifkin 
interjected, and Montemarano agreed that they did.

These days, Montemarano is reluctant to discuss his onetime connection with 
the mob and looks almost pained by any mention of it. That's because he made 
a break with his past, he declares; now he sticks to the roles of father, 
grandparent, friend and host in real life, and breaks the law only on screen. 

If trouble seems to seek out the character Montemarano plays in the movie, it 
has clung to the actor himself.

Montemarano landed back in jail last year for allegedly violating the 
conditions of his parole. After four months in custody, he was released on 
bail at a February hearing .... For the time being, Montemarano whiles away 
in his apartment, where he has been under house arrest, awaiting, his lawyer 
explained, a resolution to his pending charges.

Montemarano may be grounded, but his acting career is taking off. Casting 
agents have gotten word of his performance in "Night at the Golden Eagle,"...

... As for Francis Ford Coppola's seminal Mafia trilogy, Argiro says, "I can 
recite every line from 'The Godfather' I and II. 'The Godfather' III, I 
refuse to watch again."

" 'GoodFellas' was terrible! How can you root for a rat?" he marvels.

[ RAA: What, I should root for you???] 

Having finished the main courses, the table seems ready to debate the truly 
important matters. Like who portrays mobsters best in the movies. "The best 
Mafia guys are played by Jewish men like James Caan," proclaims Montemarano. 
(Caan has a cameo role in the film.) 

How about Al Pacino?

He's good all right, accedes Montemarano, "but he also made a good cop in 
'Serpico'!" Pacino's record as cinematic mobster is thus deemed 
inconclusive...,