This gangster crime still enjoys a cult status in Great Britain, and the role of the head of the London mafia Harold Shand, whose empire will begin to crumble at the moment when he thought he was untouchable and when he decided to legalize the business, is probably the best and most famous of Bob Hoskins’ career. This great English actor later unfortunately disgraced himself with roles in such nonsense as “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” or “Super Mario”, but at least I hope he made good money. When it comes to Hoskins and his earnings, there is a legendary anecdote that he may have made the best money for a role he never played.
Hoskins was supposed to play Al Capone in De Palma’s “The Untouchables”, and although he was replaced at the last minute by Robert De Niro, De Palma still sent him a check for two hundred thousand dollars. The witty Hoskins immediately called De Palma and told him to call him if he was going to have another movie in which he didn’t have to act. But in “Black Friday for Gangsters” Hoskins or rather his character has no reason to laugh at all. He has just made a big deal with the American mafia and is returning from New York to London to sign a contract to finance the renovation of the London docks.
Of course, he managed to get that job thanks to the fact that he has numerous politicians on his payroll, but the job will come into question when he realizes that someone has his sights set on him. Several of Harold’s close associates were killed, among them his oldest associate Colin. Someone has planted a bomb in his mother’s house, and his restaurant is about to blow up just as Harold is about to go there in the company of American “investors”. The world that until yesterday seemed to be in Harold’s hands will suddenly begin to shrink, and he will be especially tormented by the knowledge that he cannot understand who could possibly dare to attack him since he is by far the strongest player in London and England and nothing can’t do it there without his knowledge.
Scotsman John MacKenzie made probably his best-known and best film based on Barrie Keeffe’s screenplay, a real British answer to the then extremely popular American gangster crime films that were already widely filmed inspired and motivated by the success of Coppola’s “The Godfather”. But, apart from the fact that “The Long Good Friday” is a first-class crime, it is a film that also brilliantly portrays the socio-political situation in Great Britain at the end of the seventies, when the country was sinking into a serious crisis after years of serious corruption and civil war in Northern Ireland. It will be shown to the end that Harold, or rather his organization, resented the one team he never should have and that he knows could destroy him.