 | Johnny Cool is an offbeat 1963 crime film directed by William Asher. It stars Henry Silva and Elizabeth Montgomery. Johnny Colini, an exiled American gangster living in Sicily, rescues Salvatore Giordano, a young Sicilian outlaw, from the police. After Giordano is groomed, polished, and renamed "Johnny Cool," Colini sends him on a mission of vengeance to the United States to assassinate the men who plotted his downfall and enforced exile. Johnny arrives in New York and quickly kills several of the underworld figures on Colini's list. Meanwhile, he picks up Darien "Dare" Guiness, a wealthy divorc?e who becomes his accomplice, she is later severely beaten by the gangsters as a warning to Johnny against pursuing his vendetta. Soon the FBI becomes involved, and when Johnny and Dare bomb the Hollywood home of gangster Lennart Crandall, the police are able to identify Dare's car. The two separate and plan to meet later, but Dare, realizing that Johnny is a vicious killer, tells his enemies where to find him. She then surrenders herself to the FBI, and Johnny is murdered by the henchmen of one of his victims. Produced in part by Peter Lawford, Johnny Cool features an interesting variety of notables as Johnny's associates and victims, including Telly Savalas, Mort Sahl, Joey Bishop, Jim Backus, and Sammy Davis, Jr., who also sings the theme song. |