This black comic gangster movie is based on a 1982 novel by Richard Condon. It is about an ill-fated love affair and the nasty politics of the Brooklyn-based Prizzi family. Whereas Mario Puzo's Corleones had a sentimental side, these Mafia types are treacherous criminals who view money as manna. Guile is a way of life among all the men and women as the Prizzi clan.

Charley (Jack Nicholson), the family's enforcer, falls in love with Irene (Kathleen Turner), a sultry blond he meets at a wedding. After a lusty courtship in Los Angeles where she lives, they marry in Mexico. Only afterward does the not-too-swift Charley learn that the Prizzi clan recently hired Irene as a killer and that she is actually the brain behind an embarrassing theft from a family operation in Las Vegas. Complicating matters further, Maerose (Angelica Huston), Charley's old flame and granddaughter of the Prizzi patriarch (William Hickey), is out to get Irene for stealing her man.

Prizzi's Honor has a convoluted story line which includes a kidnapping, a gang war, police on the take, and a power struggle within the Prizzi syndicate. Charley and Irene get caught up in a complicated extortion scheme that eventually backfires. In the end, Charley must decide whether love for his devious and sexy wife is more important than loyalty to the Prizzi clan.

It is a pleasure to report that the screen chemistry between Nicholson and Turner works, but the movie's real surprise is the standout performance by Angelica Huston as Charley's dirty-dealing former lover. She's a tough-as-nails survivor who shuffles the cards and ends up a winner despite her sorry state at the start of the film. While Prizzi's Honor isn't a corker, there is enough entertainment in this blend of satire and suspense to qualify it as a bona fide adult film worth seeing.