Hollywood Crime Story: The Mob Takes Over the Movies is a new three-part documentary tracing organized crime's involvement in the film industry from its earliest days — including Thomas Edison using hired muscle against competitors — through 1990, bookended by The Godfather Part III and Goodfellas. Episode one covers Al Capone lieutenant Johnny Roselli's move to Hollywood, where a half-million-dollar loan gave the mob a real stake in Columbia Pictures, alongside figures like Bugsy Siegel and Mickey Cohen.
Episode two shifts to the late 1960s through early 1980s and the rise of the so-called 'Supermob,' a network of mob-linked businessmen including agent Lew Wasserman and lawyer Sidney Korshak, who wielded boardroom influence rather than violence. The documentary ties this era directly to the making of The Godfather, which was shepherded by a Korshak protege, partly funded through a Vatican-linked banker, and unofficially blessed by a crime boss later gunned down during filming.
The series argues that the film's massive success reshaped how mobsters themselves behaved, inspiring the theatrical gestures — ring-kissing, code names, lavish weddings — that later defined mob culture, even as the real power players faded from view or were destroyed.
The full dispatch is available from the source below.