For the longest time I was familiar with Spike of Bensonhurst, but had never actually seen the movie. While I had gone to the theater to see and review FilmDallas Pictures releases of Patti Rocks an Da, I have no memory of Spike of Bensonhurst playing the Carolina Theater in Durham like the others. When I went to film school at the North Carolina School of the Arts, Sam Grogg was the dean for the first few years. He was also the head of the defunct FilmDallas. While working in our massive 35mm film archive (thanks to curator Ray Regis’ collection), I spent a bit of time wheeling around the print of Spike of Bensonhurst and getting it ready for shipment to various theaters and museums that were having tributes to director Paul Morrisey. While Sam Grogg showed us FilmDallas efforts such as Kiss of The Spider Woman and Man Facing Southeast, he didn’t want us to run Spike. The closest I got to experiencing Spike was when David Green (there was no Gordon in the middle), used an Italian pop song from the soundtrack as a karaoke moment for his legendary short “Will You Lather Up My Rough House” starring Big and Chad Love as roomies. This short was the peak of Green’s cinema career as coasted downhill and burned into the fiery hell that was Exorcist: Believer. Even when I was curious about seeing the film, the VHS tape of Spike was nowhere to be found at the videostores of Winston-Salem. Now thanks to Fun City Editions, Spike of Bensonhurst is back on home video and on 4K UHD. I can finally see what lurked inside the film cans.
Spike Fumo (Sasha Mitchell, Step By Step) is a low-level boxer growing in Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn. His father is in prison serving time for gangster stuff done for mob boss Baldo Cacetti (Ernest Borgnine, The Wild Bunch and McHale’s Navy). Spike’s mom has taken up a lesbian lover. Spike dreams of getting Cacetti to back his boxing career except the kingpin doesn’t see boxing as a respectable way to make money like drugs, bootleg adult videos and shoddy construction projects. He does offer Spike a chance to work at his video bootlegging facility. One night while out on the town, Spike encounters Angel (Maria Pitillo, True Romance, Natural Born Killers and Godzilla). He keeps her from getting hurt when trouble breaks out. While Cacetti likes Spike as a kid, he doesn’t want him near his daughter. He has set her up to marry a guy named Justin who is well connected and about to graduate from college. Cacetti wants to protect her so badly that he exiles Spike from Bensonhurst to Red Hook. However Angel wants to be with Spike and hatches a plan that goes really wrong.
Paul Morrisey has a complicated cinema history as a director since a lot of people probably have no clue that he directed his most famous movies. During the mid-60s he was making his own experimental films when he met Andy Warhol. The two hit is off since this was when Andy wants to go beyond art and focus on filmmaking. The two began collaborating with Morrisey taking over the director role. However Andy Warhol’s name went on all the films in huge fonts so it was easy to think Morrisey didn’t do much when it came to Flesh, Trash, Heat, Flesh For Frankenstein and Blood For Dracula. He broke with Warhol to make The Hounds of the Baskervilles starring Dudley Moore and Peter Cook. But the comedy flopped. Morrisey made a few low budget gritty films around New York City in the ’80s. Spike of Bensonhurst seems to be his last big feature film. Morrisey came up with a new view of mob life in the hood. The movie so deserves to be rediscovered.
After all these decades of being curious about Spike of Bensonhurst, I really like the film. It’s a strange bit of comedy by having lovable Ernest Borgnine play a mobster. He does have a way of turning off the charm when things get nasty. That completely works for the character. Sasha Mitchell is goofy enough to play the character who dreams of marrying a mobster boss and getting his own little piece of turf. Maria Pitillo is hilarious as the spoiled mobster daughter with an extreme solution on how to make things work between Spike and dad. Also in the cast is Talisa Soto, who would become a Bond Girl in Licensed To Kill and a tough fighter in the first two Mortal Kombat movies. Rick Aviles plays Spike’s corner man in exile. The actor appeared in Ghost, Mondo New York, Mystery Train and Waterworld before passing away in 1995. What’s interesting from the bonus features is to learn that FilmDallas let the film sit on the shelf for a year before release because someone had an issue with the Italian pop songs all over the soundtrack. The soundtrack keeps Spike lively and unique for an ’80s Teen Flick. It is a shame that there was no soundtrack album to liven up a party in 1988.
Spike of Bensonhurst should have played NCSA’s movie theater while I was there. We could have double featured it with Ray’s great print of Raging Bull. I really should have seen this movie sooner. The best part of the 4K UHD is that the box is a lot lighter than the film cans to pull off the shelf.
The Video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. The transfer is a 4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative. The 4K UHD image brings out the neighborhood. The Audio is DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo. You’ll crank up the volume when those Italian pop songs kick in. The movie is subtitled in English.
Blu-ray of the movie and bonus features.
Audio Commentary with William Morris has him see Spike of Bensonhurst as Paul Morrisey’s most underrated film. He mentions producer of Nelson Lyon was also the screenwriter on the legendary X-rated comedy The Telephone Book. Lyon is often blamed for John Belushi’s death. Sasha Mitchell was bagging groceries when he was picked to be a Calvin Klein model.
A Very Sophisticated Film (16:46) interview with Steven Fierberg, the longtime director of photography for Paul Morrisey. As a kid, he’d go to the art house in Detroit and see the Andy Warhol-Paul Morrisey movies. After he learned to work the camera, he came out to New York City and applied to work with Morrisey. He eventually got the call to work with Paul on a small project and end up being his regular camera man for years. Fierberg talks about shooting the boxing matches. He talks of all the cultures that are part of the film including Bensonhurst, Boxing and Puerto Rican. He gets into how Ernest Borgnine was not happy that Morrisey kept rewriting the script after he memorized his lines. Turns out the dangerous looking neighborhoods in the film were really dangerous. We get a mini-lighting workshop as Spike talks about lighting to make things feel real. The film stayed on the shelf for a year because of the Italian pop song soundtrack. This allowed Married to the Mob to come out first and have critics compare Spike to it. Morrisey considered Spike his best film. FilmDallas went bankrupt shortly after the release of Spike. Fierberg went on to shot episodes of Bosch: Legacy, Emily in Paris and The Affair.
A Personal Milestone (17:38) has Leonard Finger discuss being the casting director on Spike. He’d worked with Morrisey on two previous films. He talks about how Sam Grogg at FilmDallas got involved with the film. Jane Holzer from Andy Warhol’s Factory were among the backers. The film felt like a studio film to Paul since it was a larger budget. He talks about working with Sasha Mitchell and Talisa Soto. We get tales of Ernest Borgnine. He talks about his relationship with Paul Morrisey. There’s a poster for when the film was released as Mafia Kid.
Something To See (5:42) has Sam Grogg, head of FilmDallas and executive producer on Spike. He talks about how he got involved in the project. David Weisman was part of Andy Warhol’s Factory and met Sam through Kiss of the Spider Woman. He brought Sam the script for Spike when it was called Throwback. Sasha Mitchell was already attached since he was a hot Calvin Klein model. He talks about the nasty finale and how it was even more drastic with what Paul had in the original script.
Paul Morrisey at Home, 1989 (24:28) has the director on video shortly after Spike came out in theaters. He talks about Bensonhurst. He’s a very conservative character who somehow comes off as not happy that the people who occupy his movies really live in Manhattan. “New York is the central liberal toilet,” he declares. “All the terrible things start here. The drugs, the garbage, the rock and roll, the sex around the clock…” But those are the good parts about New York City. This was a guy who was part of Andy Warhol’s Factory that was all about these things. I’m kinda happy Morrisey didn’t visit the North Carolina School of the Arts because I could see us getting into an argument at the film archive and Ray Regis screaming at both of us to shut up and have a Stinger.
Image Gallery (5:49) is a montage of press photos, press kit pics, behind the scenes shots, premier party pics while one of the cool Italian pop songs plays.
Paul Morrisey Trailers includes Spike of Bensonhurst (2:28), Mixed Blood (1:47) and Trash (1:40). Trash has people who just saw the film giving testimonials next to the theater.
The Workprint Rough Cut (106:57) is like getting to watch the film on the Steenbeck editing table back when we spliced actual film. There’s about five more minutes in this cut.
Isolated Music Track lets you just hear all the fun Italian pop songs.
Illustrated Booklet has an essay by Margeret Barton-Fumo on the film.
Fun City Editions present Spike of Bensonhurst. Directed by Paul Morrisey. Screenplay by Alan Bowne & Paul Morrissey. Starring Sasha Mitchell, Ernest Borgnine, Anne De Salvo, Sylvia Miles, Talisa Soto & Rick Aviles. Running Time: 102 minutes. Rating: Rated R. Release Date: August 11, 2026.
