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‘My Blue Heaven:’ The Steve Martin Comedy That Makes the Mafia Hilarious
If you’re going to be a gangster, at least be funny
I’ve written about the Mafia several times over the past year, from why some classic gangster films are really Christmas movies to a recent piece about Mafia myths. Our obvious fascination with the mob is evidenced by the success of films like The Godfather and Goodfellas and TV shows like The Sopranos and Gomorrah; even Mario Puzo’s original novel version of The Godfather was a New York Times bestseller for 67 weeks, selling 9 million copies in just two years. What gangster films typically aren’t is funny; Don Corleone is too busy being menacing to crack a joke.
A fortuitous series of events changed this in 1990. Five years earlier, Nicholas Pileggi wrote the book Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family, the story of mobster-turned-informant Henry Hill. In 1990, the same year Martin Scorsese adapted the book into the classic Mafia film Goodfellas, Pileggi’s wife Nora Ephron took a page from Hill’s life (dealt with only briefly at the end of Goodfellas), turned it on its head, added Steve Martin and Rick Moranis, and struck comedy gold with My Blue Heaven.
From the Fats Domino title song that opens the film (an ear worm that sticks with you long after the film ends), you know this is no…
