The summary and note for this entry were completed with participation from the AFI Academic Network. Summary and note were written by participant John Theofanis, a student at University of Texas at Austin, with Janet Staiger as academic advisor.

Director John Huston was directing the 1984 film, Under the Volcano (see entry), when he sent a copy of Richard Condon’s 1982 novel, Prizzi’s Honor, to Foreman, with whom he had made three previous films. According to a 19 Sep 1984 DV article, Huston was not interested in the property for himself, but believed Foreman might wish to work on it. Foreman attached Huston’s daughter, actress Anjelica Huston, and actor Jack Nicholson, and had Condon write a first draft screenplay. John Huston’s friend, Janet Roach, was brought in as a collaborator on later drafts of the script. Foreman returned to Huston, who “was pulled into the project because he knew everyone involved.”
       In a 31 May 1985 HR article, columnist Arthur Knight noted that Prizzi’s Honor was “a family film in more ways than one,” because of its depiction of a Mafia family and because members of Huston’s real-life family and former collaborators were involved in the production. His daughter, Anjelica Huston, and Jack Nicholson, who had been romantically involved for many years, were cast in lead roles. Huston’s assistant for Prizzi’s Honor was twenty-six-year-old Monique Blanke, the daughter of Henry Blanke, a Warner Bros. producer who had been important to Huston’s early career. Huston also hired Meta Carpenter Wilde, the script supervisor who worked with him on the 1941 film, The Maltese Falcon, and Rudi Fehr, the film editor for his 1948 picture, Key Largo.
       In a 2010 interview with Tony Tracy, Anjelica Huston stated that her father cast his former secretary, Annie Selepegno, as “Aunt Amalia,” although an experienced actress, Julie Bovasso, was interested in the role. Bovasso did not appear in a credited role in the film, but was listed onscreen in the crew as “Dialect coach/Technical advisor” and was later described by Huston as “the voice of the movie.” According to a 15 Oct 1984 New Yorker article, at the first production meeting, Huston told his assembled cast and crew that he was “looking for a sound” and that Bovasso would “give it” to them. In the Tracy interview, Anjelica Huston reported that the entire cast spoke with Bovasso’s Brooklyn-Italian accent and that many of them, including Nicholson, remained in character throughout the production.
       In a May-Jun 1985 Film Comment article, Nicholson stated that he created a "little device,” that helped him “talk funny.” According to Nicholson’s observation, Sicilians and Italians hold their upper lips still when they speak. He stated that, “One small thing like that can give you the spine of a character." Although Nicholson did not divulge to the Film Comment reporter his technique for achieving that effect, Anjelica Huston reported in the Tracy interview that Nicholson put tissue paper under his lip.
       In a 15 Oct 1984 New Yorker article, titled “Forty” in direct reference to Huston’s fortieth directorial effort with Prizzi’s Honor, the article’s author, Lillian Ross, followed John Huston during several days of filming. Huston, then seventy-eight years old, led a first production meeting and a read-through of the script, in which he emphasized that all of the characters in the film would be introduced in the very first scene, a wedding sequence. Huston requested that William Hickey, a character actor in his fifties who would later be cast as the eighty-four-year-old “Don Corrado Prizzi,” be fitted in an over-large suit to emphasize the Don’s shrunken appearance. According to the same article, portions of the film were shot in Brooklyn and at Le Bel Age Hotel near Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, CA.
       A 7 Jul 1987 Long Beach Press-Telegram article reported that Rocco Musacchia, who was suspected of belonging to an organized crime family in New York according to FBI affidavits, served as technical advisor for Prizzi’s Honor. When asked about Musacchia, Foreman stated that he “works on most of the pictures that go to New York as sort of a local contact. He knows his way around Brooklyn.”
       Reviews for the film were generally favorable. The 3 Jun 1985 Var review anticipated possible audience confusion rising from the “bizarre nature of the film’s tone,” which began with “slyly funny moments” and developed into a “Godfatheresque drama.” The reviewer reported that the ad campaign accented the comedy and praised Nicholson for “catching the amoral rhythms of the syndicate underworld.” The 14 Jun 1985 NYT reviewer, Vincent Canby, saw energy and adventure in Prizzi’s Honor and correctly predicted an Oscar nomination for Anjelica Huston. He praised the film for including “great chunks of the original Condon dialogue,” such as, “Do I ice her? Do I marry her?”, a line spoken by Nicholson’s character, “Charley,” when he is unsure about trusting the woman he loves.
       The 14 Jun 1985 LAT review described Prizzi’s Honor as “The Maltese Falcon set in Brooklyn and done like Italian opera.” Benson compared the richly drawn characters populating the film to the colorful casts in Huston’s earlier films. The reviewer mentioned that the film was “helped by a dangerously witty musical score by Alex North, who underlines Sicilian dirty tricks with quotations from Rossini overtures and Verdi marches.”
       A 10 Apr 1988 LAT article stated that North’s score for Prizzi’s Honor was deemed ineligible for an Academy Award in the Best Original Score category because of the composer’s musical references. The article quoted a letter from the music branch executive chairman, John Addison, to North’s agent stating that North’s score was “primarily an adaptation of other composers’ music.” The article reported that the “music adaptation” category, for which North’s score would have been eligible, had been discontinued in 1984. North and his musical colleagues protested, and, according to the article, North believed that the Honorary Academy Award he was given in 1986 was a result of the “outcry within the [musical] branch” after the Prizzi’s Honor score was rejected.
       Prizzi’s Honor was named Best Picture of the Year by the New York Film Critics Association, and also won awards for Best Director (John Huston), Best Actor (Jack Nicholson) and Best Supporting Actress (Anjelica Huston). The film was nominated for Golden Globes for Best Screenplay-Motion Picture and Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture, and won Golden Globes for Best Director, Best Motion Picture-Comedy/Musical, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical (Nicholson) and Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical (Kathleen Turner).
       The film received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Nicholson), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (William Hickey), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Anjelica Huston), Best Costume Design (Donfeld), Best Director (Huston), Best Film Editing (Rudi Fehr, Kaja Fehr), Best Picture (Foreman) and Best Writing Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Condon and Roach). Anjelica Huston was the sole winner from the group.
       Anjelica Huston’s award for Best Supporting Actress made Academy Awards history for the Huston family by creating three generations of Oscar winners. John Huston won two Academy Awards (Best Director and Best Writing, Screenplay) for his work on The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948, see entry), and his father, Walter Huston, won Best Supporting Actor for his role as the gold prospector in the same film. For his work on Prizzi’s Honor, John Huston was nominated by the DGA for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures, and he won the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Ciak award.