Un Milione di Baci~ Introduction

We’ve always been intrigued by the so-called “gangster”. But the “gangster” definition hasn’t always stayed the same. In the old days, gangsters and mobsters were people like Al Capone, Bejamin “Bugsy” Segal, and even “Lucky” Luciano, believe it or not. In the present, if we want to watch “goanster’s”, all we have to do is turn on HBO and watch “The Sopranos”, or change the channel to BET and MTV to see the new era of so-called “gangsta’s”.
But what we’re talking about here is the real gangster. The gangster that originated in New York and Chicago. The gangster that didn’t make a spectacle of himself and draw attention, but did his business quickly and quietly. If we want to watch the old time gangsters, we can look back into our DVD archives and find some great examples of gangsters and mobsters.
Lately, we’ve got De-Lovely and Chicago. Go back 10 years to Bullets Over Broadway and The Untouchables. Keep going and the 1980’s gave us The Cotton Club and Once Upon a Time in America. I’m sure I don’t have to remind you of the Godfather. That’s, the real gangster, the real mobster, the real Mafia, right there. But this story isn’t about that. It’s about a young girl.
The story is set in the thirties, early- around Prohibition and the Stock Market Crash. It’s mostly set in New York, or New Jersey, sometimes Chicago, but that’s not relevant. There are two Italian families, the de Luca family, and the Bianchi family. But that’s not important either. What you really want to follow are Melody and Vito.
For this is the story of how Melody, young and naïve, ends up working for the Mafia, and falling in love with a mobster. Of course she doesn’t realize it at the time, but this is a memoir of sorts, a kind of rewinding of time, to watch Melody as she learns how to become a modern girl in a dangerous world and how, eventually she will use that dangerous world against the man she once loved.