The Guardian
·Aug 2026
How the mob took Hollywood: the story of organized crime and the movies
The three-part documentary Hollywood Crime Story: The Mob Takes Over the Movies traces organized crime's influence on the American film industry from Thomas Edison's early attempts to control motion-picture technology through the mob's involvement in studios, unions, financing and distribution. It profiles figures including Al Capone, Johnny Roselli, Sidney Korshak, Lew Wasserman and Robert Evans, and argues that films such as The Godfather both reflected criminal culture and changed how mobsters presented themselves. The series also examines pornography, cocaine financing and the scandal surrounding The Cotton Club, concluding in 1990 with The Godfather Part III and Goodfellas as Hollywood's concentrated power began to give way to a more diffuse digital industry.