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Martin Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942 in New York City — a metropolis that would go on to have a profound effect on the filmmaker’s creative output. He is one of modern cinema’s defining auteurs, and in honor of the director’s 73rd birthday, we’ve declared it Scorsese Week here at Decider. Click here to follow our coverage.
Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese‘s crime epic (and arguably his finest film), hit theaters 25 years ago, and it was an immediate commercial and critical success. Scorsese amplified a genre that moviegoers have loved for decades with his quintessential style, and the film would nearly immediately inspire copycats, spoofs, and homages. Based on Nicholas Pileggi’s book Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family, Goodfellas tells the story of Luchese crime family associate Henry Hill, who became an FBI informant in the early ‘80s and whose testimony helped convict 50 other Luchese associates.
While Goodfellas ends with Hill entering the Witness Protection Program (and lamenting, through Ray Liotta’s voice-over narration, “I’m an average nobody. I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook”), there’s a bit of a companion piece to Goodfellas that was also released in 1990 — although its much lighter tone definitely left it eclipsed by Scorsese’s Oscar-winning film.
Released a little over a month before Goodfellas, Herbert Ross’ silly crime romp My Blue Heaven stars Steve Martin as the Henry Hill-inspired mobster Vincent “Vinnie” Antonelli. It’s a typical fish-out-of-water tale, with the New York native Antonelli trying his best to settle in the notably lame San Diego suburb. Antonelli, while having a heart of gold, can’t quite shake his Mafioso past (he gets himself entangled in various con games to the chagrin of the local district attorney, played by the always hilarious Joan Cusack). Tasked to keep in line is FBI agent Barney Coopersmith (Rick Moranis), whose efforts to keep Antonelli out of trouble (and more importantly, safe from the mobsters on the hunt for him) have varied results.
My Blue Heaven is a mostly forgotten little film, with its amusing premise possibly overshadowed by its broad strokes (Martin, in particular, offers a heavy hand at playing New York mobster trapped in a suburban purgatory; his performance would have been better suited to a six-minute SNL sketch). And while the film has its brilliant moments (Moranis and Cusack are standouts, as is the modern-day clown Bill Irwin, who brilliantly steals the whole damn show with an inexplicable dance number), it’s ultimately a silly, fleeting movie even if its connection to Goodfellas is so strong.
My Blue Heaven isn’t just loosely based on Henry Hill. The film was written by Nora Ephron, who was married to Nicholas Pileggi when he was working on Wiseguy. As Hill himself revealed in his memoir, Gangsters and Goodfellas: The Mob, Witness Protection, and Life on the Run:
While Goodfellas might be the mob movie everyone considers the best, My Blue Heaven does have the benefit of also getting its details straight from the source himself. One can’t really compare a Martin Scorsese film and a Nora Ephron production, but the two movies make for a surprising and juicy bit of cinematic trivia.
Tyler Coates is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter at @tylercoates.
