Gone With The Pope

If it had not been for Bob Murawski, one of the Academy awarded editors of Hurt Locker, Gone with the Pope would most likely never have been seen on a big screen. Shot in 1976 by night club singer Duke Mitchell, who also stars in the movie, as a follow-up to his previous film, a DIY homage to The Godfather called The Executioner, Pope was never finished and the footage was stocked away. That is, until Murawski one day saw The Executioner on VHS. He then tried to get hold of Mitchell, only to find out that he died in 1981. However, he got the material for the unfinished movie in order to put it all together. Fifteen years later, after editing the movie on the side of more bankable jobs, with instructions from a treatment and scribbled notes on napkins, the film is now released. The result is classic Grindhouse material about a group of Italian gangsters kidnapping the Holy Father himself, putting the ransom to one dollar for every Catholic. Crammed with sex, violence and political incorrectness echoing its 70’s production time and milieu, Gone With the Pope is an unearthed time capsule of good bad taste.

Title: Gone With The Pope
Director: Duke Mitchell
Country: USA
Length: 83 min
Festival: 2010
Section: Twilight Zone
Language: English

Premiere status: Swedish Premiere
Production year: 2010
Cast: Bill Boyd, John Bruno, Carl Cocomo, Lorenzo Dardado, Paul DiAmico, Steve DiBiaso
Producer: Duke Mitchell
Script: Duke Mitchell
Music: Dominico Salvatora Miceli, Jeffrey Mitchell, Chris Virzi, Christopher Young