Month: December 2025

From hhv’s product description:

“CAM Sugar is proud to announce the definitive release of the original soundtrack composed by Ennio Morricone for Il clan dei siciliani (The Sicilian Clan) by Henri Verneuil (1969), one of the most celebrated European noir films of the late 1960s, starring Jean Gabin, Alain Delon, and Lino Ventura.

This new edition comes in a limited italian exclusive 3LP Gatefold edition plus poster and it stems from an extraordinary discovery in CAM Sugar’s historical archives: the original master tapes of the complete recording sessions, preserved for decades and never before heard in their entirety. From these tapes emerged precious material, including eight previously unreleased themes—never issued in any format—now fully restored and presented to the public for the first time.

With this release, CAM Sugar continues its mission to rediscover and enhance the immense heritage of Italian film music, returning to collective memory one of Ennio Morricone’s most emblematic works—finally in its complete, restored, and definitive form.

· LP 1 – The Original 1969 Soundtrack Album

· LP 2 – Outtakes & Alternates

· LP 3 – The Lost Tape

Thus is born Archivio Segreto, a new series of CAM Sugar physical releases designed to bring to the public the composers’ works in their most complete and definitive form, enriched with unreleased tracks and studio materials.

The restoration work, carried out with strict philological rigor, has fully recovered the authentic sound of the orchestra conducted by Morricone. High-resolution digitization and precise restoration have preserved the warmth and dynamic range of the original tape, recreating a spatial sound faithful to the Maestro’s vision. Available as a triple LP and double high-resolution CD, this edition represents the most complete and philologically accurate version ever released of this legendary score, reproducing the full recording session exactly as it was captured.

The music of Il clan dei siciliani occupies a prominent place in Morricone’s career and in the history of European film music. His score combines elegance and tension, exquisitely portraying Verneuil’s protagonists—criminals bound by an ancient code of honor, caught in a world of modernity and betrayal. The main theme, “Il clan dei siciliani,” has become one of the composer’s most iconic pieces, with its clear melody, melodramatic structure, and orchestral arrangement that blends melancholy with sophistication. Since its first release as a 45 RPM single in 1969, the piece has stood as a classic of the genre, uniting popular appeal with musical depth.

A musical journey through the soul of crime and honor—between melancholy and formal precision—signed by one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century.

The CAM Sugar edition is not a mere reissue: it is an act of historical and cultural restoration. The eight unreleased tracks found on the master tapes reveal new shades of Morricone’s work, including thematic variations, sequences removed from the final edit, and musical ideas that shed light on the Maestro’s creative process at the height of his artistic maturity. The new edition also includes a booklet featuring period images, production notes, and a critical essay on the genesis of the soundtrack—offering listeners a fully immersive experience in the sonic and cinematic world of the film.”

The Film:

From Wikipedia:

“The Sicilian Clan (French: Le clan des Siciliens) is a 1969 French-Italian gangster film^[3] based on the novel by Auguste Le Breton. It was directed by Henri Verneuil and stars Jean Gabin, Lino Ventura and Alain Delon, whose casting has been credited with the film’s box office success in France.^[6][7] Ennio Morricone composed the score for the film.

In Paris, robber and murderer Roger Sartet escapes from custody with the help of the Manalese, a small, well-organized Sicilian Mafia clan consisting of patriarch Vittorio, his two sons, and his son-in-law. Sartet pays them with some valuable stamps he had stowed away, and the Manalese hide him in an apartment above the arcade game manufacturing company they own as a front. Jeanne, the French wife of Vittorio’s elder son, looks after Sartet, but he sneaks out to see a prostitute at a hotel and narrowly avoids getting captured by Commissaire Le Goff.

While in prison, Sartet got to know an engineer who worked on the security for a jewelry exhibition in Rome before becoming incarcerated, and he learns the details of the system. He proposes that the Manalese help him rob the show, but they are dubious of the hot-headed outsider, so Vittorio and his old friend Tony Nicosia, who has lived in New York City for decades, go to the exhibition to check it out. They notice additional security measures negate Sartet’s plan, but, after learning the show will soon be moved to New York, Nicosia comes up with a plan to steal the jewels in transit. He sends Jack, an alcoholic ex-pilot, to Paris to help the Manalese with the heist.

Figuring Sartet will need fake papers to leave the country, Le Goff tracks down the forger who made his previous fake passport. By coincidence, Vittorio was having the same man make several fake passports as part of the heist, and Le Goff finds the phone number of one of Vittorio’s employees at the forger’s studio. Le Goff questions Vittorio, but he says the employee no longer works for him

The Manalese clan retreat to a hideout near the Italian border. Jeanne sunbathes nude in front of Sartet and they start to make love, but are interrupted by Roberto, her six-year-old nephew. She entreats him not to tell anyone.

Sartet goes to Rome, where he discreetly kidnaps Edward Evans, an English insurance man, and takes Evans’ place among the small group of officials sent to guard the jewels during their trip on a passenger flight. As Jack, Jeanne, Vittorio, and his sons wait to catch the plane when it stops in Paris, they are surprised to see Evans’ wife arrive and, intending to accompany her husband to New York, board the plane early. Thinking fast when Mrs. Evans returns from the plane, Vittorio leads her to believe that Evans will be on the same flight the next day, as that is when the jewels are really being transported. While the plane loads and takes off, Mrs. Evans puts through a call to her husband’s hotel in Rome. When she learns he never arrived there, she contacts the police and identifies Sartet as one of the men she saw on the plane.

During the plane’s descent towards New York, the Manalese clan hijack the aircraft. Warned of Sartet’s imminent arrival in the United States, the local police race to the airport, but Jack lands the plane on a new stretch of highway that is not yet open. Nicosia’s men are waiting to unload the jewels, and the gangsters split up. Sartet hides out in New York while he waits for his share of the proceeds and a ticket to Veracruz.

Back home in Paris, the Manalese family watch a film in which a couple start to make love, and Roberto exclaims that it looks just like what Sartet was doing with Jeanne. Though Jeanne denies everything, Vittorio lures Sartet back to Paris by withholding his share of the loot. Jeanne calls Sartet’s sister, Monique, and asks her to warn him of the trap. Monique goes to the airport, where she finds Vittorio’s sons and son-in-law waiting for Sartet, and they are all arrested by Le Goff, who was monitoring Monique’s telephone.

Sartet, who had arrived in Paris by an earlier flight than expected, calls Vittorio to arrange a meeting at an isolated spot. Vittorio brings Jeanne with him, and, while Sartet examines the money, Vittorio shoots Sartet and Jeanne dead, leaving the cash by the corpses. When Vittorio returns home, Le Goff is waiting to arrest him.

Development

The Sicilian Clan was based on the second novel in a series by Auguste Le Breton. The first, which also featured the characters of Sartet and Le Goff, had been filmed by Bernard Borderie as Brigade antigangs in 1966.

The film rights to The Sicilian Clan were bought by Henri Verneuil, who teamed with Jacques-Eric Strauss and signed a deal with 20th Century Fox.^[8] Verneuil wrote a screenplay with Pierre Pelegri and then José Giovanni. The two lead roles were written with Jean Gabin and Alain Delon in mind, as Verneuil had worked with both men before.^[9] As the writing progressed, Verneuil began to feel that the police officer was another strong role, and he decided to cast Lino Ventura, who had made his film debut 15 years earlier in Touchez pas au grisbi, which also starred Gabin.^[8]

Irina Demick was unhappy with her character in the film compared to the novel, in which she was more active, and wanted her to take part in the hijacking. Verneuil felt this would not be believable, but Demick had considerable influence, as she was the mistress of the head of Fox, Darryl F. Zanuck, so Verneuil rewrote the sequence.^[8]

Filming

Second unit filming started in New York in March 1969. The main unit went into production on March 24 at Franstudio’s Saint-Maurice Studios. The film was shot in two versions: with the actors speaking French, and with the actors speaking English.^[8]

During production, Delon was involved in a real-life scandal, the Marković affair, which surrounded the still-unsolved murder of his former bodyguard Stevan Marković several months earlier.

Box office

In France, The Sicilian Clan drew 4,821,585 admissions,^[10] making it the third-most-popular movie of 1969 in France, behind Once Upon a Time in the West and The Brain.^[11] It was the second-highest-grossing film of all time in France, behind La Grande Vadrouille(1966), when only considering films not shown on a roadshow release basis.^[1] In the United States and Canada, the film earned $1 million in theatrical rentals during 1970.^[12]

According to Fox records, the film required $7,925,000 in rentals to break even, and it had earned worldwide rentals of $9,250,000 by 11 December 1970.^[5] By September 1970, it had made Fox a profit of $533,000.^[13]

Critical reception

Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that the film “has its occasional moments… but mostly it’s a tired example of a tired genre.”^[14] The Los Angeles Times said it “winds up seeming more corny and contrived than witty and ironic.”^[15]

Retrospectively, and more positively, in the book French Cinema: From Its Beginnings to the Present, author Rémi Fournier Lanzoni wrote: “This gangster film reinvented the classic gangster genre, elevating it to a higher level with its hard-boiled acting, deep character studies, and attractive photography.”^[9]

Release

The film had its premiere in Paris on 8 December 1969.^[1]

References

1.  “‘Sicilians’ Moves In French Stakes; Now B.O. Second”. Variety. 11 February 1970. p. 11.
2.  “The Sicilian Clan (1970)”. Turner Classic Movies. Turner Broadcasting System (WarnerMedia). Archived from the original on October 18, 2015. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
3.  “Le Clan Des Siciliens (1968)”. British Film Institute. Archived from the original on March 3, 2017. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
4.  Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1. p256
5.  Silverman, Stephen M (1988). The Fox that got away : the last days of the Zanuck dynasty at Twentieth Century-Fox. L. Stuart. p. 329. ISBN 9780818404856.
6.  Michael L. Stephens  Gangster films – 1996 “A surprising success in the United States (where it grossed over $2 million), The Sicilian Clan was an enormous box office success in Europe, and remains one of the all-time moneymakers in France. It is yet another variation on the heist gone wrong”
7.  Canby, Vincent (2011). “New York Times: The Sicilian Clan”. Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2011-05-20. Retrieved 2008-09-03.
8.  Lombard, Philippe (3 August 2008). “The Sicilian Clan”. Film Stories.
9.  Fournier Lanzoni, Rémi (22 October 2015). French Cinema: From Its Beginnings to the Present (2nd ed.). United States: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 266–267. ISBN 978-1-5013-0307-4.
10.  Box office information for film at Box Office Story
11.  “French Box Office 1969”. Box Office Story.
12.  “Big Rental Films of 1970”. Variety. 6 January 1971. p. 11.
13.  Silverman p 259
14.  Screen: Verneuil’s ‘The Sicilian Clan’ By Vincent Canby. New York Times 30 Mar 1970: 52.
15.  Heist Theme Featured in The Sicilian Clan’ Thomas, Kevin. Los Angeles Times 27 May 1970: e15.

• The Sicilian Clan at IMDb
• ‹See Tfd›The Sicilian Clan at the TCM Movie Database
• Review of film at Slate Magazine
• Review at filmsdefrance.com
• Story of making of the film at Histoires de Tournages
• The Sicilian Clan at Letterbox DVD