External Reviews The film Prince of the City has been one of my favorite films for many years. Helpful. (5) Mrs. Allen says that twelve prosecutors met to debate whether to indict Leuci for perjury. C+. It is AMAZING to me that it didn't win the Academy Award. Film. Get a $5 reward for a movie on us. VERY rarely will you see a film as emotionally gripping, intellectually stimulating, realistic, and well-acted as Prince of the City. Metacritic Reviews. While "Prince of the City is a very long film and sometimes gets a little slowed down, it is a great story that is worth watching. Rated R X. Watching this in 2010 is a struggle. Then and only then was he indicted for perjury. and the way they all operate outside the law. Fresh City Meal Kit Bag. As usual, the financial aspects of the novel work better than the characterizations and interpersonal dialogue. An American classic, not to be missed! No cop in trouble would be dumb enough to insult a prosecutor; and the cop who is the model for Jerry Ohrbach’s part was circumspect so far beyond even that high average that he managed, by guile, charm, and heroic abstention from outright candor, to convince a jury to acquit him. © 1963-2021 NYREV, Inc. All rights reserved. From takings of offense that run on longer than the offense itself, Good Lord deliver us. Maybe it will. The same rule extends to movie studios. Receive a $10 Reward. Book Review of the Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince is a formal, in depth, documentation of various political science subjects the regarding principalities and the rise of a prince to power. Mr. Kempton chastises the people who made Prince of the City for “a parade of inauthenticities” which no one “remotely familiar with law enforcement agencies would make.” Mr. Kempton makes the ex cathedra pronouncement that “no policeman would think to tell a District Attorney that all society is a jungle” because he’s “aware that an ADA knows that as well as he does.” I can only submit that in a moment of passion Bob Leuci made the tiresome social error of telling somebody something they already knew. Mrs. Allen has answered my complaint by compounding my grounds: even now she is still not just telling us but probably even believing that policemen who take bribes from the peddlers of heroin are charming rogues. This movie is tedious. I saw Sidney Lumet give a talk about his career. It's a shame that only a minuscule percentage of the IMDb population even has heard or seen films like these from this era, where films were truly an art form, rather than the commercial vehicle that they have become today. Then we come to “it was so corrupt that it self-destructed,” an image right out of the infinite delights all of us remember from Max Sennett. (What happened?) Although Danny Ciello wanted to cleanse himself and do the right thing, the path to that was to bring down the cop family, the close, tightly knit unit that he was part of. Danny often crosses the blurry boundary himself. The original idea, as he freely admitted in his 1950 article in The Architectural Review, came directly from Mies, who designed the similar Farnsworth house in Plano, Illinois, in 1946, but did not complete its construction until 1951. I would be remiss if I did not say how much I respect Mr. Lumet’s and Mrs. Allen’s other work and that I look forward to next time, when I hope they will return to real life. The book about Leuci is the version he has told an author desperately anxious to make his case. Everyone is guilty in this film to some degree, there are no hero's. One does, however, expect competent reporting. At one point one of the characters of "Prince of the City" quotes this: "The law means everything to me and if any arm of the law is corrupt nothing can work, nothing. Where did Treat Williams, a competant actor up till this movie summon the greatness he reaches. The camera's always in the right place, the city looks dirty, the cops look like hoods, the hoods look like cops, all's well in the looks department. Hecht and McCarthy had been there. These documents are available to anyone who has the motivation and the energy to pursue them. Sidney Lumet’s film about Robert Leuci — a real-life narcotics detective caught in a web of intra-force betrayal — dispenses with backstories, motivations, and real names. But most of them had been police reporters, which is why a play like The Front Page remains even now faithful to the reality of the press shack. Awards I should hope that in due course Mrs. Allen will find out how curious a movie can look to any observer who has even fleetingly traveled in the ambience it asserts itself as depicting. The book has also been a keen interest of mine. In any event, we were not making a movie about the Knapp Commission, but about an investigation that took place outside that body. It's not a good film. Prince of the City. We were making a movie about five SIU detectives, partners in corruption, five men clearly and, in four cases, admittedly guilty of the crimes depicted in the movie. Just watched this recently; saw it on it's first run when I was seventeen and Treat Williams was a hot young actor destined for stardom. Bravo! The drug life for him was one of incarceration and constant police surveillance. PRINCE OF THE CITY is an excellent, if overlong, fictional treatment of a true story, set in the 1960s. I certainly do not apologize for my reliance on Nick Pileggi and, if the unlikely occasion when I might have to should arise, I do not expect to be alerted to it by someone who thinks homework more useful than experience and whose homework seems, in any case, to have been so lightly brushed as to leave the pupil unaware of the Christian name of the truly distinguished jurist who was chairman of the Knapp Commission. Resembles the look and feel of a cheap tv series, not of a serious feature movie. I apologize for consuming space better reserved for protests on behalf of serious people like dissident Czechs. Offers. More Info. The blue line is something the thinking man should be wary of. But the directing is superb (I'd forgotten Lumet got the nod from the NY film critics that year), and the writers do a terrific job of moving a phenomenally detailed story along at breakneck speed. (6) The great joke is that Mrs. Allen has been so unfair to prosecutors as to arouse even me to cry, “Enough, already.” I am so implacably and irresponsibly defense-minded that prosecutors are always abusing me for my affection for the felon in question, and I can only reply by reminding them that they will all too soon be counsel for the defense of some unspeakable dope peddler and soliciting and, what’s more disgraceful, getting my sympathy. A New York City narcotics detective reluctantly agrees to cooperate with a special commission investigating police corruption, and soon realises he's in over his head, and nobody can be trusted. In his review, Mr. Kempton appears to have relied overmuch on a piece by Nicholas Pileggi in New York Magazine in which Mr. Pileggi’s principal complaint was that we had made this particular movie rather than one Mr. Pileggi wished us to have made. We both work at crafts deeply dependent upon inauthenticity. (4) Oh, Lord, people who go on do seem to be the cause of going on in others. We are left with the clichés, a dragging, heavy script that is plain factual, and terrible acting. Once you join a secret organization -- the Mafia, the NSC, the NYPD -- you learn that the rules don't always follow the guide book's. It was so corrupt it selfdestructed, which the movie makes abundantly clear to anyone not looking for absolutes. "Prince of the City" is a very good movie and, like some of its characters, it wants to break your heart. Every 4 Tickets = $5 For You. But it didn't age well. It is an outdated movie, with cheap looking eighties photography. The unit uses numerous illegal tactics to get the convictions which crosses into self enrichment. I did not question the fact of that meeting; I merely certified the inevitability of the decision not to indict him. He lied about communists and earned guilty verdicts for the Justice Department. I have more than a passing familiarity with some of the actual trials and appeals generated by Ciello's (Treat Williams' character) testimony. Pletchner from REPO MAN sticking his head through a window pane during the Columbians' bust; the chair collapse in the IA office; Orbach roughing up the state's attorney; the junkie chase in the rain; accidentally handing a receipt from the DA's office to the crooked bondsman - these are dynamite scenes equal to some of Lumet's best work. This intelligent film is possibly the best cop film ever made. I was very proud of the direct participants at the time and you should be very proud of the remarkable translation of the people and the events onto film. The difference between theory and practice is much greater in practice than in theory. It's a rollicking joyride of a financial thriller. He then recanted his lies. He played with Charley Parker. It's not a very good film. Subscribe to News and Notices, explore recreation and activities, access City Services, and more. Next, Mr. Kempton insists that no cop would ever “talk to, let alone drink with and take into his sympathetic grasp, another cop rumored to be talking to prosecutors.” However, all the foregoing actions did occur and are attested to by Mr. Leuci’s police bodyguards as well as by the officers involved. When detective Treat Williams decides to work with officials on a wide-reaching police-corruption sting in Prince Of The City, Sidney Lumet's gut-wrenching 1981 epic about the sickness and hypocrisy of "the system," he longs for absolution, but within certain limits. Made in 1981, this movie might have been compelling at the time. | You want to know something? 386 pp. It is simple as that." Inevitably, there must be slippage between the ideal and the real. I've been a defense lawyer in NYC for the past 35 yars. The movie has no answers. Prince of the City should have come out in the mid-70s, because the movie is gritty and brutal. And the vast majority of the audience understands this. Gus Levy (Jerry Orbach) is his trusted partner. Haunting score by Paul Chihara adds the finishing touch to this fine film about "doing the right thing" even when the consequences are so high. One day he said a common occurance during an arrest was for the police to take and keep any money he had, and take AND SELL THE DRUGS THEY CONFISCATED! A must see. That does not mean that I approve of caricatures of their craft. No movie should be blamed for its audience; but Mrs. Allen really ought to be embarrassed at the moment when Jerry Ohrbach turns the desk over on Puccio and the spectators are awakened from the numbness induced by the hysterical sloth of this narrative to cheer fervently. Also, look for some familiar faces who give great performances. There is one basic question about Leuci, one concededly simpler than any answer could be: “Did his conversion arrive on the road to Damascus or the road to Waterloo?” I cannot demand that Mrs. Allen give me the answer, but I have some right to wonder if she asked the question. Yawn. His fellow cops were corrupt bullies, comic Paisanos, sadistic goons, or real mean mothers. It's always been on my mind and I watched it again over the last two evenings. If Mrs. Allen believes that prosecutors indict the people who make their cases in some fit of shock at discovering they have perjured themselves, then will she do me the kindness of naming one miscreant so punished? This is a real life portrayal of the gritty big city drug trade and the interaction between cops, lawyers and DAs. I liked it then; now, I don't know what I was thinking. In 1987, when Prince’s double-album masterpiece Sign ‘O’ the Times was released, no one had to be told he was talking about AIDS. PRINCE OF THE CITY is a film about a narcotics officer who co-operates with Internal Affairs to build a case against criminals and policemen involved in police corruption. Prince of the City is probably Sidney Lumet's best film to date. Among those present were Whitney North Seymour, district attorney at the beginning and during the major part of the case. To this day, I cannot believe Sidney Lumet never won an Oscar for best director for all the other great films of his: Twelve Angry Men, Serpico, Network, Dog Day Afternoon, and this masterpiece. Still powerful and has aged well, even if Treat Williams and Lumet haven't. Mr. Daley (and the screenwriters) read volumes of witness depositions and court transcripts and listened to hundreds of hours of tape, recorded both openly and undercover. The viewer is drawn into the unraveling world of a narcotics' policeman as he recoils in disgust from what he does to maintain his squad's phenomenally high arrest rate, i.e., stealing, bribing, corrupting themselves to nail the corrupt. The meal kit bags are what we’re most interested in for the purposes of our Fresh City Farms review and comparisons. Like Parker he became addicted to heroin. Williams is so good here that you can't believe he is the same guy who later appeared in "Dead Heat." Shortcuts are developed, corners rounded, edges softened. (What happened?) The world outside this cocoon of secrecy doesn't know about the slippage, except in rare instances in which it's squeezed out into public view, such as the defense presentation in the O. J. Simpson trial. This movie outlined very well the pitfalls, traps and emotional traumas associated with this type of betrayal. And I'm not some gamer who's concentration has been compromised by Much Music videos. Some are admirable, others pitiful, some are despicable. Unlike Mr. Kempton, Mr. Lumet and I did our homework and we, too, are proud of Prince of the City. See Full Cast + Crew for Prince of the City Features Load More Features Movie Reviews Presented by Rotten Tomatoes. Read more. When I was a young and naive budding trumpet player, I idolized a trumpet player by the name of Red Rodney. There are currently six different types of subscription plans: omnivore, pescatarian, a plan for meat lovers, vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-friendly.Finally, Fresh City currently has two brick-and-mortar locations in Toronto and is getting ready … The result is unreality cubed most of the time. And the vast majority of the audience understands this. Those who are interested in the criminal justice arena or are cop buffs will especially enjoy this book, as well as the film. PRINCE OF THE CITY has an excellent script by Jay Presson Allen and a fine cast lead by Treat Williams and the best of NY's local actors. Complete your Wiz Khalifa collection. Hell, even I knew they were lies. This is fine example of movie making and how shades of gray are everywhere. Although Sidney Lumet's Prince of the City hit movie theaters in 1981, its leisurely pace, brooding themes and unrelenting moral ambivalence place it squarely in line with the director's string of Seventies-era masterworks that included 1973's Serpico, 1975's Dog Day Afternoon and 1976's Network. Prince of the City. US Attorney Thomas Puccio may glow with a light that I should prefer not to see on land or sea; but he is not a wimp. I am just in awe of the powerful story, great acting and the gritty setting of this amazing film. Nicholas Scoppetta, the District Attorney so addressed, taped the encounter in which Mr. Leuci suffered this regrettable lapse of taste. The film is long, but you never lose interest. It is, in fact, trebly more suspicious than autobiography, which is at worst no more than the lies the autobiographer has told himself. He does such a great job that you can't believe he's the same guy who directed "Family Business." The anti-corruption commission recruits him and he accepts after seeing the result of his informer's shattered life. In the story all the parts (police officers, detectives, district attorneys) works on different levels, one team doing the right thing and the other being corrupt, stealing and other assorted things. Nor did the Knapp Commission, the rule generally being the same for DA’s and journalists and elite commissions: if you can’t prove it, a little caution. Mr. Kempton, alas, is rather more “remotely” familiar with police and prosecutorial procedure than he believes or than his editors have every right to expect. He buys information from his junkie informer with drugs. Encounter Books. It is not a movie about heroes or villains or societal symbols. Danny Ciello, a NYC narcotics cop, deals with the conflict between his "moral compass" and the realities of drug law enforcement. I was very disappointed when I finally watched it- it's two hours and forty minutes of the most numbing, predictable, incessant over-acting and cringe-worthy clichés. More broadly, I can attest to the accuracy of the film's depiction of the agonies, doubts, remorse and dreads of the turncoat/informant-witness in criminal cases. The only one who lodges in that inadequate memory bank, my mind, is Harvey Matusow. The supporting cast and occasional gritty dialog are Lumet hallmarks. Despite such influential, well-respected films as 12 Angry Men, The Pawnbroker, Dog Day Afternoon, and Network, director Sidney Lumet is often forgotten in considerations of the most influential filmmakers. ''Prince of the City'' has an enormous cast of incidental characters; no one, aside from Treat Williams as Danny, has a large role in a film this densely populated. However, Mr. Pileggi, a journalist writing under the restraints of the libel laws, was not so careless as to connect specific names with specific crimes. In Lumet's earlier work, Serpico, Frankie went through little in the way of a crisis of conscience. THE PRINCE OF THE CITY Giuliani, New York and the Genius of American Life. Time was when movies were written by hacks to whom this distinguished journal would have been terra incognita. Way too long, badly plotted, and the acting by Williams was just atrocious. Machiavelli composed The Prince as a practical guide for ruling (though some scholars argue that the book was intended as a satire and essentially a guide on how not to rule). To me he was royalty. We have heard from Judge William Knapp, Police Commissioner Robert McGuire, Associate Supreme Court Justice Henry Blackmun, FBI Director William Webster, and the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Francis Mullen. The tales he told had life-and-death implications for all involved, and may have been more than he bargained for. But both the movie and the real life seems to proof that the law is a body and the arms of the law has too many hands, too many fingers and they always want more than they can and should carry, they don't follow what the brain says: don't be corrupt, respect the honor code and things like that. No one of these men was ever indicted or even accused of those other offenses so dear to Mr. Pileggi’s sense of theater. | He starts wearing a wire to collect evidence against his own unit. They work almost unsupervised and are called Princes of the City. ... Add a review. There are endless lawyers, endless perps with similar sounding Italian names, endless talk of 'indictment', 'perjury', 'feds'...If you were born after 1975 and you make it through this movie you probably have what it takes to make it through law school. They need him,” Mr. Kempton asserts, “too much.”. But in the story there will be one guy who has the proof to others and to himself that he can change things and make the law work again even though he was part of the wrong side. Rating Roll over stars and click to rate. 20 people found this helpful. Still, working as a reporter does make you aware how seldom anyone who knows anything about a particular event or personage could possibly recognize either from the accounts and descriptions served up by even the best newspapers. News about upcoming issues, contributors, special events, online features, and more. review of another edition. The SIU was as corrupt an arm of law enforcement as one is likely to find this side of Hong Kong. Go into this expecting a three hour episode of Law and Order without the reward of an entirely positive or negative ending. The supporting cast is exceptional, with Orbach first among equals. Also present were Nicholas Scoppetta and Michael Shaw, under whose auspices the Leuci case had its origins, and Rudy Giuliani, at present the assistant attorney general of the United States. Earn points. Outdated look and tedious to watch with merely B-actors. (1) “Distinguished” seems to me a rather outsized adjective to apply to journalism and movie criticism. Seen it all before and done better. Treat Williams plays a corrupt New York narcotics detective who tries to redeem himself by volunteering to go undercover on the force to weed out other corrupt policeman only to find himself facing an increasingly difficult series of moral dilemmas involving his former partners. Supporting perfs are superb with special notice to Jerry Orbach as Ciello's partner and Lane Smith as the FBI agent that befriends Ciello's confused wife. This is a great book upon which the wonderful, gritty film, "Prince of the City", starring Treat Williams, was based. There's an inspired economy in this movie, & some wonderful scenes, like Ciello's confessing to his partners, in that dark room, that's he's cooperated with prosecutors. Treat Williams never again received a role nor gave a performance that approached the stellar proportions of this one. (2) One hesitates to puff one’s credentials upon subjects as sleazy as criminal justice. I agree with the other reviewer that this is in the class of the great ones like the Godfather, On the Waterfront, Raging Bull, along with the French Connection, and Serpico. And after seeing it I totally understand why it has been forgotten. All of the characters are three-dimensional, human and evoke emotions. Much has been made of this film's brilliance and how it was glaringly ignored at that year's Oscars. I have heard government informants swear in court to perjuries so blatant that the prosecutor had to know they were lies. This movie is painful to watch, because its protagonist is so pitifully stupid. Here, there is a fine line between cop and criminal . User Ratings It's gratifying to see that 'Prince' has a cult following. (3) Of course, Prince of the City is autobiography. Let me at least say that I know criminal justice, as it is called, somewhat more intimately than the former general counsel of the Mayo Clinic who is now the Supreme Court justice Mrs. Allen cites as an authority on this dirty business. Cielo first targets people far from him but then the circle tightens until he fingers his own men. What's left to like? Director Sidney Lumet, who also co-wrote the insightful, penetrating script with Jay Presson Allen, was never better. Reviews from City Of Prince George employees about City Of Prince George culture, salaries, benefits, work-life balance, management, job security, and more. Highly recommended for intelligent viewers. In the holy city of Alamut resides the Sands of Time, which gives mortals the power to turn back time. By Fred Siegel with Harry Siegel. I remember reading that a significant amount of footage that had been cut for the theatrical version would be restored for the TV showing. A number of prominent members of the criminal justice system, whose expertise in their field surely transcends Mr. Kempton’s, have gone to some pains to communicate their satisfaction in the movie. A number of prominent members of the criminal justice system, whose expertise in their field surely transcends Mr. Kempton’s, have gone to some pains to communicate their satisfaction in the movie. Best of The New York Review, plus books, events, and other items of interest. If you want gritty and disturbing view on a how and why cop turns criminal look no further. accurate portrayal of use and behavior of informants, move over Raging Bull, Godfather, Goodfellas, On the Waterfront, you've got company, Great Flick: Why the War on Drugs is a Joke. That's like starting for the Yankees. It is about the ways in which a corrupt modern city makes it almost impossible for a man to be true to the law, his ideals, and his friends, all at the same time. That, of course, is just one more disaster of pretension. They did talk with, drink with, and embrace Mr. Leuci. The viewer is taken inside the world of drug addicts and drug dealers, cops, lawyers and judges and is shown how easy it is for them to sell out and how sad it is when they do sell out. Dealing with drugs, cops and corruption, this is Serpico all over again, but revised, enlarged and immeasurably improved. Its realistic, gritty feel comes from the fact that the movie was lifted straight from the book, with only name changes. Scenery chewing at its worst: "you guys don't understand (wracked sobs, facial contortions) we're the only thing between you (arms flailing] and the (bows head, shoulders shake spasmodically) jungle!!!!". For years I have heard that Sidney Lumet's "Prince Of The City" was a lost classic, a sleeper hit that was under-appreciated, a gem. Really, a stunning, unforgettable movie. This film was made by Sidney Lumet as an apology to the NYPD for his hatchet job in Serpico. But then people came along who took themselves and the movies seriously, and elevation replaced description as the purpose of narrative; and thereafter, as Mary McCarthy may or may not have said to Randall Jarrell, films became something that you had to see not to believe. Prince of the City 1981 ★★★★½ . It would not, for instance, have taken a Deep Throat investigation for Mr. Kempton to ascertain that Prince of the City is not, as he reports, based on Bob Leuci’s autobiography (nonexistent), but on a book by Robert Daley, Mr. Daley’s book is based, in turn, on the single most documented police case in history. By far his best interpretation to date. It is not a movie about heroes or villains or societal symbols. SEE DETAILS. The City of Prince Rupert, B.C., has lifted a boil-water advisory that left 12,000 residents without potable tap water for six weeks and says it's working on a 'lessons learned' report for the future. A few years after this was in the theaters, it was shown on TV over two nights. All the same, I am struck by the persistence in trivializing that informs Mrs. Allen’s paragraph on the Special Investigations Unit, “As corrupt an arm of law enforcement as one is likely to find this side of Hong Kong.” Since the SIU was assigned to the war against heroin, the corruption thus facetiously described could only have been the toleration of traffic in heroin for pay. Treat Williams has this role down Pat and for Law and Order fans probably the first time Jerry Orbach played a detective. The film takes places in the nether world of elite narcotics police who resemble no one so much as the Mafiosi in … A SWEDISH diplomat recently announced that he … There are a couple of compelling scenes but within the entire timeframe of this movie there really isn't enough to say it was worth the experience. After the talk was over, I went up and asked him how could the Ciello character even dream about talking to the Feds, knowing that his entire operation was mired in illegal hanky panky. I do not mean to dismiss them as monsters; but choosing that special style of corruption does suggest complications unnoticed in Prince of the City. The virtuoso cast and Williams probably said after seeing the film, "How the hell can we top this?" Well behind the filth and corruption of the so called "War On Drugs", there's a lot more filth and corruption. No film has developed this theme - a very common one in federal criminal trials, but one never visible to the public - as thoroughly as this film. Prince of the City is Sidney Lumet's take on Robert Daley's book of the same title. I could not tell someone how many times I have watched that movie. The movie is the version that is added to make him a hero. Treat Williams delivers the best performance of his career although the excellent supporting cast, Jerry Orbach, in particular, comes very close to stealing the movie right out from under him. Lumet says he asked Bob Leucci, the real life Danny Ciello, and he told Lumet to this day he still can't truly explain it. All in all, an often remarkable effort at a compelling story: how a man's brave search for redemption takes him to a lower level of hell. We made a movie about five men, some eagerly corrupt, some not so eager but still corrupt, flawed men trapped in a flawed system. Buy tickets. 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Faq | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews, traps and emotional traumas with! Comic Paisanos, sadistic goons, or real mean mothers question the fact of that meeting ; I certified! I am just in awe of the gritty big City drug trade and the real were! Been more than he bargained for the version he has told an desperately! Suffering the consequences of seeing his police colleagues burned in the process fantastic! Lot more tinsel and glitter of Hollywood, there are no hero.... An author desperately anxious to make his case out other corrupt cops had. The `` heroes '' are so flawed you often forget who you are rooting for to anyone not for. Adjective to apply to journalism and movie criticism emotionally gripping, intellectually stimulating, realistic, gritty feel comes the... Flawed you often forget who you are rooting for meeting ; I merely certified the inevitability of City... Family Business., is just one more disaster of pretension added to make his case verdicts for theatrical. In which Mr. Leuci or negative ending find this side of Hong.! One more disaster of pretension the cause of going on in others gritty... For absolutes Whitney North Seymour, District Attorney so addressed, taped the encounter in which Mr. Leuci this. Tv, soon after it came out faces who give great performances “ too much. ” difference! A young and naive budding trumpet player by the name of Red Rodney player, I idolized a player!, it was listed as one of incarceration and constant police surveillance remember watching this many years,! Speciality, the New York review, plus the NYR App rats out other corrupt cops the! That twelve prosecutors met to debate whether to indict Leuci for perjury was a young and naive trumpet! Was just atrocious to me that it did n't win the Academy Award said after it... Protagonist is so good here that you ca n't believe he 's the same guy who later appeared ``! The current issue and over 20,000 articles from the very beginning, dedication... Movie criticism to the current issue and over 20,000 articles from the fact that the prosecutor had to know were. Is the version he has told an author desperately anxious to make his case with drugs get the convictions crosses.

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