Based on the biography of the same name (opens in a new tab) by Peter Maas, The Valachi Papers (opens in a new tab) recounts the story of Joseph Valachi (opens in a new tab) a mafia member turned government informant in the 1960s. Director Terence Young (opens in a new tab), famous for directing the first two James Bond films (and Thunderball), was reunited with Charles Bronson (opens in a new tab) whom he’d collaborated on for his previous two films (Red Sun and Cold Sweat). The film begins in the 60s in a Federal Penitentiary with an ageing Valachi (Bronson) serving time for heroin smuggling. In prison he meets the boss of the crime family he worked for Vito Genovese (opens in a new tab) (Lino Ventura (opens in a new tab)) who is convinced that Valachi is an informant and gives him the ‘kiss of death’. When Valachi later kills a prisoner whom he mistakenly thinks has been sent to assassinate him, he agrees to be an informant for the government. The rest of the film deals with incidences from his life, all the way back to the 1930s when he was starting out as a young criminal.

The design on this Japanese B2 is unique to the poster.