America’s Last Little Italy: The Hill (Daniel Puleo, 2020): USA

Reviewed by Larry Gleeson. Viewed as part of the Cinema St Louis’s, St. Louis International Film Festival (SLIFF).

America’s Last Little Italy: The Hill, directed by Daniel Puleo and based on Rio Vitale’s book, St. Louis’s The Hill, was a walk down memory lane for me as a history buff with family ties to the area around The Hill, an Italian enclave and the last remaining Litlle Italy in the United States. America’s Last Little Italy: The Hill is a project I imagine Martin Scorcese executively producing. Only Marty tends to stick to his own neighborhood in New York City. Nevertheless, when he sees this film, I hallucinate he’ll be beaming with Italian Pride. Author Rio Vitale is credited as Executive Producer for America’s Last Little Italy: The Hill which screened at the recent St. Louis International Film Festival (SLIFF).

With a smooth opening black screen with non-diegetic chimes, the film meanders in the darkness before it reveals an interview with Msgr. Polizzi. Polizzi, a Roman Catholic priest and former associate pastor of The Hill neighborhood’s St. Ambrose Catholic Church in the late 1960s and early 1970s, begins speaking about the general fear many Americans experienced going into an Italian community. “And we were kind of happy there was a fear also.” Intro titles rolled and the film was off and running informing the viewer with home videos and a still photograph of the most recognizable landmark in St. Louis, The Gateway Arch. Puleo utilized a plethora of black and white photographs, newspaper articles as well as a multitude of interviews with a wide-ranging assortment of Hill residents and extended family members sharing their experiences, strength, and hope.

With America’s Last Little Italy: The Hill Puleo provides an eloquent treatment of the Italian immigrant coming to America and settling into the area becoming a part of the social fabric. Fr. Polizzi arrived in the late 1960s. The early 1970s was a time of great social and cultural upheaval and brought changes to the area – think of Travis Bickle’s opening voice-over monologue in Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. Fr. Polizzi and the men of The Hill neighborhood took matters into their own hands to ensure the neighborhood was kept intact and the darker elements were kept out. The women did the same, and more, to keep their Italian heritage alive and thriving. The nearby Shaw neighborhood by comparison didn’t fare so well.

For me, growing up in the Metro-East area of St. Louis and being a long-time St. Louis Cardinal baseball fan,  my mother had friends on The Hill, notably Eleanor Marfisi, a Berra family member. Naturally, Mother informed me Yogi Berra, a brilliant baseball player and manager, was from The Hill. Most baseball fans have heard of Yogi Berra and his Yogiisms as had I (“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”). However, I wasn’t aware of his 10 World Series Championships and three Most Valuable Player Awards he earned while playing baseball for the New York Yankees. I was probably more familiar with The Hill’s Peabody Award-winning and recipient of the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award for outstanding broadcasting achievement, Joe Garagiola. Garagiola broke into the MLB with the 1946 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals Baseball Team. Within a runtime of seventy minutes, Puleo covers all this and much more including how and why The Hill in St. Louis is America’s Last Little Italy today.

Viewing America’s Last Little Italy: The Hill brought back a lot of memories including the above mentioned. Others included learning about St. Ambrose from my dear friend Mike Cucchi (pronounced ˈko͝okē), a standout soccer player and local college soccer coach who made gossip fodder when he “finally moved off The Hill.” Niki Cusamano and  Alisa Santangelo remain and are a part of the new generation of Italian-Americans who want to be a part of The Hill’s St. Louis Italian traditions. I can tell you whenever I visit family in St. Louis, I visit The Hill’s Cunetto House of Pasta. Last visit my oldest brother Jim introduced me to Frank Cunetto who is featured in the film as one of The Hill’s restaurateurs and to our server at Cunetto’s House of Pasta, Vicki, a Hill resident of Sicilian heritage.

America’s Last Little Italy: The Hill TV premiere is scheduled for Monday, November 30th, 7 PM, with a second showing on December 6th, 4 PM on Nine Network PBS. DVD’s are also available in limited quantities. I’ve seen a lot of films this year and America’s Last Little Italy: The Hill sits at the top! Highly recommended.