Mobsters and Mormons

Mobsters and Mormons
Directed by	John Moyer
Produced by	Kurt Hale Dave Hunter John Moyer
Written by	John Moyer
Starring	Mark DeCarlo, Jeanette Puhich, Clayton Taylor, Scott Christopher, Britani Bateman, Olesya Rulin, Jan Broberg Felt, John Moyer, Michael Kagan
Distributed by	Halestorm Entertainment
Release date(s)	2005
Running time	93 min.
Language	English
Budget	$350,000

Mobsters and Mormons is a 2005 comedy film. It was written, directed, and produced by John Moyer who also plays a role in the film. It is also produced by Kurt Hale and Dave Hunter of Halestorm Entertainment. This film features some The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) centric humor that is meant to appeal to Mormon audiences, humor that people who are not LDS are not likely to get, as well as some humor aimed at non-Mormon audiences.

Carmine, portrayed by Mark DeCarlo, is part of the mob in Philadelphia, hoping to soon be promoted to captain. While taking care of business, he and his team are photographed by the FBI performing illegal activities. After some discussion, Carmine decides to testify against his boss, then goes into the Witness Protection Program. His family is moved to Utah, in the heart of the Mormon Corridor.

Main cast

• Mark DeCarlo as Carmine "The Beans" Zindelli Pasquale (George Cheeseman)
• Jeanette Puhich as Gina Pasquale (Linda Cheeseman)
• Clayton Taylor as Vincent Pasquale (Patrick Cheeseman)
• Scott Christopher as Michael Jaymes
• Britani Bateman as Kate Jaymes
• Olesya Rulin as Julie Jaymes
• Jan Broberg Felt as Louise Means
• John Moyer as Agent Tuttle
• Michael Kagan as Angello Marcello

Story

The opening credits roll over a flying, nighttime stock footage shot of downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

The dialogue begins at a wedding reception at the table of three mobsters. Carmine Pasquale (Mark DeCarlo) is complaining about the taste of the coffee. We find out later that Carmine has the nickname of "The Beans" because he orders a very special type of coffee bean that he grinds himself. When he sees a young man walk through the room, he and his team leaves the table, following the young man.

In a recent jewelry store robbery, two necklaces went missing. Carmine and his team are questioning the young man to find out what happened to the necklaces. Carmine tells his team to tie him up. Carmine goes to talk to the boss, Angello Marcello, where he finds out that someone else got the promotion to captain that he was hoping to get. When he gets back to the room, the young man has been duct taped, so the three mobsters have to carry him out to the car. This is when the FBI manages to get the incriminating photographs. When the mobsters make a stop to pick up the necklaces, the police close in and arrest them.

When Carmine is being interviewed, the FBI agents say that they have enough to put him away for twenty to twenty-five years. Carmine won't talk until the agents say that they will let it be known that Carmine did talk. The next scene is Carmine with his wife, Gina (Jeanette Puhich), and son, Vincent (Clayton Taylor) watching the news report of the conviction of Angello. They then get their new identities in the Witness Protection Program as George, Linda and Patrick Cheeseman to Happy Valley, Utah.

Meanwhile, in the neighborhood in to which the Cheesemans will be moving, the bishop of the local ward has to leave the church meeting because he was paged with a family emergency. His first counselor, Brother Jaymes, is left in charge of the meeting. By the time that the Jaymes family arrives at home, we find out that the bishop's father has died and the bishop will be in a distant community for a few weeks taking care of the funeral and deciding (with the rest of his family) on the disposition of the family farm.

What follows is culture shock, on both sides. When the neighborhood men attempt to help them move in, George (Carmine) thinks they're stealing their stuff so he punches one of them in the face. The next to visit the Cheesemans is the neighborhood busybody, who is on the phone the minute she leaves their house and turns most of the neighborhood (all Mormons) against the Cheesemans (Catholics). The next to visit is the Jaymes family, who befriends the Cheeseman family, inviting them to participate in ward activities. Throughout the film, the Jaymes family does manage to get a few more of the neighbors to befriend the Cheeseman family. The members of the Cheeseman family also becomes closer to each other, and begin attending the local Catholic church as a family.

But the mobsters have recently hired an IT guy. He has found that since Carmine's disappearance, there has only been one new home address ordering the special beans that Carmine likes. A team of two is sent to take care of Carmine. When they show up to verify that Carmine lives at the address, Carmine spots them and takes off on foot. There is a short car chase that ends with the FBI capturing the mobsters. The FBI uses an insider to leak that the team was captured before Carmine found out about them, knowing that another team will be sent. After leaving a dinner at the local ward, the Cheesemans get in their van and it blows up.

The next Sunday, it is revealed that the ward bishop is going to move to take care of his recently-widowed mother and the family farm. Michael Jaymes is called by the stake president to become the next bishop of this ward. About half of the ward members vote against supporting Michael Jaymes as bishop. The stake president calls a special meeting of the ward (without the Jaymes family present) to find out why they will not support Jaymes as bishop. George (Carmine), having found out about them not supporting Jaymes, shows up at the meeting to speak on behalf of Michael Jaymes. Since he has revealed that he is alive, he and his family also go to visit the Jaymes family. The stake president stops by later and tells Michael Jaymes that he will be the bishop.

The movie's final scene takes place six months later, in a scrapbooking store at an "undisclosed location". Scrapbooking was so popular in Utah that Donald and May Clayton (aka Cheeseman, aka Pasquale) family have opened a scrapbooking store and run it along with their son Jordan. The Mormon missionaries are buying a book in the store, and Donald tells them that it is "on the house". Donald also invites them over for dinner, but no message. The movie ends with Donald telling the missionaries about his wife's cooking.

Box office

The film was made on a budget of $350,000 ^[1] but only brought in $409,604^[2] in total box office revenues. It was however, released to only a limited number of theaters throughout Utah, Arizona, and Idaho; an area predominately known among LDS circles as the Jello Belt. The film has found success across the board on DVD for both LDS and non-LDS audiences alike.^{[citation needed]}

Issues in film

Mormon

This film consistently uses the term Mormon Church when referring to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Mormon to refer to the members of this church. See Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Name of the church for its preference for name usage.

When deciding to make the film, writer/director John Moyer (comedian) made a conscious decision to use the term Mormon as that is the term most people who are not members of the LDS church identify with.^[3]

Non-association phenomenon

This film openly condemns a problem that has also been addressed in talks at the Annual and Semi-annual General Conferences of the LDS Church urging members to be friendly and neighborly to people regardless of their religion. "... Let us as Latter-day Saints reach out to others not of our faith. Let us never act in a spirit of arrogance or with a holier-than-thou attitude. Rather, may we show love and respect and helpfulness toward them. We are greatly misunderstood, and I fear that much of it is of our own making. We can be more tolerant, more neighborly, more friendly, more of an example than we have been in the past. Let us teach our children to treat others with friendship, respect, love, and admiration. That will yield a far better result than will an attitude of egotism and arrogance." — Church President Gordon B. Hinckley, April 2000.^[4] "... Let us be good people. Let us be friendly people. Let us be neighborly people." — President Hinckley, 31 March 2001^[5]

Trivia

• The line "Leave the gun. Take the granola," is a parody of "Leave the gun. Take the cannoli," from the film of The Godfather.
• Britani Bateman, who plays Michael Jaymes' wife, was actually pregnant while filming this movie. Writer/director John E. Moyer wrote the part especially for Britani. When casting the film he learned of her pregnancy and reworked the script to have her character be pregnant as well.^[6]
• Originally, director John E. Moyer was interested in having LDS actor Dave Nibley from The Best Two Years play Agent Tuttle, but Dave's schedule conflicted with the filming and at last minute stepped in to play the role of Agent Tuttle.

See also

• The Singles Ward — 2001
• The R.M. — 2003
• The Home Teachers — 2004
• Church Ball — 2005

References

1. ^ CineVegas Film Festival
2. ^ Box Office Mojo
3. ^ DVD commentary
4. ^ A Time of New Beginnings, President Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, May 2000, p. 87
5. ^ The Work Goes On, Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, May 2001, p. 4
6. ^ DVD commentary track

External links

• Official Mobsters and Mormons website
• Mobsters and Mormons at the Internet Movie Database