The Lords of Flatbush recently received a remastered Blu-ray in December 2024 as the film celebrated its 50th anniversary last year.

The cult favorite is set circa 1957 and features a young Sylvester Stallone and Henry Winkler. By the time that The Lords of Flatbush was released, Winkler was already co-starring on Happy Days. Unfortunately for Winkler, the film doesn’t give him enough to do. The series–along with American Graffiti, Grease (musical and film), and Sha-Na-Na–played a part in reviving the 50s greaser culture during the 1970s.

With American Graffiti being a smash hit one year prior, nobody could blame Sony Pictures for wanting a piece of the greaser pie. Produced for just $380K, The Lords of Flatbush earned $4 million at the box office. Okay, so it’s not American Graffiti numbers but that’s fine, too! The 1970s were a different time for the box office as Jaws was still another year away from changing the game by introducing the blockbuster. The George Lucas film was a real game-changer but it wouldn’t have been the same without the unsold Happy Days pilot when it aired as segment of an ABC anthology series, Love, American Style.

As Oscar-winning filmmaker Quentin Tarantino notes in his review: “The reason Columbia picked up this obviously shoestring New York production and slapped their grand lady with the torch logo on the front of it was, it was a pretty good film.” He also said the film was his introduction to “New York independent low budget film [a]esthetic.”

There’s another universe where a young Richard Gere stars alongside both Stallone and Winkler in The Lords of Flatbush. Imagine all these before-they-were-stars actors showing up in the same film! I don’t think it’s an understatement to stress that he and Stallone didn’t get along with each other. Things got so messy–no, seriously, food ended up on Stallone–during a filming break that Gere was essentially fired from the role of Chico.

The 84-minute Blu-ray is presented in 1080p High Definition with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio and English Mono DTS-HD MA audio track.

Synopsis

Before Rocky was a knock-out, before “the Fonz” was TV’s “Leader of the Pack”, two unknown actors named Sylvester Stallone and Henry Winkler starred in their first major screen roles. Soon they’d rule the box office and the airwaves, but before they were kings, they were THE LORDS OF FLATBUSH! Clad in blue jeans, black leather jackets and bad attitudes, Stanley (Stallone), Butchey (Winkler), Chico (Perry King) and Wimpy (Paul Mace) are a 1950s Brooklyn gang of four cool, sexy rebels. Despite their tough appearance, these boys just want to have fun, but reality – a.k.a. adulthood – rears its ugly head when Stanley’s steady informs him they have to get married, and blue-collar Chico falls for a beautiful blonde (Susan Blakely) from the right side of the tracks.

Bonus Feature

• Theatrical Trailer

DIRECTOR: Stephen F. Verona and Martin Davidson
SCREENWRITERS: Stephen F. Verona and Gayle Gleckler and Martin Davidson
ADDITIONAL DIALOGUE: Sylvester Stallone
CAST: Perry King, Sylvester Stallone, Henry Winkler, Paul Mace, and Susan Blakely, Reneé Paris, Maria Smith

Columbia Pictures released The Lords of Flatbush in theaters on May 1, 1974.

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