A letdown (I live in the area where it was filmed)

I actually live in Morris Park, an Italian neighborhood in the Bronx, New York where "Doughboys" was filmed.

Conti's is a real pastry shop, and I get coffee there a couple of times a week. Lombardi filmed Conti's exterior but also created a replica of the interior for the set. According to the DVD interviews, he was hoping to get the film screened at the Sundance Film Festival. It doesn't look like it happened.

The script is nothing original. "The Pope of Greenwich Village" (1984) with Mickey Rourke and Eric Roberts has similar themes (one bad family member who gets the other in trouble, Italian-American loyalty, run-ins with the mob, and even horse-racing) and is much better. (A few shots of the ominous clock even borrows from "High Noon," but it doesn't work in "Dough Boys.")

The acting, with the exception of Vincent Pastore, wasn't that good.

I learned about the film because at least two bakeries in Morris Park sell DVDs of the film. From the cover, I assumed it was a comedy (which might have worked) instead of a drama.