It's like walking into a scene from Goodfellas - the crowd seated at candlelit tables, suited-up waiting staff distributing Old Fashioneds, the band on stage playing whipsmart swing and jazz.

BBC: Chicago��s celluloid city

"A lot of the people in 'Goodfellas' are not on the upper levels, so they're not tragic, " Scorsese said.

CNN: Still obsessed with 'Goodfellas,' 25 years later

Pete Daly, of distributors Pathe, says Essex Boys is a film noir, with elements of Goodfellas, but in this case instead of the gangsters moving out from New York City to suburban New Jersey, the villains have relocated from the East End to its Essex hinterland.

BBC: Truth is stranger than fiction

Mr Lip, born Frank Anthony Vallelonga, made his film debut as a wedding guest in The Godfather and later appeared in successful gangster titles Goodfellas, Raging Bull and Donnie Brasco.

BBC: Tony Lip

John McCain (who survived a North Vietnamese POW camp) is linked with Martin Scorsese, director of Gangs of New York, Goodfellas and Raging Bull.

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