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About
The Holy Nail introduces Nick Genova and Joe Cohen, two American soldiers who reach Milan one day ahead of Allied forces at the end of World War Two. The next day, with the city in chaotic celebration, they enter the battered Milan Duomo with a Partisan woman and steal a famous Catholic relic, the Holy Nail, said to be a remnant of the Crucifixion. It has been the soul of the cathedral for fourteen hundred years.
Complications arise immediately as the two men try to negotiate a ransom from the Catholic Church. The Church authorities are hampered by their hierarchical rigidity and infighting. Eventually, the Vatican authorizes the production of a substitute "Nail". The Milan police and an international investigator make little headway.
Nick and Joe learn that there is another potential buyer, one of the many people interested in the black market of holy relics that thrives worldwide. The Holy Nail is tentatively sold to a Mafioso in their hometown of Brooklyn. The relic is smuggled into New York when the two soldiers are finally able to sail home. During the transaction a few weeks later, a Mafia hit kills Nick, leaving Joe with the Holy Nail. He hides it in a safe deposit box, where it is found by his grandson decades later. The young man keeps it in his apartment. Meanwhile, the annual elaborate Duomo celebration of the Nail proceeds with the manufactured substitute. No one is aware of its origin or true history. It is revered as a relic of the Crucifixion.
Complications arise immediately as the two men try to negotiate a ransom from the Catholic Church. The Church authorities are hampered by their hierarchical rigidity and infighting. Eventually, the Vatican authorizes the production of a substitute "Nail". The Milan police and an international investigator make little headway.
Nick and Joe learn that there is another potential buyer, one of the many people interested in the black market of holy relics that thrives worldwide. The Holy Nail is tentatively sold to a Mafioso in their hometown of Brooklyn. The relic is smuggled into New York when the two soldiers are finally able to sail home. During the transaction a few weeks later, a Mafia hit kills Nick, leaving Joe with the Holy Nail. He hides it in a safe deposit box, where it is found by his grandson decades later. The young man keeps it in his apartment. Meanwhile, the annual elaborate Duomo celebration of the Nail proceeds with the manufactured substitute. No one is aware of its origin or true history. It is revered as a relic of the Crucifixion.