6/10
Stunning and violent Italian thriller with grisly killings, starring Henry Silva and Barbara Bouchet.
28 July 2022
A strong italian¨Poliziottesco" about a lonely killer vs. Bloody killers with thrills, chills , erotic scenes , crossfire and lots of violence . The picture deals with the turbulent times when the dangerous mobsters organizations dominated the Italian environments by committing terrible crimes , kidnaps and massacres in order to carry out their black market currency and illicit drug traffic businesses . Italian thriller with plenty of action , crisply edition , tension , intrigue , suspenseful , plot twists and loads of violence with reminiscent to ¨Charles Bronson¨ films . As the Mafia war between the Sicilian families results to be the principal character in the yarn . This is a thrilling and twisted flick about the political scene in Italy at the time of the thunderous Seventies . It starts with car accident with three fatalities and a child on board that had been dead for several days ago . And police discovering that the child's body cavity had been used for transporting heroin . It is the spark causing a lot of deaths and it will soon destroy the old mobster equilibrium , giving the way to an escalation of violence , as the powerful gansters are determined to a relentless Sicilian vendetta . The senior Don Coscemi hires misogynistic crook Tony (Henry Silva) to go after the perpetrators of the ominious criminal acts . As the matter escalates and rival band members kill each other , and the hit-man gets caught in the mafia war between two families : Cantimo and Scannapieco . Along the way, he's seduced by a former prostitute (Barbara Bouchet) , a supposedly innocent victim, now married to one of the mob boss (Fausto Tozzi). When the mobster chief learns the treason , he turns the tables and making him his next target. "For a lousy twenty-five bucks some people think they can do anything!¨. "She Left Prostitution only to find Murder!¨.

This is an intriguing Crime Thriller that contains noisy action , betrayals , suspense , sleaziness , twists , turns , and anything else . This film results to be one of the best among the whole saga of Italian thrillers or Poliziottesco sub-genre that had its splendor in the Seventies and early Eighties , concerning a contract killer who manipulates two mobster families into believing he is on their side and eventually all hell breaks loose . It is an acceptable movie that takes place in ups and downs with surprises and plot twists , but also with unfortunate and unpredictable events . Everything revolves around the unstable highly charged criminal environment : in the thunderous Italy during those days of civil unrest during the 1970's with the Mafia ruling Sicily island. The picture depicts perfect and violently those nasty criminal times . Although failing on occasion to balance the thin line it establishes between perception and reality , offering a semi-realistic look at the priorities and lives of heinous mobsters . Nail-biting and moving Italian Poliziesco in lurid roughie style with enjoyable acting , the film is interesting enough , though it has some flaws , gaps and shortfalls . The base plot structure regarding a battered killer bears remarkable resemblance to Sergio Leone's A Fistful Of Dollars . Stars two-fisted Henry Silva , as he is nice in his usual way by playing a contract killer who stumbles into a mafiosi war with fateful consequences and the gorgeous Barbara Bouchet as the nymphomaniac wife , she steals the spectacle by showing some nudism . Henry Silva sports his inimitable and cold style as a hired murderer gets himself in the middle of a feud between two mafia families while shooting and killing . He plays efficiently a cold-blooded killer , a 'mob hitman' sent to Italy to pacify rival gangs impeding on Mafia operations . Silva was born in Brooklyn , New York , and called to Hollywood, he played a succession of heavies in films, including The Bravados (1958), Green mansions (1959), Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Johnny Cool (1963). An Italian producer made Henry an offer he could not refuse--to star as a hero for a change--and he moved his family overseas . As he emigrated to Italy where perfomed Spaghetti Westerns as The Hills Run Red (1966) and White Fang to the Rescue (1975) , but Silva's turning-point picture was Poliziescos sub-genre by playing usually misogynist and cold-blooded psychopaths causing wreak havoc , such as : Razza violenta, Napoli spera , Fatevi vivi, la polizia non interverra, Milano odia: la polizia non può sparare , which made him a hit box office commodity in Spain, Italy, Germany and France . His popularity was enhanced by a gift for languages. He speaks Italian and Spanish fluently and has a flair for the kind of gritty, realistic roles that also catapulted Charles Bronson to European stardom . Returning to the United States, he co-starred with Frank Sinatra in the film Contract on Cherry Street (1977), then signed on as Buck Rogers' evil adversary Kane in Buck Rogers, among others.

It displays an atmospheric , appropriate musical score by composer Romitelli. Likewise, an evocative and adequate cinematography by Carlo Carlini ,shot on location in Andora, Savona, Ventimiglia, Imperia, Liguria, Guidonia Montecelio, Rome, Lazio, Italy and Incir De Paolis Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy . The motion picture was professionally directed by Andrea Bianchi . He was an Italian director expert on explotiation movies . He made all kinds of genres with penchant for terror , thriller and erotic genre , such as : Malabimba , Strip Naked for your Killer , The Big Shots , Maniac Killer , Dangerous love , Massacre , Commando Mengele , Treasure Island , Night Child and several others . Being his most successful movie : Zombi Horror also titled Burial Ground or The Nights of Terror . Rating Quelli che contano (1974) : 6.5/10 , better than average. The picture will appeal to explotiation fans and Italian thriller lovers .
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