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EURO-CRIME
DOUBLE FEATURE
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Italy
- Spain - France
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1971, 1972
Directors:
Damiano Damiani,
Antonio Isasi
Starring
Franco
Nero, Martin Balsam
Marilů Tolo, Christopher
Mitchum
Karl Malden, Olivia Hussey
Color
| PG
Confessions of a Police Captain:
101 Min.
Summertime
Killer: 99 Min.
Format: DVD
Double Feature Disc / R0 - NTSC
Wild East Productions
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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
Films:5
:
DVD:4
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•
"Action-packed" icon applies only
to SUMMERTIME KILLER
• "Bare
Flesh" icon applies only to CONFESSIONS OF A POLICE
CAPTAIN |
| Generally
speaking, Italian crime films (poliziotteschi) of the 1970s
tend to fall into two broad categories: sociopolitical dramas
and action potboilers, with the latter making up the lion's share.
Wild East's latest double feature DVD offers clear-cut examples
of both. |
|
1971's
Confessions of a Police Captain is
of the first type — which is a given since it was directed and
co-written by Damiano Damiani, creator of such overtly political
films as A
Bullet for the General. Mafia corruption of the Establishment
is the focus of Confessions, specifically
in how two very disparate government officials choose to deal
with it. Their individual philosophies and approach to the problem
are quite different from one another, bringing the men into conflict
when instead they should be working together for the common good. |
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Sicily's
capital, Palermo, is the setting. In charge of the city's Mobile
Police Command is Captain Bonavia (Martin Balsam), a veteran cop
whose cool, unflappable demeanor conceals a relentless enemy of
organized crime — personified by D'Ambrosio (Luciano Catenacchi),
the region's top mob boss. D'Ambrosio is the Big Kahuna in Palermo's
construction industry, and as such has plenty of high-placed friends
in the business community and city government; he even has the
mayor in his pocket. Over the years Bonavia has arrested him multiple
times only to see D'Ambrosio released for lack of evidence (which
naturally has a habit of disappearing, along with any witnesses
willing to testify). Knowing he can't use the law to bring D'Ambrosio
down, the captain has embarked on his own private war against
the mobster. |
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This
puts him at odds with the new hotshot district attorney, Traini
(Franco Nero). The D.A. is investigating a failed hit on D'Ambrosio
by a machinegun-toting thug who was inexplicably released from
a mental asylum just 48 hours earlier. It's learned that the assassin
(killed in the firefight with the capo's bodyguards) had
a personal grudge against the target — his sister (Marilů Tolo)
is D'Ambrosio's longtime mistress. Believing rival gangsters are
behind the attack, Traini suspects that Capt. Bonavia arranged
to have the trigger-man released. Is Bonavia a crooked cop in
the pay of D'Ambrosio's competition? To find out he orders Bonavia’s
telephones wiretapped... which immediately tips off the captain
that he's under surveillance. Unable to trust the D.A. (whom he
thinks is either dangerously naďve or on the take himself), Bonavia
has already had Traini's phones bugged on his own initiative.
Will the Godfather of Palermo ultimately evade justice because
officers of the law have turned on themselves? |
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On
the surface, at least, this sounds like an interesting movie.
The 'good guy vs. good guy vs. bad guy' dynamic certainly adds
a different slant to the typical cop/crime movie scenario. The
Bonavia character represents an older, bitterly cynical pragmatism;
Traini is the avatar of youthful idealism (albeit a precise
and thoroughly professional one). One man is willing to break
the law for the greater good (as well as personal revenge, as
is eventually revealed); the other follows the letter of the
law, regardless of the consequences, in order to preserve its
moral integrity. The dramatic scenes which Balsam and Nero share
in these respective roles are the high points of the film.
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But...
damn, is this flick ever talky! It's almost entirely dialog-driven
— something which tends to work against dubbed movies right off
the bat. (A typical Italian production of the period made with
foreign export in mind, Confessions
didn't use on-set sound recording; all dialog and audio effects
were added later in post. Fortunately Balsam dubbed his own voice
for the English version, although Nero, who speaks English well,
did not.) During the film's first half much of this dialog is
exposition, filling us in on the various whos and whys of the
convoluted backstory, sometimes awkwardly so. Perhaps my attention
span is diminishing but I feel this gets a bit tedious. In this
and a number of other ways — even character names — the film is
very much like Damiani's How
To Kill a Judge (1974, also starring Franco Nero), which
explored similar themes of corruption in just such a prolix style.
Here the interaction between Nero and Balsam keeps things interesting.
(I managed to stay awake throughout.) |
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Summertime
Killer
(1972), an Italo-Spanish-French co-production, is a different
sort of film, apolitical and much more action-oriented. Emotion-deficient
Christopher Mitchum (Ricco
the Mean Machine) stars as Ray Castor, a young man on
a vendetta. As a boy he witnessed the killing of his father by
mobsters... Now he's all grown up and it's payback time. In New
York City Ray nonchalantly guns down three mafiosi (one
of them in a subway car) before jetting off to Rome and plugging
another gangland heavyweight with a sniper rifle. Always on the
move, he avoids the mob and the police to spend his downtime motorbiking
and hanging out with his dog. The Mafia, meanwhile, is getting
nervous. |
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Unable
to trace the mystery assassin, the New York mob offers a veteran
cop, fedora-wearing Capt. Kiley (Karl Malden), $10,000 to find
out who he is and locate him. Kiley takes the job, following a
hunch to Portugal and the ranch of Lazaro Alfredi (Raf Vallone),
whom he believes could be the killer's next target. The very moment
he arrives to talk with him Ray takes a long-range rifle shot
at Alfredi but only lightly wounds him. A posse of Alfredi's thugs
try to chase Ray down on horseback but he manages to escape using
a variety of ballsy motorcycle moves. |
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With
Kiley still doggedly on his trail, Ray activates his backup plan
— he's not through with Alfredi just yet. To gain information
he seduced Alfredi's secretary (Claudine Auger, Thunderball),
learning that the mobster has a secret (and hot!) 19-year old
daughter he's putting through college. Ray now kidnaps the girl,
Tania (gorgeous Olivia Hussey), taking her to an isolated boathouse
out in the middle of a Spanish lake. Here he keeps her prisoner,
waiting for the right time to bait Alfredi into the open. But
wouldn't you know it, Ray and Tania start falling for each other... |
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Simply
calling this movie Time Killer would be more apropos, since
while it doesn't offer anything particularly notable to recommend
it, at least the cast is interesting and it isn't dull. (Except
for much of Malden's boring detective work, that is.) There are
some pretty groovy 'old school' bike/car/horse stunts on display,
Hussey is yummy eye candy and the story doesn't quite turn out
the way you're likely to think it will. Beyond that it's completely
unexceptional in style and execution. I didn't think Luis Bacalov's
oft-lauded score was all that good, either — the sappy opening
"AM Gold"-type theme song is pretty awful — other than
the one track later recycled by Quentin Tarantino in Kill
Bill Vol. 2. (Ironically, it can only barely be heard in
the film over the sound of racing engines and squealing tires.) |
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Note:
After watching '70s poliziotteschi such as The
Big Racket and Ricco I sort
of expect these films to be a bit sleazy, certainly violent
and possibly gory. Thus I was somewhat let down here. Confessions
shows us some naked Marilů Tolo (which definitely wouldn't be
rated PG today — was the scene cut for U.S. theatrical release?),
but that's about it. The violence in Summertime
Killer is also rather muted (limited to a few gunshot blood
squibs). Unfortunately the bodacious Olivia Hussey doesn't ever
get nude. |
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| Wild
East's Euro-Crime Collection double feature is a flipper
disc, with a single film per side. But that's not the only thing
that's 'flipped'...
The
exterior labels on my copy are reversed —
load the side that reads Confessions of
a Police Captain and the menu for Summertime
Killer queues up. |
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The condition of the films themselves leaves
much to be desired. Obviously composites taken from multiple sources,
video quality can fluctuate wildly; image is soft at best and
there are plentiful instances of dirt and debris. Confessions,
it should be noted, is far and away the better off. Its opening
and closing credits may look dreadful but the main body of the
film is a significant improvement (at times surprisingly good,
with strong, natural-looking colors). It helps tremendously that
Confessions' 2.35:1 transfer is 16x9
enhanced; sadly, Summertime Killer
(1.85) is not anamorphic. Neither is flagged for progressive scan.
Only the English language tracks are available for both films,
in flat, muffled-sounding mono. Low-level background hiss plagues
Confessions at times. |
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DVD Extras: Each film comes with an extensive image gallery of
posters and promotional materials as well as a couple of trailers
and TV spots. For Confessions there's
a 23-minute interview with Franco Nero, conducted sometime in
2004-5. (This appears to have been licensed by Wild East from
a German company.) In English, Nero talks enthusiastically about
collaborating with Damiani on this and other projects, praising
Balsam as a consummate professional whom he really enjoyed working
with. He also tells the same anecdote (about being threatened
by a Sicilian street tough) which he recounted for Blue Underground
a few years back. 6/12/10 |
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