For those of you who think that Italy in the late 1960s and into
the 1970s was a place where only gritty westerns, strange Giallo films and
rip-off zombie/cannibal films were made can benefit from this. Italy, at the
time, was churning out some wonderful genre product tailored to all tastes. The
aforementioned zombies and cowboys and zipper-mask killers aside, there were
sci fi epics (like
Alien 2, hee hee), action films, dramas and even the
mobster movie. There is a general misconception that the United States
was the only place the mobster genre was popular. There were Mafioso films made
worldwide so why wouldn’t the home of the Cosa Nostra, Italy, get in on the act? Using
some familiar American names (John Cassavetes and Peter Falk) and international
sex symbols (like future Bond girl, Britt Ekland), director Giuliano Montaldo
has put together an effective Mafia/crime caper/double cross flick. Thanks to
Blue Underground, we can now watch this in glorious 1080p.
