Suspicious Death of a Minor

By the mid 1970s the Italian crime film became the dominant genre film over the giallo and the spaghetti western before it. Sergio Martino makes a perfect blend of the giallo and poliziotessco here with some comedy to provide some levity to a serious subject matter. There are three great chases in this movie, with some occasional silly comedy moments in the car chase. It also has a roller coaster shootout! The kill scenes though are pure horror and not as comedic which provides consistent tone. This movie is funny at times when it feels appropriate, and scary and suspenseful during the kill scenes. Along with the change in the blending of genres as the giallo was becoming stale to many viewers, also comes changes with the score. Luciano Michelini's score has more percussion instruments along with organs and keyboards which has more a Goblin feel than Ennio Morricone. This is a film I'd recommend to first time giallo viewers as it blends action with horror elements with an understandable mystery. 

Synopsis: An undercover police officer who works in a kidnapping task force investigates the death of a minor tied to an underage prostitution racket. 

The film starts with a prostitute named Marisa (Patrizia Castaldi) receiving a note at an outdoor party saying someone isn't coming to meet her. Another man, Paolo Germi (Claudio Cassinelli) dances with her and helps her get away from a man wearing reflective sunglasses in pursuit. The man in sunglasses tries to strangle her and later slashes her throat in a decently bloody kill in her apartment. This is where the amped up organ and percussion music starts playing which plays throughout many of the kill scenes. The instrumentation reminds me of Goblin's work in movies like Deep Red and Tenebrae. 

Sunglasses killer in this movie

Germi finds out the woman has been killed when he spies on some cops near a pinball machine. At the same time a thief, Giannino (Adolfo Caruso) steals one of the cops briefcases.  Germi goes to interrogate the landlady and she has something to do with the woman's death. Germi later asks the thief for help and they go steal several prostitutes' purses. Funnily enough the next day Germi goes back to the area where the prostitutes work and picks up one (Lia Tanzi) to get more information about where he can find underage prostitutes. He later goes to a bank connected to a company that he believes has something to do with it but can't prove anything. There are some funny moments throughout this sequence. Lia Tanzi as the prostitute says that someone came and took her purse and Germi pretends to be surprised. He sits on his all ready broken glasses when they are in bed. Numerous times throughout the movie his car doors are falling off which leads to some fun things in the chase later.

Spoiler Section

Germi gets set up with a.young prostitute, Floriana (Barbara Magnolfi, Suspiria). Also if you had any interest in seeing Barbara Magnolfi topless when you watched Suspiria you can see that here. Germi pries her for more info and eventually follows her. She goes to give the money he gave her to her boss and he is not happy because the check wasn't signed. Giannino also shows up and the pimp shoots Floriana. In a tense fight where it seems any second Germi could get shot or lose the fight he manages to shoot him. From his ID and money he finds out he is Il Manga one of the villains he is looking for. Germi waits in that house because of a hunch and two men deliver a big amount of kidnapping money tied to another crime. He has a scuffle with the two men who get away. 

Giannino is followed by the police and this is when the chase starts. Giannino starts throwing different doors from the cop car as they are followed. This chase changes from the inner parts of the city and the traffic lights to tunnels and more urban areas which I always enjoy. I like it when chase scenes can switch locales. What is funny during this chase scene is seeing other people's perspective to provide some levity. One guy is crossing the street and he is nearly ran over lands on his hat while doing this hilarious spinning thing in the air before he gets up and runs into a telephone pole because he is dizzy. One guy has his bicycle hit and it turns into a unicycle. He tries to balance until he falls. One man hits another woman's car from behind and they argue while Germi and then the cops hit each of their cars. I like most of this because it is my style of comedy. Meanwhile Germi leads them to the police station where he actually reveals he is an undercover cop and gets Giannino off the hook. 

His bosses and the other cops investigating are not happy with some of his decisions and how he waited to report things. This is typical Eurocrime fare where the cop always wants to things his own way and those who are by the book are against it. Germi with Giannino and his little brother go to an amusement park and one of the two people who went to the house with the money tries to shoot him on the roller coaster. After they get off the roller coaster they chase into a subway where the man is killed by a train. While investigating Marisa's death they find a picture of another young girl connected to the prostitution racket named Gloria who was at the amusement park. Gloria eventually gives them information about a banker named Gaudinzio Pesce (Massimo Girotti) Marisa's uncle. Pesce's bank is a front for the racket and Germi eventually confirms this by going to the bank threatening everyone with a gun until they talk about knowing Marisa.

One of the cops in charge goes with him to meet Pesce. Giannino and Germi meet with Gloria (Jenny Tamburi) in a movie theater, where Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key is showing. The sunglasses killer meanwhile has been making the rounds killing every loose end. He kills the landlady and then he kills Lia Tanzi's prostitute character, though she puts up a good fight and burns his face with some boiling water. Next time we see him he has some terrific burn makeup effects. He shows up at the theater to kill Gloria and him and Germi have a chase onto the theater's roof. This is a tense scene as the sunglasses guy presses the lever to the domed roof and Germi holds on before he falls. Right before he is about to be killed Giannino comes and shoots the guy in the sunglasses. 

Germi then goes to threaten Pesce more. In a fun moment Pesce tells him to get new glasses and he says I have a knew pair perhaps you've seen them, and pulls out the killer's reflective sunglasses. Germi resigns from the police after they determine he doesn't have enough proof to get Pesce. This is even after Gloria tells about the drugs and Pesce having sex with Marisa when she was 13. In a very surprising scene Gloria is given a present which turns out to be a bomb that kills her and Giannino. Because of this Germi decides to take matters into his own hands. He gets drugs and plants them along with pictures at Pesce's estate. Pesce meanwhile is leaving and on a train of sorts with his car on it, Germi shows up and tells him of how he has framed him and then kills him when he shoots at him. 

As I said in my thesis this is one of the best giallo movies as an introduction to the genre. Like Martino's other movies it is never boring. The action scenes are great and in particular the car chase scene has some funny moments. Martino brings some funny moments to a subject matter at appropriate times that was done much more seriously in Massimo Dallamano's Schoolgirls in Peril Trilogy as a comparison. Considering this was made around the same time as Deep Red they do have similarities. Similar scores, and a kill where someone gets killed when someone sees them through a broken glass window. I find all of the intricacies of the plot between the racket, and all the players, leading to Pesce to be easier to understand every time I watch it. 

Rating: 9/10

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avk238636f4

 

Silent Action (1975)

Very few Eurocrime movies are great at balancing action, crime, and thriller. This is one of the few where I'm invested in what is going to happen next as well as the great action scenes. I think that has to do with the direction of Sergio Martino. He does a good job with providing a mystery to invest in and characters to route for.  The first half is political giallo and the second half is full action as the conspiracy in the story starts to unravel. I always say that Martino above any other Italian director makes movies that aren't boring. This features the best car chase in any of his crime movies, mainly because it is a three way chase adding more perspectives and tension. This is the most believable Luc Merenda is as a cop. This also features performances by Delia Boccardo and Paola Tedesco as two of the strongest women characters in Eurocrime movies. 

Synopsis: A chain of suicides sparks a police investigation that has ties to leaders in the Italian government.

The movie starts with three murders that are published in the newspapers as either accidents or possible suicides.  One of them is a gory head getting splattered by being run over by a train. Meanwhile Inspector Solmi (Luc Merenda) investigates the death of an electrician named Chiarotti. The groundskeeper at his house points Solmi in the direction of a prostitute who frequented Chiarotti's place. There are some fun dubbing lines in this part, as there are throughout the movie. The madam running the brothel out of her house says "I have some very influential friends!" Solmi says back, "And I have an uncle who's a cardinal!" For immunity she points them in the direction of where the prostitute lives. When they get there they find out the prostitute, Giuliana (Paola Tedesco) has attempted suicide. They save her and take her in. She admits to killing Chiarotti.

Spoiler Section

Meanwhile Solmi's two cop friends Luigi Caprara (Michele Gammino) and De Luca (Gianfranco Barra) are watching Chiarotti's house when Ortolani (genre great Carlo Alighero) breaks in and tries to steal tape recordings. They have a brief fight before arresting Ortolani. Meanwhile Giuliana admits to seeing the real killer and in a flashback we great henchman actor Antonio Casale bludgeon Chiarotti to death as Giuliana runs away. Captain Sperli (Tomas Milian) of the secret service and Solmi interrogate Ortolani who is confirmed to be a secret service agent. The tapes confirm General Stocchi, one of the beginning victims was invited into a conspiracy by a lawyer named Rienzi and the General refused so he was killed. Meanwhile Casale and his other goon kill two guards with some awesome gunshot blood squibs to capture Giuliana. When the tapes go to the DA and Solmi's boss (Mel Ferrer) they are erased. 

Tomas Milian in one of his more subdued roles as Captain Sperli

Solmi goes to visit an oil baron named Martinelli and his wife. His wife was intending to run off with Chiarotti and had tapes to blackmail him which Martinelli bought.

In one of the best scenes of the movie, Giuliana manages to seduce the other goon and kill him and temporarily escape. I love how the look in her eyes changes just slightly and you know she is trying to seduce him but it shows the power of a woman's sexuality and how people in her profession would know how to do that. She also goes through with the threat of shooting him once she has the gun. Once she escapes she uses a payphone to call Solmi and tells who her captors are, revealing Casale's name to be Masseu. Unforunately Masseu kills her by strangulation before Solmi can rescue her. 

Antonio Casale had a rough complexion and was great at playing henchman

Paola Tedesco who played Giuliana

Meanwhile in a typical soft on crime moment for these movies, the DA releases Ortolani. When the cops get him again a person disguised as a motorcycle officer drives up and kills Ortolani. The three cops pursue and are joined by another car trying to protect the guy on the motorcycle. This chase goes through courtyards and tunnels actually ends with cop car getting flipped over. This starts to show that the conspirators mean business and will kill any loose ends before they talk. Solmi and his team find Masseu a the boxing club and he runs and kills one of the cops. Once cornered Masseu and Solmi have a Busey-Gibson moment in Lethal Weapon and Merenda uses some dodging moves to duck his punches and counter him back. I pumping my fist the whole time. 

In the film's last act De Luca is killed when he Solmi gives him the keys to his car in a hit meant for Solmi. Masseu is killed in a prison riot before being interrogated. The other strong female character in this, Solmi's journalist girlfriend Maria (Delia Boccardo) who gets pictures of Stochhi's and Masseu's killers together in Germany. Sperli reveals it to be a man named Franz Schmidt who Sperli and Solmi track. In a chase they corner him but Sperli kills him. Solmi finds coordinates and names of the conspirators in Schmidt's room and the coordinates are a military camp for the right wing terrorist group working with the government. This leads to shootout in a snowy woodland area where the cops drop grenades from helicopters and then get into shootouts on the ground. A rover leaves and they pursue the man through the woods. They shoot him and it is revealed to be Sperli, who is Rienzi. Sperli is offered a chance to escape by Caprara who is part of the conspiracy. Instead of letting him escape though, he shoots him to prevent him from talking. In a very effective ending Solmi is killed by a drive by shooting while Maria looks from a distance in terror. 

I really like all of the action scenes in this movie but I love how much it feels like a world with no hope by the end. It's like Fincher's the Game where as the mystery keeps going it seems everything is going end badly for the main character and in the real world this movie is set it doesn't end well. There is a great mix of John Berry type action cues in the score and a great mix of low and high piano notes as the theme. Credit to Luciano Michellini for that. There aren't many Eurocrime movies with dismal endings like this and that makes it feel like a real drama as opposed to a crime movie. 

Rating: 9/10

English dubbing cast: 

• Frank Von Kuegelen dubs Luc Merenda as Solmi
• Ed Mannix dubs the chef in that one scene where Solmi and Maria go out to dinner
• Michael Forrest dubs Carlo Alighero as Ortolani
• Nick Alexander dubs Antonio Casale as Masseu
• Ted Rusoff dubs Masseu's other goon who gets seduced by Giuliana
• Robert Spafford dubs Arturo Dominici as the Chief of Police 
• Carolyn De Fonseca dubs Mrs. Martinelli

Trivia: The car flipping over in the beginning where the first military official is killed is stock footage from Sergio Martino's earlier Eurocrime film, also starring Luc Merenda, the Violent Professionals. 

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s00yKVV-ZM

 

Jungle Holocaust aka Last Cannibal World (1977)

Ruggero Deodato's cannibal movies, and most of the Italian mondo cannibal films have themes about how most other humans are actually worse than the cannibals. This one is different. It's much more micro than the themes in others. The premise of this movie is basically about how the only thing separating us "civilized" people from our primitive, survivalist, and at worst, cannibal selves is a few days without food or water. This movie takes rich oil prospectors and forces them to survive against primitive cannibals, two groups of people on the opposite end of any social structure and sees them essentially become the exact same, This is also the scariest of the Italian cannibal movies. This is like being dropped into a nightmare which is a treacherous jungle but also being subject to the people who are only interested in getting their next meal and you can't communicate with them. 

Synopsis: An oil prospector escapes from capture by a primitive cannibal tribe in the Philippine rain forest and heads out to locate his missing companion and their plane to return home.

The film starts with oil prospectors Rolf and Robert, played by Ivan Rassimov and Massimo Foschi respectively. Along with them is their pilot Charlie (Sheik Razak Shakur) and Swan (Judy Rosly). They are surveying land to set up oil drilling sites. They eventually crash part of the plane on a makeshift unstable runway. They find the other prospectors killed and from one of the primitive spears hypothesize their are natives on the island. That night while waiting in the plane their is an excellent jump scare as a Native sneaks up to the window. Swan eventually goes outside and taken. They go into the jungle the next day and Charlie is killed by a giant swinging mace with spikes. Robert and Rolf get lost and eventually their survival instinct kicks in and they make a raft. I do enjoy seeing Robert struggle with the machete which of course are actually usually dull in real life. Starting a more adventurous part of this movie they try to traverse rapids in the raft and the two get separated after it breaks. 

After eating some poisonous mushrooms, Robert is eventually captured by the cannibals. They take him back to his cave which starts the cave section of the movie as I like to call it because it is just cave light for around 30 minutes. This cave full of cannibals that you have no communication with is truly a nightmare. At first they strip him of his clothes which is in a way stripping him of being civilized. They mess with his watch and try to eat it. Others literally pull at his penis, including one played by the beautiful Me Me Lai who takes an interest of sorts in him. In what I assume could have been a real stunt they strap him into this bungee and pulley thing because they believe he can fly and drop him many times until he passes out. 

Robert wakes up in this prison underground from where the rest are. They also have a bird in there and eventually he wrestles with the bird for the food they drop in. That starts what I said in my thesis about how a few days without food can lead to this version of yourself. At one point they get an alligator and in typical animal cruelty in these movies they bash it's head and then it from tail to head for real. That scene is incredibly troubling as you see how scared it is and how disgusting the insides of it are. Eventually he sees the dead bird and surmises they will use him as bait just like the bird. He escapes and finds one of the cannibal men raping Me Me Lai so he knocks him out takes her with him. Can't say that I blame him I need something nice to look at when I'm in the jungle too. 

Me Me Lai in this movie

For a few days they survive and there is a troubling scene where they see one of the other natives forcibly abort her baby and feed it to the alligators. That actually lead to some questions. It made me realize that humans have a drive to reproduce because let's be real how do these people know how to have sex? Also it lead to more thoughts about how these tribes might be thinking about overpopulation or maybe their women had some autonomy about how their children would survive in such a culture. When Me Me Lai eventually tries to escape Robert captures her again and rapes her. This sexual assault is weirdly the only real communication they ever share and it actually endears her to him as she starts gathering food and fishing for them the next morning. Robert interestingly enough spits out some of the food showing a funny westernized value for liking food even though at that point whatever you can eat do it. 

On stormy night with some really good lighting cinematography Robert fights someone in a cave who turns out to be Rolf. He survived and has one of the nastiest gangrene infections I've ever seen. Showing that jungle and survival is just as big of a villain in this movie as the cannibals are. They find the current to the river back to the plane but Me Me Lai leads them in the wrong direction as she is scared of crossing back into cannibal territory. They also run into alligators on the river. Rolf eventually kills a snake and puts it's venom on spear for Robert. They eventually run into the cannibals again Me Me Lai is captured. They eventually slice her apart cut her torso to her ribs to eat. I enjoy how they prep her by liquidating certain areas. These cannibals really know how to marinate humans. There are some awesome practical effects here and I think them slicing her apart has been used as stock footage in other movies. 

Meanwhile Rolf is shot by an arrow in the chest and Robert uses the poisonous spear to stab and kill one of the natives. He then cuts a hole in his torso and eats some of his guts in an attempt to communicate with the cannibals. They continue chase but Robert and Rolf get the plane. In a sad ending Rolf dies just as soon as they take off. At least he has the solace of knowing his body will get home. 

I really like this movie as it's really the only one in the genre to show the cannibals as full villains. While Rolf and Robert do come across as rich oil hunters they aren't exactly doing anything wrong. You can say that anytime land is exploited or demolished it is bad for the world. The movie never casts them in a bad light though it only compares them to the cannibals. I did enjoy Ubaldo Continiello's score as well. He mixes in some good pleasant woodwinds and strings in the raft building scene. They are some great psychedelic strings when people either pass out or their vision goes fuzzy. Also great human voice in the main theme. The practical effects are great as well. Me Me Lai is gorgeous and charming as always and Ivan Rassimov is always great. Massimo Foschi though impresses me more every time I watch this. If I didn't believe in his reactions and emotions to what he goes through this would be a lesser movie and I never think he isn't being real in his performance. 

Cannibal movie king and one of the most versatile Italian genre actors Ivan Rassimov

Rating: 8.5/10

Trivia: The film was originally conceived as a sequel to Man from Deep River aka Sacrifice! directed by Umberto Lenzi. The producer's didn't pay him enough so he dropped out. The elements of a sequel are still there though mostly because of both Ivan Rassimov and Me Me Lai being in the same movie again.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRWouwvwoaU

 

Don't Torture a Duckling

 

Few giallo movies move past the typical Edgar Wallace murder mysteries with some gore and erotica thrown in. I love those movies, but Lucio Fulci's Don't Torture a Duckling is a different beast. This is a story about a backwards society where superstitious and religious people treat any outsiders with scorn and suspicion. Children are killed, showing no one is safe. Made by a person so many people call misogynist, this movie actually highlights the gender differences in such a backwards society. Women in this movie are either blamed or suspected for the murders, yet no one looks around the one obvious person because they are part of a respected institution. I think people should start thinking about Fulci in a different way, instead of saying he's misogynist, I think he shows just how cruel and self-serving men can be at times and the recipient of that is usually underprivileged and less able women. Apart from all the thematic elements this is one of the most beautifully photographed Italian movies and Riz Ortolani's score is one of the best. 

Synopsis: A reporter and a young woman investigate a series of child murders in a remote town.

The movie starts with three youths, Bruno, Michele, and Tonino going to spy on men getting it on with prostitutes. Some of the dialogue, while dubbed seems like typical things young men would say. "They've got tits like watermelons, with huge rears." At the same time the village idiot, Giuseppe goes to peep on the prostitutes as well and the boys arrive to taunt him and he threatens to kill them. This sequence has other notable things as well. It starts some of the great hillside cinematography that just looks incredible. Sergio D'Offizi also did the cinematography for House on the Edge of the Park and Cannibal Holocaust and it shows. At the same time these prostitutes aren't exactly tens and it shows that women who do that sorta thing in a small village are probably not going to look like supermodels. Somewhere on the hillside a woman named Maciara is shown to be putting pins in three dolls in a sort of black magic ceremony. This is intercut with stills of the three boys showing they are represented by the dolls. This is supplemented by some great cues by Riz Ortolani that repeat during climactic moments throughout the film. 

Michele goes back to the home where his mother, a maid works. He goes upstairs to give orange juice to the rich socialite woman living there, Patrizia (Barbara Bouchet). What follows is a weird scene where she appears to try to seduce Michele flaunting her naked body in front of him. I also enjoy one shot of him looking through a fish bowl to see her. Patrizia seems to get joy out of her control on the young boys in town as we find out she is treated like an outsider by others. 

Barbara Bouchet is strikingly beautiful as Patrizia

Spoiler Section

Eventually all three boys are killed by strangulation. The first and third you actually see and the scenes are shot at night in the rain with some great atmosphere. The second is a disturbing, but at the same time silly dummy shot of Tonino in a bathtub. When Bruno, the first boy goes missing a media circus follows. Andrea Martelli (Tomas Milian) becomes the main character of the story. A regional police commissioner (Virginio Gazzolo) also goes to the town to investigate. Giuseppe starts sending ransom blackmail to Bruno's parents. In a sting he is arrested shows them the dead body, naturally they think he is the killer. He is let go when Tonino is killed. Giuseppe is one of the only male outsiders in this movie and you can see early on how the town treats people perceived as different by the way they spit and shout out him when he is escorted out of the police station. When Bruno's body is found, Don Alberto (Marc Porel) the local priest is introduced followed by the many children he plays soccer with. 

The film seems to be doing everything they can to set up Patrizia as a murder suspect. She is shown to be on the phone when Michele is right before he goes out and gets killed. Later when another boy going to peep on the prostitutes she has him change her flat tire. As she says I'll give you money but then offers a kiss instead of money. Mario then turns up dead not long after. Another boy who was with Mario goes back to Don Alberto and the boys and tells them about it and Don Alberto runs off. Upon rewatch this is the obvious reveal for him as the killer. Andrea is the only one who seems to give Patrizia the time of day. Eventually she is interrogated by the cops and reveals she goes to see Francesco (Georges Wilson) the local dabbler in black magic.  

What is interesting about this is Francesco is revealed to have taken in Maciara when she was young and got her pregnant "to get the devil out of her." The baby was born disfigured and died. Yet Francesco is considered a celebrity and man of stature whom many people in town go to see. Maciara the victim of his pedophilia is viewed as a witch. When cops go to interrogate Michele's mother and father they only seem to focus on how late she was out working. This only intcreases the discrepancies between how men and women are treated, not only the townspeople, but by the authority figures. Don Alberto's mother is seem as the person who drove her husband to suicide and the townspeople only seem to tolerate her because her son is the priest. They treat her daughter, and Don Alberto's sister like dirt because she is slow and is called retarded several times. 

Just past the middle of the movie is my favorite sequence and one of the best 20 minute sequences in any movie I've ever seen. Maciara is captured by the police and she admits to "killing" the boys with her black magic. The police hold her but eventually let her go. Florinda Bolkan's acting in this sequence is great and quite energetic. Once she is let go people are all closing their doors to her. She is cornered by the three boys father's in the cemetery and beaten to death by them, dying as she gets to the side of the road by the highway. The use of music in this sequence is memorable. Ornella Vanoni's song is haunting. This was one of the first times Fulci experimented with gory special FX as the wounds the chains make on Maciara's skin are previews for things he would do in later movies. The tourists passing by her as she dies near the highway adds an extra layer of sadness and despair. So these men committed private justice on the woman who couldn't have possibly killed the boys, yet they don't look at all to the priest who is always around them. 

Florinda Bolkan gives a terrific performance as Maciara

Eventually Patrizia and Andrea find one of Malvina's, severed doll heads near a crime scene. Malvina is the daughter of Aurella (Irene Papas) Don Alberto's mother. Martelli deduces that Malvina has seen the murderer and is imitating his strangulation techniques by beheading her dolls. They track Malvian and Aurella down in the mountains but Don Alberto shows up to Malvina, finally revealing his guilt. Him, Martelli and Patrizia have brutal fight on the cliffside ending with Martelli kicking him off the cliff. A voiceover by Don Alberto explains that he killed the boys to preserve their innocence before they fell into the age of carnal temptations. Again, it should be noted it takes a journalist and another outsider to figure this out because the civilians respect Don Alberto too much to ever even think he could be the killer. A lot of people make fun of the silly looking dummy at the end scraping along the rocks but its still gory so I like it. 

I haven't even talked much about how like the other camera angles in this. There are some great split diopter shots during the interrogation scenes and some great shaky cam closeups. I love the story and I love how it shows quite realistically across all of time how people in respected institutions can avoid blame and suspicion even though it's so obvious. It should be noted that the priest is never shown to be pedophilic toward the boys. However, pedophilia is still shown to be condoned in the name of religion in the case of Francesco and Maciara. This movie really shows how in a backwards town women and outsiders are still treated with suspicion and scorn. 

English dubbing Cast 

• Michael Forest dubs Tomas Milian as Andrea Martelli
• Frank Von Kuegelen dubs Mark Porel as Don Alberto
• Susan Spafford dubs Barbara Bouchet as Patrizia
• Carolyn De Fonseca dubs Florinda Bolkan as Maciara

Rating: 10/10

Trivia: None of the main principal cast were Italian. That includes Tomas Milian, Georges Wilson, Barbara Bouchet, Florinda Bolkan, and Marc Porel.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsJlTgYqCFs

2019, After the Fall of New York

 

It's basically a more entertaining Children of Men complete with ripoffs of Mad Max, the Warriors, and Escape from New York. I would say that this is the darker and more post-apocalyptic, rather than dystopian version of 1982: the Bronx Warriors. Sergio Martino gets the most you can get out of a $1 million budget with Mad Max like armored car death matches, ape-like gangs, sci-fi laser guns, the most obvious miniature flying ships, plenty of blood squibs and violent moments, and some awesome fistfights, and Italian action B-movie king Michael Sopkiw. I'd rather watch this than Children of Men anytime. 

Synopsis: The good losers of World War III send a hero (Michael Sopkiw) and his sidekicks to find the last fertile woman (Anna Kanakis) on Earth.

The film starts with an awesome narrative voiceover explaining that a Eurac monarchy composed of Africa, Europe, and Asia went to war the with the Pan American confederacy which resulted in a nuclear holocaust. That rendered all women sterile and no new kids have been born in 20 or so years. This is all intercut with foggy, dark footage of New York miniature cityscapes. Guido and Maurizio De Angelis's score set a great tone as always. The Euracs, dressed a little like Teutonic Knights, except with a cheap football helmet you could find at a store, go in and massacre some mutants in New York City. Meanwhile, Parsifal (Sopkiw), an ex confederate soldier wins a motorized death match somewhere in Nevada. There are some good stunts in the sequence and I'm impressed with how decked out some of the armored cars are. At one point Parsifal is forced out of his car and has to fight. Whether or not Sopkiw is doing his own stunts the way this character's physicality is filmed throughout is great. The fight scenes in this, especially involving him make great use of athleticism and the fights are never boring. 

Some of the cool laser guns and animation in this movie. Michael Sopkiw looking awesome.

After Parsifal wins the death match he also gets a woman and this leads to funny dubbing moments. This woman says stuff like "I never knew that person was a cyborg until I made love to him." Someone fakes an accident on the roads and Parsifal is captured by the Confederacy.  The confederacy's base is in Alaska, and it looks like something out a Gamera movie with the miniature ships and the black background. The Confederacy's leader (Edmund Perdom) tells him he will get a spot on the ship bound for alpha centauri if he can find and bring to them the one fertile woman in New York City. He is given Bronx, (Vincent Scalondro) a man with a hook for a hand and has a map of New York City in his head, and Ratchet (Romano Puppo) for help. Apparently the confederacy killed all their cyborgs. 

Once in New York City the men run into the Harlem Hunters, a street gang. They also run into some scavengers lead by the Rat Eater King (Hal Yamanouchi). This leads to some awesome fights and Ratchet getting out this mace that he uses quite effectively. The Euracs eventually show up and capture the three men and kill the Rat Eater King with a gory axe to the face. The Eurac captain Ania (Anna Kanakis) tries to seduce Parsifal for more info. He says that a woman with the scavengers, Giara (Valentine Monnier) is the fertile woman. They eventually find a way to escape with help from Shorty (Louis Ecclesia) a member of a group of little people. Bronx sacrifices himself. There is an awesome action sequence where Parsifal gets some help from Ratchet and Romano Puppo does a backflip which may be his own stunt. 

After the group escapes they are trapped by a sonic sounding weapon before Ratchet gives them all wax to put in their ears to block the sound. They are cornered by the Euracs after but are saved by Big Ape (George Eastman) and his gang. There is an awesome kill here where Big Ape slices a man in half and his intestines come out of his armor. There are some fun things during this sequence like one of Big Ape's men and Parsifal fighting after the one ape wants to have sex with Giara to which Parsifal objects. Parsifal wins the fight and him and Giara later have sex. Shory out of nowhere seems to know where the fertile woman is. 

George Eastman in orange as Big Ape

Shorty leads the the group to a bunker where a professor put his daughter, Melissa into a stasis life support system, thus making her fertile. While the rest of the group goes to armor their car to get through the checkpoints at the Lincoln Tunnel, Big Ape knocks out Giara and impregnates Melissa. Shorty is forced to sacrifice himself so the others can get back to the bunker. This leads to an awesome car chase throughout the tunnel including an awesome part where Big Ape throws a sword decapitates a few guys. Big Ape is eventually vaporized by a weapon which leads to a cool skeleton effect. Ratchet is revealed to be a cyborg. Parsifal kills him, but not before he stabs Giara. She makes Parsifal promise to continue the human race. Parsifal gets the Confederacy president's spot on the rocket ship and flies away as Melissa wakes up. 

This is one of the most fun and most violent of the Italian post-apocalyptic movies. I love all the different gangs, I like the story, and it's never boring, a crime that some of these movies commit. While it's just as low budget as any of the Italian genre movies it does the best it can doesn't hold off on the squibs, chase scenes, and gory moments. The fights are good as well. If you want an Italian post-apocalpytic movie with some payoff this is it. I do like how it shows that both sides, the Euracs, and the confederacy are both bad in different ways. The confederacy doesn't seem capable of doing anything and has others do their work while the Euracs are oppressive and evil. It makes sense that Parsifal, who actually gets stuff done is the one who would continue humanity. I also enjoy some of the sci-fi sets that look like abandoned buildings and stage sets. 

Rating: 10/10 Make this my second favorite Italian post-apocalyptic movie. Just pure entertainment. 

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pksZ3_RdAEc

Halloween 2 (2009)

 

You know all the action movies where people's friends die or innocent lives are taken and by the end of the movie no one cares as long as the villain is punished? You know all the slasher sequels where people are moving on from the adversity they faced in the previous film with no real evidence of trauma? Rob Zombie's Halloween II says damn all that. This is the only slasher movie I can think of that deals with how people respond to the aftermath of a slasher movie as if it were real and authentic. Apart from that there are certain breaks from reality in this film that allows for different interpretations of the narrative, plot, and characters that make this film really interesting past the surface level. While some of Rob Zombie's tone deaf dialogue undermine it at times, I'm really glad he left the ending ambiguous. Had it been more definitive I think some of the authenticity would have been undone. I also like the ending scenes of the theatrical cut more than the director's cut and wish I could splice them together more. All in all this is the closest thing to a masterpiece on Zombie's resume. 

Synopsis: A year after narrowly escaping death at the hands of Michael Myers (Tyler Mane), Laurie Strode is at the breaking point, pushed to the edge by Dr. Loomis' (Malcolm McDowell) revelation that she's Michael's sister. Little does she know, the unstoppable killer is back in Haddonfield and, driven by visions of their dead mother (Sheri Moon Zombie), he is determined to bring about a bloody family reunion.

The film starts with the explanation of what a white horse can represent. A younger Michael (Chase Wright Vanek) meets his mother (Sheri Moon Zombie) in the sanitarium and she gives him a small white horse toy which she says to think of her anytime he looks at it. Meanwhile, Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) is wandering the streets of Haddonfield after shooting Michael at the end of the last film. Sheriff Brackett (Brad Dourif) finds her. Two coroners (Richard Brake and Dayton Callie) wrap up Michael's body for transportation. This is intercut with some really gruesome surgical trauma operations on Laurie. Peeling off the fingernails is the moment that always makes me cringe. After the coroners have some joking conversations about necrophilia, which starts my issue with some of Rob Zombie's tone deaf dialogue, they hit a cow and Michael comes alive and escapes. That also starts how great the kills are in this movie. Michael uses a shard of glass from the crash to saw off Richard Brake's head. Dayton Callie's character died in the crash. 

Laurie awakens in the hospital. She eventually gets up and finds Annie alive in one of the rooms. Soon people start getting killed by Michael in the hospital. Laurie tries to escape and certain bodies start popping up out of nowhere. She eventually gets outside and is cornered by Michael.

Spoiler Section

A lot of people seem to dislike the fact that the whole hospital scene is a dream sequence. Upon rewatch though I actually like it because the whole thing seems like a dream. The way Laurie runs into dead bodies on the stairs, full of Wayne Toth's great practical effects by the way. The pile of dead bodies in the basement, and even just randomly running into Buddy the security guard (Richard Riehle) in the rain. I love the sound and ambience the rain creates as well. I love how vicious Michael is when he stabs the nurse played by Octavia Spencer. Michael getting to her feels like the end of a quick nightmare but it also shows how Michael still haunts her and there is no escape from what he did to her both literally and in her mind. 

Laurie wakes up and is shown to be living with Annie and Sheriff Brackett. Throughout the movie Annie and Laurie's conversations turn into full blown arguments and Laurie seems to be unable to move on from the PTSD two years after the even in the first film. However, anytime she needs something throughout the film such as when she throws up Annie comes to her aid and Sheriff Brackett is shown to be less able to help her through it. We shouldn't forget that Laurie's adopted parents were killed in the first movie as well. Meanwhile Doctor Samuel Loomis is profiting both off his time as Michael's doctor and the victims of the first movie. He is doing a book tour and seems to be consumed with his celebrity. The four principle characters impacted by the events of the first film are responding in different ways. Laurie is abusing prescription drugs and can't seem to control her emotions in any way. Annie's friendship with Laurie is fragile because Laurie only sees her as a reminder. Loomis is only exploiting his experience. 

Meanwhile Michael is living off of someone's farmland. He kills the people who find him stealing their crops. This has a vicious kill where he throws Mark Boone Junior's character onto some antlers mounted to his truck. Around this time is the only scene with some levity where Annie, Laurie, and Brackett are eating dinner and he starts going on this rant and impression of Lee Marvin. This transitions back and forth with Michael killing and eating dog. Around this time is where Laurie is shown to have some sort of psychic link with Michael as she gets sick from seemingly feeling him eat the dog. She later has these nightmare sequences where she kills Annie. 

This is where some of these ambiguous moments start to take shape. I start wondering if Laurie killed Annie and what happens later is in her head. There are moments when she goes to see a psychological doctor of some kind, ironically played by Margot Kidder where she says those sessions are what keeps her out of a hospital. I start wondering if in fact Laurie has killed people and Michael is only in her head. Michael keeps seeing the white horse everywhere he goes and his mother tells him to bring the family back together. It's almost as if Michael and Laurie's mind are synchronizing to know that the only way for their family to be together is for them to die and for Michael to kill anyone else close to them. Yes Michael kills some random people throughout this movie but he also kills Annie, Loomis, and his mother's boss at the strip club who also exploits her having worked there. At some point I just wonder what is real. 

I really enjoy the party sequences which are the most halloween like sequences in the movie. The color filters are great. The atmosphere is great. The sequence where Harley goes off for a sexcapade with some funny writing feels the most like a slasher movie. It reminds of a similar sequence in Prom Night. I would be remiss if I didn't get to Annie's death scene. The slow motion editing and the look on Annie's face when she sees Michael, that with her and Tyler Mane's height and stature difference, and the cutting to just her screaming and objects crashing is well done. That kill and the aftermath may just be the most harrowing kill scene in any slasher movie. The sequence where Laurie and Mya come back and find a bloodied Annie and you know Michael is in the house somewhere is one of Zombie's best suspense sequences he has ever shot. Brad Dourif's reaction when he finds her dead is equally harrowing and authentic. Rob Zombie's quick cutting, shaky cam, medium-shot-to-close-up, documentary style filmmaking only adds to the authenticity. The kills at the strip club, specifically the curb stomp on Jeff Daniel Phillips' character is equally brutal. Jeff Daniel Phillips playing two different characters in them movie only adds to the ambiguity and the unreliable narration.

Some of the stuff with Loomis is interesting as well. I enjoyed how his agent said he was actually brilliant in the talk show scene because people like it when serious people allow themselves to be made fun of, even though he doesn't get that at all. That book signing scene when Linda's dad accosts him is great because people seem to forget Linda in these movies. I think this movie does a great job covering every avenue of people impacted by the tragedy and how Loomis doesn't seem to understand how he is exploiting it and not taking any responsibility for how he failed Michael which lead to his actions. Loomis almost seems to be thinking I spent 15 years with him, I want to be rewarded for it, but he doesn't deserve anything other than the fact he survived. 

As I said before the ending to this movie is ambiguous. I'm not sure if Laurie is dead or in some hospital at the end. Everything that happens post when she kills Annie in that nightmare could have been in her head. Everything Michael does could also be real or it could be in her imagination. It's hard to say but I'm glad Rob Zombie didn't spell it out. At the same time I love how most of the dialogue scenes are shot in that style that evokes a documentary which this movie feels like. It feels like a documentary about how people would move on from such adverse events. I don't necessarily love that style during the kills, but the brutality makes up for it. The performances by Scout Taylor-Compton, Brad Dourif, Danielle Harris, and Tyler Mane are all great. I like it shows that time, relationships, and the way people live is impacted by a series of killings in a slasher movie. I hope someday I have the ability to edit together the ending to the theatrical cut and the director's cut as I like different things in both versions. Some of the black and white visuals, specifically that whole pumpkin faced people at the table is weird and really cool. 

Rating: 9/10

Trivia: During the party Laurie is dressed as Magenta from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Magenta was played by Patricia Quinn who also appeared in Rob Zombie's Lords of Salem. 

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWBOfbZaA8g

The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh

 

Quite possibly the best misdirection Sergio Martino does in any of his giallo movies. It also set in motion something he does in many of his other giallo movies. Long drawn out suspense sequences in one location, fakeouts, low camera angles, spinning camera movements, blurring dreams and flashbacks with reality, reveals in the middle and twists at the end. What sets it apart from many other movies is a female with sexuality actually being a hero and even embraced, something the giallo would do more, specifically his movies. An antithesis to American slasher films. This is a perfect blend between focusing on the psychological state of the hero with the typical giallo killer wants an inheritance plot of the villains. The music by Nora Orlandi, specifically the use of the human voice makes the score memorable the movie darker at points. 

Synopsis: An ambassador's wife discovers that one of the men in her life - either her husband, an ex-lover or her current lover - may be a vicious serial killer who targets women with razor blades in Vienna.

The film starts with an interesting quote from Sigmund Freud on a subtitle. That transitions to a brutal kill where a woman is slashed to death in her car. The blood spray on the window and seeing the throat slit is a nice touch. The film introduces us to Julie Wardh (Edwige Fenech) and her diplomat husband Neil (Alberto De Mendoza). While Neil leaves, as he does throughout much of the film, Julie is driven home by a cabbie who quickly talks about the recent murder after they are stopped by a cop. Of course the first thing he says is "must have been a sex fiend." Check that box on your giallo bingo card. While this is going on Julie has a flashback to being sexually assaulted, though in typical 70s movie fashion it seems like she starts to like it. This is done by Jean (Ivan Rassimov) who we find out later is her ex-boyfriend of sorts. This scene is actually beautiful to watch with the slow motion moments and the rain in the sun. Jean in the meantime starts sending mysterious poetic notes to Julie with roses. The first is done in a beautiful camera angle where you see her looking through the peephole at the delivery person. 

Julie goes to a party with her friend Carol (Conchita Airoldi). and meets her cousin George (George Hilton). John seems to be stalking Carol around. Meanwhile Julie and George start a relationship. I enjoy how cute this is too start with him taking her on a motorcycle ride and then phoning her with her saying don't call me anymore. He then suddenly appears in her doorway saying he won't call her anymore and they have sex. I enjoyed the kinetic camera angles on the motorcycle ride. By the way if you wanted to see as much as you can of Edwige Fenech being naked from all sorts of different angles this is the movie for you. The killer of the first woman in the car meanwhile kills another girl from the party in a really cool sequence and a nod to Psycho of sorts where she is killed in the shower but much more bloody than that movie allowed. Julie also has nightmares about Jean. There are many that take place in a black room and Martino gives us a signature from the bed camera angle of his where it is shown that she is intrigued by the sight of blood. 

Spoiler Section

Julie is eventually blackmailed seemingly by Jean whose voice is different on the phone. In a great suspense in the woodlands and fields near a mansion she is killed after some fake outs. Not the bloodiest kill but her screaming makes it seem more real and brutal. Jean has an alibi and this starts the first of a theme in this I thought interesting. Jean points out that Julie has a blood fetish. In typical toxic male form he can't seem to think that she may not be into him anymore. This movie has some moments where I think about how men can't understand their own sexual preferences aren't the same as a woman's. Jean doesn't get that at all. In another great suspense sequence Julie is attacked in a parking garage. Julie and her husband go to meet Jean in an abandoned building but discover his supposedly dead body to which Julie is disturbed by the sight of blood. It is at this point Julie leaves with George to go to Spain. 

Meanwhile the other killer in the movie is killed in self defense by a woman. There is a great jump scare in this sequence similar to Wait Until Dark where the killer hurls himself across the screen. While Julie hears about this and thinks she is safe, she eventually starts getting the roses and notes again. She has a mental breakdown at the sight of blood where she is living and Jean arrives and knocks her out in another great jump scare where she opens the curtains the low angle turns into a high angle when he grabs her throat. Jean stages the area to look like a suicide from carbon monoxide poisoning. Julie is presumed dead. 

It is revealed that all three men were working together and George was working closely with both of them. He wanted Jean to kill Julie and with Carol dead he has the inheritance money from their dead uncle to himself. In another twist he kills Jean. That is another great camera angle as we see just the reflection from his sunglasses when he shoots him. In a very Strangers on a Train move Neil killed Carol. Neil gets insurance money from Julie's death. George and Neil are driving along the countryside when Neil sees a woman standing in the road. He thinks it is Julie. The police appear and the inspector (Carlo Alighero) says they needed the two men together in order to prove their guilt. The Spanish doctor they had seen earlier saved her life from being poisoned to death. They were suspicious after Carol was killed by a razor but not done the same way the other killer had been doing. 

I like how many different things in this movie are things Martino does a lot in his giallo movies. Liberated female sexuality, black room dream and flashback sequences, female fronted movie, a character with a backstory or trauma of some kind coming back to haunt them, stalker Ivan Rassimov, kinetic camera movements, bloody kills, a different killer from the main plot, are all things he would do in other movies. What sets this apart is actually seeing Julie really be the hero. Yes they try to drive her crazy throughout the plot and ultimately do but her being the person on that road before the police show up shows how far she has come by the end. Most gialli and slashers need the men to be the hero but her being there all alone before the cops show up at the end showing them she is still alive is powerful. It's not my favorite of Martino's gialli but it might be right in the middle. 

English dubbing Cast: 

• Susan Spafford dubs Edwige Fenech as Julie
• Carolyn De Fonseca dubs Conchita Airoldi as Carol

Rating: 9.5/10

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAY3V3FXLD0

Hands of Steel (1986)

 

Sergio Martino once said "My movies are like a soft drink -- sparkling, unaffected products for mass consumption. A soft drink doesn't have the prestige of champagne, of course, but I'd rather have a good soda pop than watered down wine anytime." I can't think of any of his movies that fit that description more than Hands of Steel. The cyborg programmed by a company to kill a specific person is why people will call this a Terminator ripoff but the similarities end there. This is actually a really intriguing story about a cyborg becoming self aware and wanting to be human. Arm wrestling, helicopter and big rig chases, ridiculous looking futuristic guns, desert bar romance, cyborg on cyborg fights, and bar fights make this one of the best junk food movies ever made. Claudio Simonetti's incredible theme adds some great ethos to it.

Synopsis: A cyborg is programmed to kill a scientist who holds the fate of mankind in his hands. He fails and hides in a diner in a desert run by a woman who likes him.

I love how this movie starts. Claudio Simonetti's amazing score reverberates throughout the credit as you see homeless people standing on the street which transitions back and forth with shots of smokestacks at industrial plants. This is an interesting basis for the movie. In 1986 people weren't necessarily talking about climate change much, pollution yes. The film transitions to a group of activists trying to make people more aware of the danger that corporate industry is doing to the environment. They are keeping their leader hidden before a gathering of some kind. They talk about rising pollution levels in the air and how so many more people will get sick. Not that I want to bring my politics into this at all but this kind of activism is more relatable to me than the usual give us all your money so the world doesn't end in 10 years. I think the world will always be okay to live in but how hard it could be to live in certain places without impacting someone's well being is entirely different. 

With some cool point of view shots the film shows Paco Queruak (Daniel Greene) going to assassinate the leader of the movement Reverend Arthur Mosely. The FBI agents guarding the building pursue Paco after he presumably kills Mosely with a punch. The first hint at his cyborg structure and abilities is that he passes through an underground electrical conduit with no harm.

Paco later gets on the road and in a really cool scene acid rain, which is shown to be in a certain area via a sign, burns through his car. He later trades the car in. The road aspect to some of this movie, coupled with two different sides in pursuit of a otherworldly being of some kind reminds me of Starman. Mosely is shown to have survived and Paco is pursued both by the FBI and those who hired him. It is revealed that a leader of one of the corporations Francis Turner (John Saxon) programmed Paco to kill Mosely. 

Spoiler Section

I gave you the basic premise so anything from here on out I think would be spoiler territory. Two FBI agents, including one named Peckinpah, nice tribute there, find a way to trace the blow made to Mosely to a 5000 PSI punch. That proves that Paco indeed is cyborg with Hands of Steel. Meanwhile Turner's right hand man played by Roberto Bisacco, Stefano from Torso, and another cool henchman in sunglasses find the scientist who made the cyborgs. In one of Donald O'Brien's few roles as a good in Italian genre cinema he eventually tells them that Paco might go back to his home in Arizona. They kill him. Because Stefano from Torso is wasting too many people Turner has the sunglasses guy kill him and he calls in Peter Howell (Claudio Cassinelli) for more help. 

Meanwhile Paco starts working at remote desert bar managed by Linda (Janet Agren). They have a flirty relationship right away such as her saying you may want a place to stay until you slit my throat. She has him chop up some firewood and he finishes that in record time. Cyborgs must be good at that. For some reason arm wrestling is a huge thing at this bar and one of the best Raul Morales (George Eastman) shows up and throws his weight around and harasses Linda. They gave Paco a roll of toilet paper saying, "If you're a man prove it, if you're shitting your pants wipe your ass with this." Paco then tears off a piece of the marble counter and writes "you're on." He beats Raul easily in an arm wrestling match. He then beats up all of Raul's other trucker friends in a bar fight. 

A scene in the middle has Paco tinker with his cyborg arm. Sergio Stivaletti does some great FX throughout

Raul comes back to the bar next day with the arm wrestling champion, Blanco (Darwyn Swalve) challenging him to a match where the loser will have their arm pinned near a snake on the table. They fake an emergency involving an overturned car and drag Paco on the winch of a tow truck and then string him up and beat him with a pipe. Paco eventually shows up and beats Blanco and karate chops the snake so it doesn't harm him. From the dead body of the cyborg scientist the FBI finds out Paco was from Arizona and was a former soldier experimented on after being in a coma. Howell and the sunglasses guy find the car salesman and eventually run into Raul's trucker friends at a roadhouse talking about Paco. They find Raul who takes them to the hotel. 

This is when the final 30 minutes of the movie start and it is all action. Howell tracks Paco's body temperature with this silly dated computer looking thing proving he is in the motel. From there two people enter posing as a couple. The one woman turns out to a cyborg dressed in white and some saran wrap. They stab Linda to get Paco out of hiding and the cyborgs both shoot each other many times. It ends when Paco rips her head off. The cyborg head is an awesome effect by Sergio Stivaletti. Paco and Linda get in a shootout and eventually get to a rundown trailer. Both Turner and the FBI eventually show up. In a chase with a big rig on a bridge Paco eventually kills Raul by crushing his head. Blanco shows up to help them and Turner and company blow up his truck leaving Paco to think she is dead. Eventually Turner and his men face off with Paco in an abandoned plant of some kind. Paco kills the men in various ways including punching through one of their helmets. He eventually corners Turner and something Sergio Stivaletti loves to do is rip people's hearts out and that doesn't change here. Paco has been crazed by this rampage and doesn't believe the FBI when they say Linda is alive. Paco's head was wounded and inside his head is only cyborg tissue leading him to believe maybe everything he knows was only a memory implanted. 

Cyborg in Saran Wrap

Severed cyborg head with Sergio Stivaletti's awesome FX

Some insane looking guns in this movie

I love everything in this movie. One thing I can say about is how while it could be considered a ripoff of Terminator or even Blade Runner, it is doing so many things that other movies would go on to do. It's arm wrestling before Over the Top. It's soldiers being brought back and even the scientist saying they would revert back to their old memories before Universal Soldier. It did big rig cyborg truck chases, cyborg on cyborg fights, and cyborg bar fights before Universal Soldier or Terminator 2 ever did them. So the question is who really did the ripping off here?

English dubbing cast:

• Susan Spafford dubs Amy Werba as Dr. Peckinpah
• Frank Von Kuegelen and Edward Mannix dub some of Raul's trucker friends 
• Pretty sure Frank Von Kuegelen also dubs the assassin who comes with the prostitute at the end

Rating: 10/10 My favorite Italian Post-Apocalyptic movie

Trivia: Claudio Casinelli actually died while filming one of the helicopter shots near the bridge. That is why his character is killed off early by Turner. John Saxon would have been in that shot if not for the SAG actors union where he had to shoot all of his shots in Rome. He credited that with saving his life. After Casinelli's death Martino became much more cautious when it came to stunts. He hated the actor's unions and casting processes while shooting in America so he found Daniel Greene, a non SAG actor to play the main role.