My favorite Eurocrime movie is not actually one that has a lot of action. This movie deals with the depersonalized nature of revenge from the person who is impacted to those in authority. The police have no real connection to Henry Silva's character's daughter in this movie so they don't understand his feelings about his daughter's murder. A tombstone maker comes to the house at point and tries to exploit the daughter's death for money. On the other side of things a right-wing vigilante group exploits the lust for vengeance for their own gain. That is what this movie is all is how everyone has a connection to the the death of a little girl but no one really understands how it feels to lose her except her parents. In the end the movie asks the question is vengeance more important than justice and is the feeling of closure more important than you getting revenge yourself?
The film starts with a montage with Henry Silva's character David working construction. Bruno Nicolai's low and high note piano score setting a tone. One of his best theme's in my opinion. We see David's daughter Clara walking on the street and a blind man asks her for help walking to a bank. Suddenly the man breaks into the bank with several other robbers and it is clear he is in disguise. After robbing the bank he shoots and kills David's daughter. Meanwhile David had been buying a locket of some kind for his daughter and the musical theme for this locket keeps playing throughout the film whenever she is seen in flashbacks.
The investigating cop, Inspector Bertone (Raymond Pellegrin) keeps telling David that the cops are going to do something but they never do. David is too impatient and wants justice even if he has to take matters into his own hands. The Inspector constantly talks about there aren't enough men to do the job. David at one point says something like only an idiot would be a cop with the lousy pay you get. That starts some of the similarities in this movie to real life, particularly modern day America. Cops are criticized no matter how they do their jobs, but at times it is warranted. David eventually finds out from his journalist friend, Giordani (Silvano Tranquilli) that the cop who was supposed to be guarding the bank was called off to get his superior's wife to the hairdresser. This is also similar to rich people getting help or protection from cops while those that actually need it are left to fend for themselves. Think about all the rich and powerful people in America and the world that have bodyguards and protection yet many places in inner cities like Chicago there are people killed and criminalized each day. That is what this movie made me think about. Not only that but the cops in this movie have all their priorities wrong. In one scene David and his wife Vera (Luciana Paluzzi) are harassed by a street gang that vandalizes their car. Vera's purse is stolen and David gives chase but they are cornered. Many civilians show up, showing the power of just a group of people united by common cause, and the criminals leave. Yet when the cops show up they want to arrest David because they saw him run a red light. This is type of anger that Umberto Lenzi's crime films always make me feel as I feel exactly like the main character because of that depersonalized nature of revenge and how the cops can't even help him in that situation.
As I mentioned before there are different ways in which people try to exploit the death of David's daughter. A right-wing vigilante group headed by a Lawyer named Mieli (Claudio Gora) and a former police Lieutenant (Luciano Catenacci) want David's help in fighting crime. They have him come along with them when they break into the house of two criminals supposedly responsible for a purse snatching resulting in a woman's death. They break the men's hands with meat tenderizers. David is horrified, mainly because their response is just as violent, if not more so than the actual crime but it doesn't connect to David. Once again brilliant by Lenzi, this movie makes us feel bad for those men because they have nothing to do with the main story. At some point a man comes by the house while Vera is on the phone and in an intense scene he sneaks around the house making Vera suspicious. Eventually he presents that he makes tombstones and keeps shoving the pamphlet for the products in her face and she kicks him out. That was a great scene for Luciana Paluzzi.
The last thing Clara said before she died was something about a scorpion. David begins to investigate. In a giallo-like subplot he finds a man wearing a scorpion bracelet at a bar. With the help of a trans prostitute he eventually arranges a meeting. That meeting never happens though because the Scorpion's men beat up the prostitute and get David's address. In a very Straw Dogs sequence, David and Vera hold up in their home from the attackers. David distracts them but is cornered and beaten up by Scorpion and his men.
Spoiler Section
The Inspector actually shows his competence later in the film. The cops corner a group of drug dealers in a boat, have a shootout that results in their death. This was after they had found the getaway car from the robbery with the beard and wig that was the Scorpion's design. The Lawyer and his extremist group eventually tell David where Scorpion supposedly is. David goes to a farmhouse. There is some awesome shotgun-spread-blood-squibs as David cleans house with an over-under shotgun. While at the morgue the Inspector tells Giordani that David actually killed a group of random drug dealers and the real Scorpion was killed in the boat shootout as one of the men had a scorpion tattooed on his wrist. So in the end David was exploited by the group. I can't think of that ever happening. Any extremist political group lives off the good intention of others for both financial and personal gain. While it is interesting that patience with the cops might have paid off, this movie plays things both ways a bit. I think it is trying to say in the end that the feeling of closure you can get from justice can be found whichever way you decide to go. The problem is if the Inspector had actually arrested David at the end of the film he would have been left with no future. Still though, the film shows that an Inspector is competent but other cops, like the street cops who want to arrest David are only looking to make a quota. So the world is full of human beings with their own interests and sometimes that gets in the way of what is best for everyone.
Rating: 10/10 My favorite Eurocrime movie
English Dubbing Cast:
- Edward Mannix dubs Raymond Pellegrin as Inspector Bertone
- Susan Spafford dubs Luciana Paluzzi as Vera
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