Featuring a truly one of a kind villain performance from Tomas Milian, Almost Human is an incredible story about someone who can get what they want at the sake of others. The movie is about a criminal getting more and more comfortable with disregard for other people and the law for their own gain. As the movie goes on it only gets worse. He goes from an unrepentant cop killer, unrepentant rapist to kidnapping, shooting people while tying them up, and killing children. Yet because of the over the top nature of it and the progression you almost feel along for the ride and are just waiting to see what crazy thing he does next. Yet in the scenes with Henry Silva as the cop the narrative flips and you see an honest cop, hard-nosed, but certainly not corrupt or dirty pushed to his breaking point. The movie forces you to feel curiosity and excitement by showing what the criminal does, but also sympathy from the view of the authority figure trying to get him. In the end you almost feel resigned to the idea that the system protects criminals and not the people they victimize. All of Lenzi's crime films are about that idea explored through different ways, but none are as exciting or visceral as this one.
Right away Giulio's short-fuse is shown when he is the getaway driver for a robbery. He kills a cop who comes up to him and asks him to move his car. A run of the mill chase scene follows. Far from one the best in Eurocrime movies but certainly not the worst. The next scene is something that resonates throughout the entire film. Giulio (Tomas Milian) is beaten up by the gang who asked him to commit the robbery and is threatened with castration. The powerlessness and the wimpy nature of Giulio in these scenes almost makes him overcompensate later when he has power in the form of a gun or followers with him. Eventually he gets the idea of kidnapping the daughter, Mary Lou (Laura Belli) of his girlfriend, Ione's (Anita Strinderg), boss, Porrino (Guido Alberti). Giulio makes friends with Carmine (Ray Lovelock) and Vittorio (Gino Santercole) to help with the kidnapping.
Tomas Milian as Giulio
Anita Strindberg, and her amazing jawline as Ione
Regular Eurocrime player, Ray Lovelock on the left as Carmine, Milian on the right
Regular Italian character actor, Guido Alberti as Parrino
While the film starts with Milian killing a cop at the robbery, he also kills a cop later when he is caught by a night guard trying to raid a cigarette dispenser. This gets the attention of Inspector Walter Grandi (Henry Silva) who makes mention of how the guard was killed for a small amount of money. There is an element of classism this film starts to explore. Ione tries to talk Giulio into getting a job and he talks about "spitting out your soul 8 hours a day," only to blow all your money at the hospital at some point. Now I don't know how health insurance worked in Italy then or now, or if that is just part of the english dubbing translation but that line really resonated with me as something many people now think about in America. It is true that a lot of money you earn with too much time working can be used for medical expenses. Giulio is a character so full of life regardless of the decisions he makes. You can understand why he has this mentality. The idea for the kidnapping was not only to make money to get himself in a better place where he will no longer be the guy who is belittled by all the other gangsters. He seeks money and power so that he no longer has that feeling of being emasculated or being on the bottom. That is why he starts to overcompensate when given power, but he also acts on impulse.
Henry Silva as Inspector Walter Grandi
When Giulio kills the cop near the bank his lips are trembling because he is anxious. Later in the home invasion sequence we see him shoot at a door just because a noise was made without any context for why or who made the sound. There are other elements of classicism and being stuck in a system that you can't get out of. Johnny is Mary Lou's boyfriend and they frequently sneak off on trysts because they cannot be together because Johnny is from a lower-class background. It is a quick scene but his death at the hands of Carmine while trying to protect Mary Lou is impactful. Between Inspector Grandi, Giulio and Johnny there is a sense of being stuck and wanting to do something to improve their situation. Grandi starts feeling stuck and powerless in the system of the law because he can't do anything to prove Giulio killed anyone, Giulio wants more power and money to get out of his situation and Johnny can't have the girlfriend he wants because he is lower class. The home invasion scene is a great sequence for this because it shows these rich socialites in a big house trying to buy their way out of being killed and because Giulio has all ready kidnapped Mary Lou and knows he can get money from her ransom he doesn't care about killing any of these people. Yet, that is all they have to offer to get out of the situation and he despises them for that.
Now that I have talked about some of the thematic elements I enjoyed, I wanted to talk about some of the entertainment value. Giulio's descent down a roller coaster to hell where he tries to bring all the people with him that he can is really exciting. The first two cop killings are surprising enough but once he starts to kill people that are outside of authority and those closest to him is when things get interesting. He goes to a black market dealer he knows named Papa to get guns but doesn't actually have the money to get them. Papa says that he will keep any deposit they make if the guns are traced back to a crime. Giulio then proceeds to gun down Papa and his wife. This establishes a pattern where anyone who seems to threaten Giulio in any way will get killed. What I do like is some of Milian's lines, the ones delivered by Frank Von Kuegelen in the english dub are memorable. There are some funny lines by Giulio's character. "She doesn't know if she is holding a tennis racket or one of those other things," talking about Mary Lou when she is around "balls." "Little girl I have been sent here by the angel Gabriel to safeguard your virginity," when he and his friends interrupt the tryst of Johnny and Mary Lou.
The home invasion, chandelier-roulette sequence is the showstopper here. Again Giulio turned the tables by threatening to make one of the men kneel and give him a blowjob to emasculate him. Eventually Giulio and his friends string all of the men and women up on a chandelier and take all the women's clothes off and take bets on which one they will land on to violate. Eventually the noise comes from upstairs and Giulio kills the daughter of one of the women and, shocked at what he has done, proceeds to gun down all of the people tied up. The second half of the movie features more of Giulio's antics.
Spoiler Section
Giulio eventually kills his girlfriend by locking her in the car to drown when he leaves the car to go over a cliff. This was after she indirectly threatened him by saying she would go to the cops after he asked what she would do if she found out she killed someone. This is preceded by a fun scene where he says "all I did was kill three women, two men and a kid." She thinks he is kidding until she reads a newspaper article about it. Grandi's investigation is actually more interesting upon rewatch as you see him put the pieces together when he questions Parrino about who Ione was and who she was seeing. He eventually remembers seeing Giulio who had heckled him way back when the guard near the cigarette dispenser was killed. Giulio had made a remark about where they were going to buy cigarettes after that. Before he remembers that Giulio actually goes to the police station to report his missing girlfriend and puts up a facade about how sad he is. A facade Grandi sees through. The unfortunate thing is Grandi can't prove anything. Giulio goes to the mob boss, Malone and threatens to turn him in if he doesn't give him an alibi. In a similar scene to the Scorpio killer in Dirty Harry they beat him up a bit saying he was there the night the people at the home were killed. Grandi is never able to prove anything. Giulio meanwhile continues his rampage killing Mary Lou, Carmine, and Vittorio to keep the ransom money for himself and even shoots Grandi in the knee to make his escape back to Malone's pool hall where they all lie saying he had been there for a while. This is where the movie is clever in that by the end Grandi tracks down Giulio saying he is no longer a cop and shoots him before Giulio can pull out his own gun.
What I love about this movie besides the intersecting journey of both the detective story and the criminal's rampage are the performances. Plenty of Henry Silva being the stoic, tough detective. His performance shines through in the scene where he interrogates Giulio, not believing his sentimental sorrow one bit. In the scenes where the judge and others rule Giulio with no charges Silva gets to go into yelling angry mode which I always enjoy. As for Milian he is always sweating, always looking like he is up to something and never seems like he isn't enjoying himself. This is my favorite performance from him and Silva isn't far behind. Adding to the great technical aspects is Ennio Morricone's amazing piano heavy score utilizing low notes and a high pitched woodwind instrument to add a sinister feel to the movie.
Rating: 10/10
Trivia: Richard Conte was originally offered the role of Inspector Grandi. He died before the movie could be produced. Marc Porel was offered the role of Giulio but Lenzi found him to be unprofessional and threatened to resign from the film if Porel got the part.
English Voice Dubbing Cast
- Frank Von Kuegelen dubs Tomas Milian as Giulio
- Michael Forest dubs Gino Santercole as Vittorio
- Carolyn De Fonseca dubs Laura Belli as Mary Lou
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