THE SICILIAN CONNECTION - VHS REVIEW

Here's another "crimeslime" review from my old pal Steve Fenton.  Enjoy! 

The below review was written following a joint screening of Video Toemi’s widescreen (2.35:1), English-dubbed Japanese VHS tape (complete with native subs), and Top Video’s Canadian full-frame / pan-and-scan VHS; both of which were released as The SICILIAN CONNECTION circa the mid/late ‘80s.

Export ad-line: ‘From the Poppy Fields in Turkey to the Sidewalks of New York… through the crossroad arteries of Death and Drugs.’

Corrado Gaipa, as drug lord, discusses the value of heroin: “What a fortune.  MILLIONS… However, it could all blow away in a puff of wind!”

Luciano Catenacci, to Ben Gazzara: “You can’t ask fer drugs like they wuz ice cream!”

Gangster: “Baciamo le mani!”

Known in Italy as AFYON-OPPIO (1972), The SICILIAN CONNECTION was originally (1971) planned as a Duilio Film production (under screenwriter Duilio Coletti), and shooting was due to commence in Turkey as of October ’71; when this start date was missed, signed star Gazzara returned to Hollywood pending possible litigation for breach of contract.  At another point (7/72), the film was scheduled for shooting on location in Iran; with Gazzara, Telly Savalas, Lionel Stander, Renato Salvatori and Nathalie Delon than all hoped for the cast.  It was at one time also considered as a coproduction with West Germany, with location shooting scheduled for Hamburg.  Of all those mentioned actors’ names, only Gazzara’s made it into the final credits.

A dynamite opening scene kicks-off this worthy gangster effort.  A solemn funeral procession: mob-affiliated pallbearers carrying a casket containing the late Don Francesco Vascello.  When interrupted by the police, head ‘mourner’ Don Vincenzo permits an impromptu inspection of the coffin’s contents; whereupon the corpse’s crudely-stitched chest cavity is found to be stuffed with packets of morphine smuggled into Sicily from Istanbul.  The snoopy cop pays for his curiosity dearly when he is promptly sealed inside the coffin by mobsters and buried alive!

Via Istanbul, wannabe dope baron Giuseppe “Joe” Coppola (Gazzara, whose dubbed voice is not his own) arrives in the Afyonkarahisar region of Turkey to arrange a mega drug deal.  To the strains of the de Angelis brothers’ engaging funk rock score, Coppola hooks up with a smoky call-girl named Claude (Silvia Monti), and attempts to purchase 50 kilos of morphine-based opium from a Turkish-based American connection.

The SICILIAN CONNECTION’s early portion allows some documentary-style peeks into the opium trade of rural Turkey (“You coulda gone to Thailand.  Better prices!” someone belatedly suggests).  The poppy plantation owner demands a quarter-cut of any smack refined from the raw opium (“Here we have snow that is purer than any that has ever fallen on the mountains of the world.  Purer than a virgin’s tears!”).  Other branches of the international drug cartel also demand generous shares, leaving Coppola with a mere pittance for his troubles.

When Coppola leaves their jurisdiction homeward bound for Italy the old country, the Turkish cops are simply relieved: now he’s the polizia’s problem, not theirs!  Scene again shifts to Sicily.  An amusing subsequent scene shows Coppola’s sedan entering a car wash painted all black, then – DIABOLIK-style – emerging on the other side scrubbed a spotless white!  The Sicilian Connection receives Coppola with unveiled distrust, but he is soon accepted by the powerful Don Calogero (genre regular Corrado Gaipa, seen as Don Tommasino in the “other” Coppola’s The GODFATHER that same year).  Following some erotic close-ups of women’s mouths gobbling whipped cream – as in many Italo films, the eating ritual is a recurrent motif here – Coppola gets to boink (albeit off-screen) both of the don’s sexually precocious daughters (Rosalia is played by the smoky Malisa Longo).

Coppola gets in good with the Sicilian syndicate after he helps fend off a bandit attack on Gaipa’s drug refinery (raw opium arrives in Palermo packed inside frozen fish).  A breach in etiquette between the Marseilles mob and the Sicilians results in the French Connection being methodically eliminated at a posh Italian restaurant.  As the short-lived “Frenchy” – though oddly named Albertini, possibly a Corsican? – Carlo Gaddi plays a culinary snob who demands a gourmet French sauce along with his partridge.  Unamused, the Italians promptly turn him into lasagna oozing special sauce (i.e., tomato purée) of a more zesty italiano flavour.

The New York City wing of the syndicate anticipates arrival of the dope (transported inside a waterproof canister welded beneath the hull of a cargo ship named La Traviata [presumably after Verdi’s opera], of all things). Having ingratiated himself with the Mafia’s Palermo wing, Coppola – hungry for a bigger slice of the “pie” – offends the NYC connection when he intercepts the shipment first.  But the long arm of the godfather does not let go easily, and Coppola finds himself fighting for his severely devalued life (“You’re an empty six-pack o’ beer!”).

Authentic NYC locales are exploited to the max.  The cast is speckled with many familiar faces from Euro exploitation: Fausto Tozzi (“You’d kill your mother for a dime!”) co-stars as the New York connection, who fails to appreciate Gazzara’s innate ‘entrepreneurial’ nature.  Luciano Catenacci for once plays a good guy, namely Gazzara’s personal secretary, Tony Miccolo.  Gazzara’s DEA supervisor Sam is played by Italian-based Slav actor János “John” Bartha, while Bruno Corazzari appears as Larry, a redheaded lesser gangster.  Frequent crimeslime slimeball Luciano Rossi plays Gaipa’s in-house chemist Hans, who refines crude opium into 99%-pure heroin.  Hence, here we have one dynamite cast! 

The SICILIAN CONNECTION occasionally waxes on the philosophical side, accenting verbal drama over physical action, but the plot – which ends with a passable bang – is thoroughly engaging, and the dubbing more than coherent enough to sustain viewer interest throughout.  An unanticipated double-whammee ending takes you completely off-guard.  You’ll be getting no spoilers from me (not this time, anyway), so by all means give this a gander.

Here playing an American of Sicilian lineage, Gazzara later starred as a full-blooded Siciliano in Giuseppe Tornatore’s excellent epic gangster drama, IL CAMORRISTA (1985), which was released in Italy as both a miniseries on TV and as a shortened – if still lengthy – theatrical feature.

Notes: Approximately ten minutes of footage from The SICILIAN CONNECTION was ‘subtly recycled’ (note quotes!) in a subsequent PAC (Produzioni Atlas Consorziate) release, Alfonso Brescia’s cheapo-but-fun The NEW GODFATHERS (1979).  The present film was given a US theatrical release by Joseph Green Pictures, who also released Luciano Ercoli’s above-par crime drama La POLIZIA HA LE MANI LEGATE / “The Police have Their Hands Tied” (1975) Stateside under the rather generic – not to mention misleading – title of KILLER COP (1975). 

Variety page (Nov 8, 1972) courtesy of Mike Ferguson.

MEET HIM AND DIE - BLU-RAY REVIEW

“A new action film full of hair-raising, breathtaking chases with automobiles, heavy-duty trucks and motorcycles, never before seen on the movie screen.” proclaimed the post-production press hype (8/76).

This admirable effort stars Ray Lovelock as Massimo Torlani, a cop about to go undercover as Massimo Salvatore, a new upstart that “fumbled” a jewelry heist, which lands him in jail.  This enables him to infiltrate a local drug trafficking syndicate run by Giulianelli (Martin Balsam) who - due to the ruthless machinations of his competitors - was recently jailed as well.  Eventually gaining the trust of Giulianelli and his right-hand man Piero (Heinz Domez), Massimo’s true purpose for going undercover becomes evident and, without giving away too much, it’s certainly much more revenge-driven as he seeks out various “associates” within Giulianelli’s organization.

Through a conveniently planned prison escape, Massimo blends into the organization with relative ease as he shoots anyone that Giulianelli wants eliminated (hence the film’s Italian title, which translates as “Ready to Kill”) much to Inspector Sacchi’s (Riccardo Cucciolla) chagrin, his superior and only trusted contact.  Sacchi vents his frustrations not very persuasively through some clumsy but amusingly dubbed dialogue courtesy of American tongue-for-hire Richard McNamara who equates his recent behavior to man-eating tigers and, for those that are interested, that’s the prolific Ted Rusoff taking on the task of dubbing Lovelock.  Not too concerned with Sacchi’s two-bit mutterings, Massimo continues to underhandedly work his way up to the masterminds of this international drug ring, which includes the hardnosed Perroni (Ettore Manni) and his astute secretary (Elke Sommer) who also has eyes for him.

Along with Lovelock, MEET HIM AND DIE is highlighted by a well-respected roster of seasoned Italocrime professionals like Balsam, Manni and Cucciolla and director Franco Prosperi does a commendable job delivering a relatively succinct action flick and, no, this is not the same Prosperi who, alongside the more infamous Gualtiero Jacopetti, directed on all those mondo films.  THIS Franco Prosperi actually helmed numerous Italocrime films including The PROFESSIONAL KILLER (1967) with Robert Webber and Franco Nero, RIPPED OFF (1971) with Tomas Milian and, after MEET HIM AND DIE he directed his final, but disappointing crime film, THE DEADLY CHASE (1978) with Luc Merenda.   

Courtesy of Mike Ferguson.

Despite some perplexing plot developments during the last third, which tend to derail the original revenge plot, Prosperi’s rather clichéd story – unbelievably it took four writers to put this together – swipes a number of elements from Don Siegel’s DIRTY HARRY (1971) as Massimo pursues “justice” no matter what the cost.  Focusing on the extreme right, Massimo uses his rather modest and youthful exterior to his advantage; he actually proves to be a vicious foe whose tenacity and resourcefulness keeps everyone – including his superiors – on their toes. Throughout the relatively taut narrative, Massimo narrowly misses exposure on a number of occasions, as he gains more clout within Giulianelli’s organization.  But it’s not until later in the film, when Sacchi has him tailed that results in a nerve-racking shootout between himself and Piero that really amps up the tension.  This is easily one of the highlights but, instead of following through, Prosperi and his writers get caught up with some implausible detours, which rather harm an otherwise solid film.  It would have been nice to see the after-effects of Massimo’s risky undertakings, which is something directors Damiani, Castellari or maybe even Di Leo would have focused on; instead we get a shaky twist ending that is rather ineffectual and doesn’t really resolve anything. 

Ray Lovelock is a likable enough “hero” whose performance is very physically challenging, and thanks to the efforts of the Organizzione Acrobatica Cinematografica (OAC), he seems comfortable riding a motorcycle at high speeds.  Aside from some of the more outrageous scenes of carnage, he performs most of his own stunts and, according to Mike Malloy’s informative liner notes, this was made even more impressive since he was afraid of riding motorcycles at the start of his career after witnessing a nasty accident.

Never released in North America, MEET HIM AND DIE first turned up on Italian DVD in 2006 courtesy of Raro Video under its original title PRONTO AD UCCIDERE in a bare-bones full frame release, which didn’t even offer an English language option.  Then a few months later, New Entertainment out of Germany came along with a slightly improved edition with two versions, which at least had the option of English audio.  The German version was letterboxed at 1.78:1 and, because it was shorn of 5m50s, all of the missing scenes were inserted from the full frame version, which was also included on the disc as a separate extra; it was certainly a compromised release.  Other extras included the German Super-8 version (34m30s) entitled EIN MANN GREIFT ZUR WAFFE, a promo trailer, a useless still gallery, a brief essay on the film (in German only) and an alternate credit sequence, which was exactly the same other than a different title card.  The DVD also had a couple of isolated music tracks performed by Ray Lovelock including this film’s title song “I’m Startin’ Tomorrow”.

Raro Video USA decided to re-visit this film and their new Blu-Ray is a vast improvement from the aforementioned DVDs.  While it may not look as good as some of their Fernando Di Leo Blu-Ray collections, it has never looked as good as it does here.  Detail is relatively sharp, but some scenes do look a little digitally “manipulated” but, despite some of this trickery, it's still worth picking up.  The film has both English and Italian audio options with the added bonus of optional English subtitles and the only extra is a brief but informative interview with Mike Malloy, director of EUROCRIME! THE ITALIAN COP AND GANGSTER FILMS THAT RULED THE ‘70s (2012), where he reveals all sorts of interesting facts related to the film.  A nicely illustrated booklet is also included with an essay by Malloy that covers much of the same material as his interview and a bio on the OTHER Franco Prosperi, a rather unexpected blunder. 

SPLATTER ARCHITECTS OF FEAR - DVD REVIEW

I first heard about this oddity in 1987 courtesy of Chas. Balun’s now legendary book The Gore Score and, although it measured an impressive “9 on the gore score”, his review wasn’t all that endearing, but the fact that it was Canadian and gory as hell, I had to see it.  I distinctly remember renting this on VHS and, to be quite honest, I was a little thrown off by the cover at first, which made it seem like some third-rate action flick.  Actually, it turned out to be a third-rate gore flick instead, but I have to admit, I was kinda impressed by the chutzpah of the entire production, even though it was ridiculously silly but, like Chas said, it was still “good for a few yuks”.  Well, thanks to Mr. Jesus Terán and his Slasher//Video, this unique SOV effort has arrived on DVD jam-packed with a number of interesting and entertaining extras.

For those that have never seen this, this plays out like a genuine documentary that follows the day-to-day activities on a low-budget film set with a particular emphasis on, you guessed it, the splatter F/X.  The film in question, if you wanna call it that, is a post-apocalyptic action flick about infected mutants battling a bunch of scantily clad and very ‘80s-styled amazons as they rip each other apart in a multitude of ways.  A scene from the film usually plays out first and then jumps back to “reality” to document how that particular effect was accomplished, while a very serious sounding narrator chronicles everything for us.  A cartoonish mascot named “Fang” (Paul Saunders) is also on hand to provide some comic relief as he drinks blood, eats fingers and drools over the half-naked amazons.

Admittedly not very good even by 1986 standards, the nostalgia factor is one of the biggest drawing cards here but, like most of these ‘80s SOV efforts, the story behind their creation is always more interesting and SPLATTER: ARCHITECTS OF FEAR is certainly no exception.  Produced on a shoestring in Toronto, Canada by Bill Smith, an enterprising video distributor who essentially wanted to showcase a number of gory special effects “that had never been seen before”.  Mr. Smith and his team (including prolific Canadian TV director Peter Rowe) certainly go out of their way to deliver as much gore as possible (their production company is even called “Gory Philms”), but it’s all so gleefully naïve that, especially now, it’s far from offensive; it really is amazing that stuff like this actually caused a stir back in the ‘80s.  Released at the height of film censorship in Ontario, Canada thanks to the wonderful folks at the once powerful OFRB (Ontario Film Review Board) who, in the mid-‘80s, censored just about every horror title they got their hands on including DAY OF THE DEAD (1985), DEMONS (1986), BURIAL GROUND (1980), PIECES (1981), COMBAT SHOCK (1986) and many others.  So in order to avoid any possible issues, this was cheekily marketed as an “educational video”, which enabled them to get a PG rating even though it features some risqué nudity (courtesy of some local strippers) and tons of gore.  Of course, once the complaints came rolling in, the OFRB tried to retract the rating, but to avail.  Amazing stuff.

In keeping with the spirit of the film, the disc features a fun, easy-going, but fact-filled commentary track with Bill Smith, “Cannibal Cam” and Jesus Terán as well as an on-camera interview with Mr. Smith that covers much of the same stuff.  Paul Zamarelli of vhscollector.com also contributes an on-camera review of the film and the standard, but still welcome, photo and trailer galleries are also included.  You can order it here.

Slasher//Video’s next release will be L. Scott Castillo Jr.’s SATAN’S BLADE (1984), a pretty much forgotten, low-budget slasher with supernatural overtones. This will be their first Blu-Ray, which will be limited to 1000 copies and it should see release sometime this summer.