I must confess that when it comes to Italian genre cinema, my tastes usually go to spaghetti westerns. But I do try on a regular basis to sample other kinds of Italian movies, including crime/gangster movies. What attracted me to watch "The Italian Connection" was the presence of Henry Silva and Woody Strode. Well, they are in fine form, though I wish the movie gave them a little more to do, since they spend a lot of the movie just waiting around. A bigger problem was that the first thirty or so minutes of the movie are pretty slow and drab, so much so that I thought about giving up on the movie. But I'm glad I didn't, because after that first half hour, the movie really jumps into gear. Lead actor Mario Adorf does a great job, not coming across as a stereotypical tough action star, but instead someone driving by desperation and vengeance. Seeing this unlikely character get into gunplay and other action is really exciting, because you'll keep wondering if he'll prevail. And the action scenes are great, most notably a fantastic long chase sequence alternately on foot and with vehicles that beats many action sequences coming out of Hollywood at the time. The very ending feels kind of unfinished and will have you asking, "Well, what now?" - which the movie does not answer. But that's a minor quibble. I've got four more crime movies by director Fernando di Lio on DVD waiting to be watched, and I can't wait to sample them.

The Italian Connection is yet another movie that proves conclusively that Fernando Di Leo was the master director of the poliziotteschi. These action-thrillers were Italy's answer to the violent crime films that emerged in America in the early 70's. Di Leo made several and this one may very well be arguably the best. Its story is underpinned by a shipment of heroin that is stolen en route from Milan to New York. A couple of American mafia hit-men are dispatched to Italy to find and kill the pimp who is accused of the theft. This man is innocent of this crime, however, and he proves to be a surprisingly resourceful opponent.One of the main strengths of this movie is its cast. Everyone suits their roles very well. Mario Adorf is particularly excellent as the pimp who becomes the unlikely hero. Adorf puts in a very energetic performance that really drives the film. Poliziotteschi veteran Henry Silva and Woody Strode are suitably mean as the mafia killers, seemingly their pairing was the reason Quentin Tarantino cast John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson as the legendary hit-men in Pulp Fiction (for this alone The Italian Connection deserves a footnote in film history). Rounding things off we have Adolfo Celi (Danger: Diabolik) as the mafia don and Femi Benussi (Hatchet for the Honeymoon) gets substantially naked in a role as a prostitute.Like most of these types of movies there is a lot of moral ambiguity here. There are no heroes in the truest sense. The identification figure is a low level pimp after all. This makes it a crime film in the truest sense. But it is also a very good action flick. Of particular note is a spectacular chase sequence where a van fires through town with a man hanging off the front while head-butting his way through the windshield! There is, overall, a healthy dose of violent action in general in this one, climaxing in a great scene in a junk-yard.Along with Milan Calibre 9 and The Boss, this is a top level example of this kind of movie from Fernando Di Leo.

Although two New York hit men, Henry Silva and Woody Strode, supposedly templates of Quentin Tarantino's Jules and Vincent PULP FICTION thugs, are far better villains than local Mario Adorf is a antihero, this Italian mobsploitation juggles each character decently enough... and everything narrows down to one thing only: Adorf, as small time pimp Luca Canali, is – if Silva and Strode can help it – a dead man.The endearing traits of imported crime movies are here in droves: the wah-wah peddle guitar vibrates through the bursting horn section orchestrating insert-heavy action scenes, naked ladies, and a pivotal car chase as Canali, with a fierce boar-like countenance, seeks the thug who killed his family.More attention on Silva, a sly womanizing braggart, and Strode, the brooding baseline, would have been nice – they're far too cool to serve as an eventual backdrop to Canali's quest to survive and then seek answers. That is, until the incredible climactic shootout between all three within a junkyard. Tarantino swears by this one, and who's to argue? For More Reviews: www.cultfilmfreaks.com

Now released under the absurdly named Mack Video as the absurdly named BLACK KINGPIN, LA MALA ORDINA, once known as MANHUNT, shows the Italian seventies policier director Fernando DiLeo in peak form. The Italian cops-mob-and-corruption movies often had a neorealist tincture, not far from such British cousins as GET CARTER or THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY. (The best in this vein is the dark, harrowing VIOLENT NAPLES.) But some of them were as ripe and over-the-top as concurrent works of Italian horror; and this saga of a small-town pimp pursued, God knows why, by Mr. Big and two Vincent-and-Jules-looking U.S.-made button men, looks like the product of some torrid motel-room coitus between Sergio Leone and Don Siegel. The faces are sweaty, the beatings (to evoke Roger Ebert's memorable phrase) suggest the sound of ping-pong paddles smacking naugahyde sofas--the only thing that's missing is the groan of an Ennio Morricone score. An evening of Shane Black quips it ain't, but ninety minutes of top-shelf hardboiled groove it is.