This is an Eurocrime Giallo, a crime thriller and with
some comedy in it too (during the first half of the film).
It takes place in Milano where a young woman, Marisa, calls the police
to give information about a teenage prostitution racket,
but is killed off by a killer in big sunglasses (Roberto Posse) before
giving any info. So, we get to see the killers face at the start
and we understand that he's only a hitman underling, a nasty such though,
but who's the boss behind it all?
A man with broken steel rimmed glasses is sleuthing
around and it takes some time before we get to know who he is. He's
not
a gangster or some other sort of Bad Guy, he's police inspector Paolo
Germi (Claudio Cassinelli) and he hires the robber Giannino
(Adolfo Caruso) to help him chasing the guilty one's down.
But, they seem to be one step behind the gang who metodically gets rid
of the witnesses.
Beautiful Barbara Magnolfi (played Olga in Suspiria, the one hiring
a room to Suzy Bannion and hissing Sssssuzy ... Ssssara. She
survived the witches though) dies too early unfortunately here and the
audio commentator laments this too.
Another unforgettable face from Suspiria can be seen too, the russian
cooking lady ("who's there ..." when Suzy slips by in the
hall) who plays Giannino's mother here.
reversible sleeve
There are some Argento influences in this film. A thundering
Goblin rip-off soundtrack and an Argentoesque murder set-piece
when the prostitute played by Lia Tanzi meets the killer.
My favourite scene of this movie is the chase scene on the roof of the
cinema and the ending was pretty atmospheric too with
the car train at the border. Claudio Cassinelli is very good as inspector
Germi and his tragic death in real life obviously made
Sergio Martino's life a sadder one. In the interview the awful story
is told by Martino.
The Blu-ray is presented in widescreen 2.35:1 and with
english or italian mono audio with english subs (to the italian dub).
The DVD version is region 2 and the Blu-ray region B.
Extras: a nice informative audio commentary by Troy Howarth, a 43 minute
2017binterview with Sergio Martino in italian with english
subs (and the maestro looks good, very vital), theatrical trailer, a
booklet and a reversible sleeve
