This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Don't Try Running Before You Can Walk.
Plot Overview
Small
potatoes “country hick” Antonio Mancuso (Antonio Sabato)
is sent to Milano to off a goombah responsible for having killed his
(traitorous) dad (“For me it's personal”) so his handlers
can have deniability. Once there he teams up with his pimp brother
Nicola “Nicky” Mancuso (Giuliano Persico) to move up in
the hierarchy with his sights set on the top.
Through some judicious manipulation and a double cross,
Antonio comes to the attention of mob kingpin Don Vincenzo (Telly
Savalas) who against his better judgment takes Tony under his wing. With
help from co-conspirators back in his stomping grounds of Palermo and a
dropped word from scheming Monica (Paula Tedesco,) the don's disaffected
niece, they stage a coup against the don holed up in a Swiss clinic
(“It's not a clinic; it's a fortress”) using an (feuerwehr) ambulance
as a Trojan horse.
Ideology
Conflict arises between
the don and his would-be usurper in the vein of, (Prov. 30:33) “Surely the churning of
milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth
forth blood: so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife.”
The idea in the proverb
is that a state of peace and conciliation can erupt into to one of
war just as a liquid (milk) can change to solid (butter) through continual
agitation (churning.) Or hit a critical area (nose) and it bleeds.
The movie shows us the goombahs chowing down on spaghetti, deftly
twisting the stringy pasta around on their forks to reform it into
a clumps to feed their faces with. There's also a sequence where an
enemy's corpse is stirred into a vat of lye to make it into bar soap.
Tony's first target in the movie bleeds down his arm, and Tony
himself gets his face marred by the pavement in an altercation.
In CB there's
a situation of a changed status developing between the new guy and
the old boss. At first they instinctively take to each other: They
hang out together. They shoot pool. They play cards. But the wily
old capo need only find himself opposed but twice for his whole
attitude (“I loved you”) towards the upstart to change. And
Antonio himself is like a character in a Caskie Stinnett novel:
His life was full of incident but not of accomplishment. By that is meant accomplishment in the sense that he knew precisely where he wanted to go and made progressive steps to arrive there. (57)
He was a “pissant punk kid” back in Sicily, averse to taking risks, so he just kept spinning his wheels. Meeting the guy responsible for killing his pops turned something loose in him as seen by the maniacal, sh!t-eating grin on his face. His dad was killed for his traitorous ambition, and now Antonio wants to outdo him in the ambition department by going whole hog.
Production Values
“” (1972) was directed by Alberto De Martino who also co-wrote it along with Lucio Battistrada (story) and Gino Mordini (story.) It stars Telly Savalas, Antonio Sabato and Paola Tedesco. Sabato and Savalas were excellent leads; they were in fine form. Tedesco played well the Italian babe who was too hot for any civilian but was moll material par excellence. The other actors also came across as very Italian—except, of course, for the one playing the connected drop-in from Cincinnati.
This one was rated R. It had plenty of action and intrigue. It had a gritty feel of 1970's bygone days with a lively jazz score for added ambiance. Never a dull moment in this one. Runtime is 1½ hours.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
The life of crime is not shown objected to by the Catholic Church but by mother and wife of some of the criminals. Goes with the territory, I suppose. There's plenty of action and betrayal, but you can't sit back brainless figuring if you've seen one gangster flick you've seen 'em all. It takes half a brain to follow the course of the protagonist here. Other than that, it's a great action flick.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Edge of your seat action-packed. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Better than watching TV. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Three stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture was quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Stinnett, Caskie. Out Of the Red. Copyright © 1960 by Caskie Stinnett. New York: Random House. Print.
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