French Italian thriller with plenty of action , crisply edition , tension , intrigue , suspenseful , plot twists and loads of violence with reminiscent to ¨Charles Bronson¨ films . The picture deals with the violent and turbulent times when the dangerous mobsters organizations dominated the Italian environments by committing terrible crimes , kidnaps and massacres . As the Mafia war between the Sicilians and the Calabrians results to be the principal character in the yarn . This is a thrilling and twisted flick about the political scene in Italy at the time of the turbulent Seventies . A deadly explosion causing a lot of deaths and it will soon destroy the old equilibrium giving the way to an escalation of violence , as the powerful ganster Cocchi (Richard Conte) is determined to a relentless vendetta . As the matter escalates and rival band members kill each other, a hit-man (Henry Silva) gets trapped in the mafia war . Later on , it occurs the Giuseppe Aniello's (Claudio Nicastro) daughter (Antonia Santilli) kidnapping , but in Palermo things go wrong , as the police is extremely corrupted , and an inspector (Gianni Garco) is assigned by his chief , Questore Vittorio Caprioli , to carry out the complex investigation .
This is an intriguing film that contains noisy action , betrayals , suspense , thrills , twists , turns and anything else .This film results to be one of the best among the whole saga of Poliziottesco that had its splendor in the Seventies and early Eighties . It is an acceptable movie that takes place in ups and downs with surprises and plot twists , but also with unfortunate and unpredictable events . Everything revolves around the unstable highly charged political environment : in the thunderous Italy during those days of civil unrest during the 1970's with the Mafia ruling Calabria and Sicily . The picture depicts violently those thunderous and criminal times . Although failing on occasion to balance the thin line it establishes between perception and reality , offering a semi-realistic look at the priorities and lives of nasty mobsters . Nail-biting and moving Italian Poliziesco with enjoyable acting by main star names , dealing with a killer and an supposedly innocent victim . The film is interesting enough , though it has some flaws , gaps and shortfalls . Stars Henry Silva , as he is nice in his usual way by playing as a contract killer who stumbles into a conspiracy with fateful consequences and the gorgeous but nymphomaniac kidnapped girl performed by Antonia Santilli steals the spectacle by showing some nudism . Henry Silva sports his inimitable and cold style while shots and kills . Silva was born in Brooklyn , New York , and called to Hollywood, he played a succession of heavies in films, including The Bravados (1958), Green mansions (1959), Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Johnny Cool (1963). An Italian producer made Henry an offer he could not refuse--to star as a hero for a change--and he moved his family overseas . As he emigrated to Italy where perfomed Spaghetti Westerns as The Hills Run Red (1966) and White Fang to the Rescue (1975) , but Silva's turning-point picture was Poliziescos sub-genre , such as : Razza violenta, Napoli spera , Fatevi vivi, la polizia non interverra, Milano odia: la polizia non può sparare, which made him a hot box office commodity in Spain, Italy, Germany and France. His popularity was enhanced by a gift for languages. He speaks Italian and Spanish fluently and has a flair for the kind of gritty, realistic roles that also catapulted Charles Bronson to European stardom. Returning to the United States, he co-starred with Frank Sinatra in the film Contract on Cherry Street (1977), then signed on as Buck Rogers' evil adversary Kane in Buck Rogers.
It displays an atmospheric musical score by Luis Enrique Bacalov , who some years later won an Academy Award for The Postman and pablo Neruda. Likewise, an evocative and appropriate cinematography by Franco Villa . The motion picture was professionally directed by Fernando Di Leo , though it has failures and shortcomings. Fernando was a writer and director , being expert on Giallos , Thrillers and poliziesco genre , especially known for The Boys Who Slaughter (1969) , Slaughter Hotel (1971) , Milano calibro 9 (1972) , Black Kingpin (1972), La Seduzione (1973), Il Boss (1973) , The American Connection (1976) , Killer Vs Killers (1985), among others . The flick will appeal to Italian Poliziottesco sub-genre fans.
