Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Manhunt In The City


Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: Umberto Lenzi

Starring: Henry Silva, Luciana Paluzzi, Silvano Tranquilli, Claudio Gora, Alberto Tarallo

From: Aquila Cinematografica

I return to the poliziotteschi world by picking out a film starring Henry Silva; his presence, the director being sleazemeister Umberto Lenzi and the plot all intrigued. It was a simple premise: Silva has a horrible tragedy befall him so he gets revenge. As it's this director and this genre, that means “his 8 year old daughter is gunned down by a gang after she unwittingly helps a faux blind man enter a bank that he and his cohorts robbed.” I've said it before and I'll say it again: “Blind person” is an amazingly common trope in old Italian genre cinema.

The movie takes its time and it's awhile before Silva can track down the despicable villains; plus, there are such subplots as the police cracking down on different criminals, a private eye who is slimy even by genre standards and vigilantes who are just as sadistic as the villains they are going after. If you enjoy the genre you'll probably like this, depending on how extreme your tastes are. I mean, women are not treated well and so isn't the trans character; while she does help out Silva, how others act and what they say & do to her is as bad as you can imagine.

Naturally, the police don't offer much help in tracking down his daughter's killers so this can be seen as both a riff on Death Wish and fellow poliziotteschi Street Law, starring Franco Nero. With a Bruno Nicolai score and a finale that ends with a bang, no wonder I had a good time with this trash.

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