The Cynic, The Rat, & The Fist

The Cynic, the Rat & the Fist (Il Cinico, l'infame Il Violento) (1977)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Directed by: Umberto Lenzi

Starring: Maurizio Merli, Tomas Milian, John Saxon, Renzo Palmer, Gabriella Lepori

From: Dania Film

Finally... Blair Russell has come back to... Poliziotteschi movies. I haven't watched many in the past year and a half or so. I'll try to be more frequent with the genre this year. Below in my Letterboxd review I talk about why I was glad to make my long-awaited return.

I was looking at the various lists I have here on Letterboxd, and I noticed that I had been neglecting the Poliziotteschi genre, having only seen a few films in the past 18 months, and one of them was the documentary Eurocrime! I also realized that while the majority of the reviews I have for the Poliziotteschi list are rather short, the ratings still apply and I hope I said enough to explain why I give most of the films 3 ½ to 4 ½ stars. So, I tracked down this film and in 2016 I'll try to explore the genre a little more often. I may also rewatch a movie or two-if possible-to give them longer and better reviews.

This film reminded me why I am glad I started watching that genre a few years ago. It is a sequel to a movie I reviewed a few years ago called Rome, Armed to the Teeth where genre stalwart Maurizio “Why yes, I do resemble Franco Nero” Merli as the loosest of loose cannon cops-Tanzi-goes after a villain who happens to be a hunchback, and that was only part of the plot. In the tremendously named The Cynic, The Rat & the Fist, he is off the force but it doesn't mean he's changed his ways. A foe from the past named THE CHINAMAN despite not being Chinese (Tomas Milian, who played the aforementioned hunchback in Rome, Armed to the Teeth) is released from jail and bad things start happening; he is also aligned with a man from New York named DiMaggio (John Saxon, w/ tremendous mustache) and along with dalliances with various punks, Tanzi deals with the both of them and a Kurosawa-like plot is introduced.

The movie has various aspects that you typically find in this genre. It includes:

* A badass hero (or in some cases, anti-hero) who is a loose cannon and is over the top awesome in doing cool crap.

* A lot of sleaze; this unfortunately means women sometimes getting beat up or otherwise denigrated.

* Villains who are also over the top.

* Crazy things happening to innocent parties; it usually means them getting injured or even killed.

* Purses getting snatched

* Motorcycle action

* Shootouts

* Plenty of fist fights

* Members of law enforcement that are either incompetent or corrupt.

* Tremendous 70's clothing

* A groovy 70's score.

* A scene in some sort of poolhall/gaming place.

* A scene in an Italo-disco; if it's a later film, Italo-disco music will likely be playing.

There isn't any vehicles chases but otherwise, it has what you'd expect. I could always do without the misogyny; this is not the time for me to discuss that topic. I have learned to put up with it when it comes to these goofy movies. It delivered the sort of thrills-and mirth-that I wanted and it reminded me how much fun I have watching these. I tend to giggle or even guffaw while seeing a Poliziotteschi, mainly due to being surprised at the craziness I am seeing. It can help when the story has issues, and here it did not always make 100% sense. I ignored that as I saw Tanzi punch another man or I heard another outrageous/colorful line of dialogue. As it's directed by Umberto Lenzi, of course there's plenty of sleaze.

Again, I'll try to watch these films a little more frequently; I'll try to track them down when I can.