Gang War In Milan

Gang War in Milan (Milano Rovente) (1973)

Runtime: 100 minutes

Directed by: Umberto Lenzi

Starring: Antonio Sabato (Sr.), Philippe Leroy, Antonio Casagrande, Allesandro Sperli, Marisa Mell

From: Telemondial

Last night I finally watched a movie from a certain genre (the last time I was in this genre was awhile ago) and I made a good decision. I explain it all below:

I recently realized that it had been months since I had seen a poliziotteschi new to me, so I knew it was about time I returned to a world I think pretty highly of. As I have more than one follower who commonly watches and reviews older European genre movies and likely followed me due to my occasional watching of such things, I need to not neglect that corner of the movie world.

The plot of this isn't too complex: a businessman in Milan (Antonio Sabato Sr.) who is also a pimp is approached by a French drug baron who wishes to work with him, but Sabato declines, so a nasty feud starts where both sides do some severe things. This doesn't have all the trademarks I expect of this genre-there's no vehicle chases, for example-but that is alright as it's still a solid genre example. As it's a poliziotteschi and it's from Umberto Lenzi, there is plenty of sleaze and plenty of sexism. Our “hero” pimp isn't always nice to his ladies and there is plenty of nudity and women being abused. For those sensitive to such things, there is a scene involving a transgender person and it is as unenlightened as you'd expect.

While the protagonist isn't the most likable person (something that even Lenzi admitted in later years wasn't the best idea) this is an entertaining-if dark-genre entry. It was enjoyable watching those two forces feud with each other and pull various tricks out of their bag to cause the other to break. I also dug such things as the jazzy score and how Sabato's apartment was amazingly 70's: much of it was a dark blue or purple color, and there appeared to be matching velvet carpets! If that wasn't groovy enough, there also was random art strewn all about. What a look. Such things as that and the rather “shocking” thing that happened to one guy's genitals, such things are appealing to me and that's why I can give this a nice rating.