Euro-crime thread

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Euro-crime thread

Post by drizzle »

As promised, i'm gonna put down some of my fave euro-crime for your copping/netflixing considerations. This is mostly gonna be italian polizei and mafia, but some other shit is bound to creep in.

Please throw down anything that fits with this theme since these flicks don't get a lot of shine in print, word of mouth info is cluch.

Start with my favorite polizei-

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Violent Professionals - this movie is bad-ass, period. I wanted it as soon as I saw the box, and I didn't know a thing about it.

Luc Merenda is the main character, a suspended cop who goes undercover on his own to avenge the death of his friend the police captain. Main villain is played by Richard Conte, who is most known for the role of Don Barzini in the Godfather. Merenda spends most of the movie beating up/shooting bad guys, pimp-slapping hookers and zooming around in some kind of cool looking muscle car (GTO maybe?), while the villain chews scenery like gum.

The story is a 'cop on the edge' scenario with a few nice twists, but more importantly it's heavy on action. Action scenes are effective, particularly the car chases and the assasination of the police captain. The drama falls a bit flat and some of the notions that they try to put across are a reach, but I didn't think this took away much from the film over-all - this is not what you watch these kinds of movies for.

Like i said at the start, this is just bad-ass. I got out of this exactly what I was looking for when I picked it up - a scruffy loner anti-hero, gregarious villain, cool locations, shoot-outs and car chases, hot european girls, etc etc etc. It's definitely a good place to start exploring the genre.
Last edited by drizzle on Wed Nov 16, 2005 6:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by drizzle »

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Contraband - dir. by Lucio Fulci. Fulci is most known for gore (Zombie), this is somewhat a departure for him. His trademark touches are still here though, there are scenes of a face being burned with blow torch, graphic close-up of a shotgun to the gut, etc. In the context of the movie they seem a touch out of place since otherwise this is a pretty straight forward mafia style action flick, but not enough to matter.

Some of the reviews say that the first half is a bit slow, I disagree. The characters being introduced are colorful and fun to watch, and the set-up pays off at the end. Once it kicks into high gear we see that Fulci was taking some cues from Peckinpah and maybe even Chang Cheh - stylized high-impact action scenes with liberal use of slo-mo.

The story is nothing special, something about a cigarrette smuggler who's getting muscled by Frech drug trafficking. Fabio Testi is good as the lead, Marcel Bozzuffi is even better as the drug king pin who is pretty much the same character this actor played in the French Connection.

Bottom line, it's recommened for fans of the genre, for anybody interested in Fulci and a bit for gore hounds.

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Post by drizzle »

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Beast with a Gun - this one is a bit different from the ones posted above. The others are straight action/crime thrillers that stick to the genre. Beast with a gun is much more exploitative, almost grindhouse territory. The impression is amplified by the fact that it's very low budget, and somewhat poorly plotted. The motivation is not well defined for the main character, some scenes details don't make sense and there are a few continuity errors. On the upside the trashy style allows actions scenes with no restraint, and some of them come out like a fist to the gut. One scene in particular caught my attention, where Helmet Berger beats the crap out of a gas station assistant.

The basic plot is about an escaped maniac who takes some hostages and the police captain who pursues him. The actors are well chosen - Helmut Berger is believable as a lunatic, Richar Harrison flexes his super-mustachioed machizmo as the cop and Marissa Mell is a top shelf prerequisite piece of ass.

Enjoyable overall, worth renting but not necessaraly buying.

A note for movie nerds: this movie is actually playing on tv in Jackie Brown. The short exchange between Samuel Jackson and Bridget Fonda in the living room while she's taking bong hits refers to this movie. I think it goes something like "Oh shit, is that Rutger Hauer?" "No, it's Helmut Berger"

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Post by drizzle »

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Violent Naples - Part of a duo of films about the same character, Inspector Betti, played by Maurizio Merli, the other one is Violent Rome.

Merli does an awesome job here as a cop fed up with corruption and crime. After being transfered to a new post he starts kicking ass left and right, and predictable complications follow.

There are a few nice moments in this film, particularly one really intense car chase and a few more violent than usual parts. However I remember watching this and being more impressed with it as a cop drama than straight up action as it's billed. Not that it's lacking in action, I just liked the 'serious' parts more i guess.

A solid cop flick, with all the cool elements of polizei present.

Shadow, you were looking for this I think - here's a link for a region 0 NTSC with a reasonable price tag. You can probably find it for cheaper on ebay too.

http://www.xploitedcinema.com/images/dv ... t_alfa.jpg

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Post by StormShadow »

I was not aware that Violent Professionals was that good.

(heads on over to Wild East)

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Post by StormShadow »

What a great post, thank you so much Drizzle. All of these will be copped, thanks again.

Please post more, it's very interesting. I don't think I can contribute much, as I haven't really seen any of these movies (hence my enthusiasm for the subject).

Oh, and if anything cool gets released on DVD, like Man with a Magnum etc, please keep us updated! Or me updated at least.

And if you know anything about Italian WW2 movies from the 70's I would very much enjoy reading it. For instance, some day I will see Bo Svenson in Deadly Mission... And I will love it. "If you're a kraut, he'll take you out!"

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Post by Funk Docta Bombay »

Now you see, I didn't even know stuff like this existed yesterday and now I have a cool soundtrack on my computer and plenty of titles to start looking into.

In conclusion: you guys rock. :phila:

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Post by drizzle »

Glad you guys like it, more to come. I got to re-watch some of these. I realized today when I was typing I don't remember some of what I have very well, so I scrapped like half the post so as not to revert to blatant bullshitting.

Violent professionals is my shit, but you know how tastes vary. I hope you like it.

I dont' know any ww2 specific italian flicks, but I do have some commando/special forces type euro action, I'll point you to some titles if you're interested.

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Post by StormShadow »

Do you realize what you've done... There's like 100 movies I need to buy from xploited cinema. Their spaghetti western section: :ohsh:

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Post by drizzle »

Do you realize what you've done... There's like 100 movies I need to buy from xploited cinema. Their spaghetti western section:
I know dude, i know. First time i saw that sight was a lot like the time i discovered you can see free porn on the net.

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Post by StormShadow »

drizzle wrote:
Do you realize what you've done... There's like 100 movies I need to buy from xploited cinema. Their spaghetti western section:
I know dude, i know. First time i saw that sight was a lot like the time i discovered you can see free porn on the net.
I know, right? I just discovered they have Five For Hell, an italian ww2 movie from the 70's starring Klaus Kinski (which I remember reading about recently on Aint It Cool News because Tarantino played it at some festival).

Hey Drizzle, are these semi legit or boots or what? Do they come in cases? Like Five for Hell there, it's put out by Alfa Digital and is region 0. Are they just a tiny company, or is it just some dude booting the movie? I have feeling (I hope) that most of the movies are legit, because some of them are clearly marked as dvd-r reconstructions.

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Post by drizzle »

All legit. Like you said, tiny companies put these out so they look budget as hell. The source material they use is not always up to par, try to find screen caps. Xploited usually has them, so do other sites. I don't think these get bootlegged that much, not enough interest.

Kung fu movies on the other hand........ that's a whole different thread about drizzle and his adventures on 42nd street in the post-hooker era.

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Post by Andvil »

excellent, excellent thread
StormShadow wrote:Do you realize what you've done... There's like 100 movies I need to buy from xploited cinema. Their spaghetti western section: :ohsh:
real talk

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Post by Random Sample »

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David Axelrod did the soundtrack for this movie. I have been looking for it for a while.

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Post by drizzle »

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Violent City (aka The Family) - this one deserves attention based on the talent involved alone. Going down the list:

Dir. Sergio Sollima - a well respected director in all areas of italian pop cinema, from swords and sandals gladiator movies to modern action. Most notable other work - Big Gundown and Big Gundown 2 aka Run Man Run (both of these required viewing for Spaghetti Western fans), and Revolver which I might do later in this thread.

Charles Bronson - no explanation necessary
Telly Savalas - c'mon dude, it's Kojak. Seriously, he's played the tough mafia boss a bunch of times, so he knows what he's doing here.

With all this talent plus a Morricone score, this one would have to try hard to suck. Admittedly, there are a few slow stretches in the middle and the 'retiring hitman' plot is somewhat predictable (MOSTLY), but the good far outweighs the bad. Sollima does a nice job staging action, the players do their thing to make the most of conventional roles they were born to play. Honestly, can you think of many people more suitable to play a world weary killer than Bronson?

The only overtly weak part here is Jill Ireland, Bronson's wife who for a period of time appeared in every movie he was in (I think it was part of his contract rider). She's terrible in pretty much everything she's in, and although her character does have a crucial role in the resolution and is therefore necessary, her parts in the middle are grating.

One pleasant surprise of this was how it reminded me of Point Blank. Somehow it achieves the same dreamy, 'far away' quality. There are also some stylistic similarities between the two. I don't think Violent City is quite the 'art-action' movie that Point Blank is, but the feel is definitely there.
Last edited by drizzle on Tue Apr 15, 2008 1:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by drizzle »

Sorry Shadow, next three are all Pal RaroVideo. There is no way I can talk about this type of movies and not mention them. They are available in other formats somewhere though, if you're gonna put effort into tracking down anything rare in this thread, I would strongly suggest these before any others.


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Milan Caliber 9, Manhunt (La Mala Ordina), The Boss - Possibly the three best examples of the genre. Honestly, even though my personal preference is with Violent Professionals, I must say that objectively these 3 are the best italian crime movies I have and/or seen.

Fernando Di Leo's notorious mafia trilogy. Di Leo is a very talented director, particularly within this genre. Listing his accomplishments would need a whole separate thread, so I'll concentrate here on his masterpiece.

This is a loose trilogy, connected by one subject - inner workings of the italian mafia. Same actors show up in all 3 but playing different roles. No characters carry over from one to another. Stories are as follows:

Milan Caliber 9 - a thief is released from jail and is immediately harrased by his enemies and ex-friends who think he kept the money from the heist he went to prizon for. He denies this, and tries to outrun and outwit the people after him. This is a very solid flick with a lot of focus on drama and characters, it transcends simple action to become something more. This is one of the few titles (if not the only one) in this thread that I would consider good cinema on the grand scale, to be judged alongside with things like Long Good Friday and Goodfellas.

Manhunt - a shipment of drugs is lost en route between Milan and NY. Luca, a small town pimp is fingered by one of the bosses. NY sends hitmen to capture him and retreive the dope, Milan sends their own for reasons that become clear later on. Luca is of course innocent, so he's got to fight. I know on short description this sounds really similar to Milan Caliber 9 but the two are actually quite different - explaining how would be involve serious spoilers. Also, this one has more of a focus on the action, and because of this is a bit more entertaining in the immediate sence.

The Boss - story of a war of mafia families. A machiavellian boss uses a hitman to achive his own means, but as things progress loyalties and motivations become unclear, and so shit hits the fan. One of the few movies I've seen that seems to be a realistic (to a point of course) representation of how the real Italian Mafia works. The focus here is mostly on the boss' manipulations and the action, with a healthy dose of loyalty issues. This one is the weakest of the three overall, but this is in the same way that Casino is the weakest of the Scorsese gangster trilogy.

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Post by StormShadow »

drizzle wrote:Sorry Shadow, next three are all Pal RaroVideo. There is no way I can talk about this type of movies and not mention them. They are available in other formats somewhere though, if you're gonna put effort into tracking down anything rare in this thread, I would strongly suggest these before any others.
It's okay man, keep doing what you're doing. This thread is a resource, and I am excited even to be hearing about these movies. Since I can't watch the PAL ones right now, I'll file them away in my brain for a later time.

Really though, this is great.

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Post by drizzle »

Shadow, Andvil, since you two are the only ones who seem to be reading this, any requests?
Also, I was thinking of throwing in a couple of euro-action type things from the same time period that are not italian politzei. Have any of these been mentioned here before: Thriller: The Cruel Picture (Sweden?), Le Professional (France 1981), Danger Diabolik (Italy/spain/?), Borsalino and Co (France - the sequel, not the original Borsalino)

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Post by StormShadow »

drizzle wrote:Shadow, Andvil, since you two are the only ones who seem to be reading this, any requests?
Also, I was thinking of throwing in a couple of euro-action type things from the same time period that are not italian politzei. Have any of these been mentioned here before: Thriller: The Cruel Picture (Sweden?), Le Professional (France 1981), Danger Diabolik (Italy/spain/?), Borsalino and Co (France - the sequel, not the original Borsalino)
I think I made a thread about Thriller when it got released by Synapse, but I'm not sure. More talking about it won't hurt though.

And the only one of the other three I've heard of is Danger Diabolik, and I haven't seen it.

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Post by StormShadow »

As for requests, like I said up there, I'm down to hear about 70's Italian WW2 flicks. Oh, and if you've seen Italia a Mano Armata I'm down to hear about that.

Edit: Ooh, or what about the 'Mark' movies? I checked and apparently they're directed by dude that made The Last Round and Emergency Squad.
Last edited by StormShadow on Thu Nov 17, 2005 4:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by Andvil »

yeah Thriller has been talked about...the Synapse DVD is a must-own

I seem to remember hearing about Le Professional and Danger Diabolik, but yeah, go head and post away

I don't have requests at the moment cause I can't think straight cause I'm at work, but maybe later

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Post by Random Sample »

keep dropping the knowledge. I love these movies.

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Post by twob »

Yes, please continue. I now have things to put on my movie queue.

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Post by drizzle »

Ok, moving right along. Next two are both personal faves in their own way.

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Danger: Diabolik - I say this with full force of conviction, this is a 60's pop-art masterpiece. Visually, certain parts of this movie is simply incredible. Before I even get into details, BUY IT (or rent it). This movie got lost by the side of cinematic history, and as a result can be found in almost any video store for something like $10. If you're a fan of cult cinema, it's well worth the price.

Small nerd fact before I get to the details - this is the movie that is used in the Beastie Boys "Body Moving" video. The video itself is also on the dvd.

The movie is based on a comic strip about a thief named Diabolik. This guy is kinda like a combination of James Bond and Batman, except he's a bad guy. Actually, his underground layer (one of the best parts) makes the batcave look like a studio appartment, and his gadgets are as nifty as anything Q ever came up with, maybe even better.

For plot we follow this guy and his rediculously hot girlfried (Melissa Mell) as he is declared Public Enemy #1, and then proceeds to bitch slap the police by pulling off a series of crazy heists right under their nose. Although its driven mostly through intricate set pieces, the movie manages to come to a coherent and satisfying conclusion,. Everything ties up nicely in the end and you leave wanting more, in a good way.

Dir. Mario Bava is mostly known for super-visual giallo thrillers, this is one of his few ventures into the action genre. He does a good job here, playing up his strengths. Visually stunning set-pieces are his trademark, and this is what he does here. The sequence of Diabolik entering his lair in the beginning for instance, is an orgasm of color and achitecture of the kind which is rarely seen on screen.

Wisely, Bava doesn't take himself or the material too seriously, and the general tone is a lot like the 60's Batman movie, except the hero and the villains are not bumbling douchebags. In one particularly rediculous point Diabolik even looks directly and the camera and half-smirks, letting you know that he is in on the joke and the effect is fully intentional.

Another thing that's got to be mentioned is the music. Done by Morricone, so you expect it to be good. It surpasses the expectations. The themes have a definite psychadelic tinge to them, and work really well with what's presented on screen. The only other movies I can think of that produced such a successfull combo of visuals and Morricone audio
are the Leone classics. Unfortunately, all original masters of the score were lost in a studio fire, anything you see for sale is ripped directly from the film.

If there are any negatives about this, it is that some of the material is a bit dated. For instance I imagine some of the heists seemed a lot more techinically impressive in the 60's than they do now. There are other small things like that, but for me it just adds to the overall enjoyment factor.

So I guess it's pretty obvious by now how much I like this. A cool adventure flick, a psychadelic visual orgy, a kitchy throwback, one of the most fully realised transfers of comic book to film, if any of this sounds good you should see this ASAP.

Sorry if this came off rambling and half retarded, it's the end of the work day and fucking fried.

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Post by count joncroe »

Umberto Lenzi owns this thread
one of my all time favourites
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Post by Masked Terror #1 »

Danger: Diabolik is the shit.

That's all.

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Post by drizzle »

Nice, count joncroe beat me to it with almost human. Nasty, nasty movie, worth it alone for Tomas Millian as the psycho.

Count, put up some more if you feel like it pls, I'm busy at work but i want to keep this alive for a bit longer.

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Post by StormShadow »

drizzle wrote:Nice, count joncroe beat me to it with almost human. Nasty, nasty movie, worth it alone for Tomas Millian as the psycho.

Count, put up some more if you feel like it pls, I'm busy at work but i want to keep this alive for a bit longer.
I'm not ready to let it die either, but I didn't want to be pushy. You all take your time.

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Post by count joncroe »

well here's another,
Fear Over The City (Peur Sur La Ville)
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Don't be fooled by that poster or the fact that it's French, this flick was heavily influenced by Bullit, French Connection and Dirty Harry and is about as gully as all the other polizei flicks made in Italy in the mid 70s.
As for plot, it's about some crazy dude who sets about murdering every supposedly promiscuous female in Paris. Sounds like a giallo film right? Well there's no long haired faggot art school type yuppie to save the day on some halfbaked sherlock holmes shit. Jean Paul Belmondo plays the ruthless Dirty Harry type cop who's after the killer, smacking and shooting a few people along the way. Dude also did all his own stunts which is impressive considering he was a superstar at the time yet he jumps across rooftops, crashes through windows and chases a dude on top of a moving train..etc. Great action flick, also features Morricone score.
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Post by Rachel Hobozal »

I like Sexy Beast.

I have no idea what any of these movies are, but I now want to see quite a few of them. Too bad the ones I'm interested in the most are not available through Netflix.
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