Hot Picks
|
|
|
Senza Ragione
Redneck
Italy / UK 1973
produced by Michael Lester, Silvio Narizzano for Compagnia Internazionale Alessandra Cinematografica (CIAC), Crawford Productions
directed by Silvio Narizzano
starring Franco Nero, Telly Savalas, Mark Lester, Ely Galleani, Duilio Del Prete, Maria Michi, Beatrice Clary, Bruno Boschetti, Aldo De Carellis, Tommy Duggan, Giuseppe Mattei, Antonio Paris, Wanda Pallini, Liliana Fioramonti, Jean-Pierre Clarain, Britta Barnes, Michael Bernes, Daniela Barnes (= Lara Wendel)
screenplay by Masolino D'Amico, Win Wells, based on a story by Rafael Sánchez Campoy, music by Maurizio Catalano
review by Mike Haberfelner
|
|
|
|
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
|
|
Mosquito (Franco Nero), Memphis (Telly Savalas) and Maria (Ely
Galleani) are holding up a jeweller, but the thing seems to be doomed from
the beginning: First Memphis shoots someone, then they totally crash their
car within minutes of their getaway, and then they find out all they have
robbed are two boxes loaded with cutlery. But then they find a fourteen
year old boy, Lennox (Mark Lester) in their second getaway car, who turns
out to be a diplomat's son, and they figure with him as hostage they can
at least make good their getaway ... but thing is, Memphis is a bit of a
loose cannon, and when he at one point finds Maria, Mosquito's girlfriend,
gone, he goes after her and brutally rapes and kills her.
In the meantime, Mosquito tries to make his getaway on foot and take
the boy with him to the next village to release him - but when they are
spending the night at a Principessa's (Maria Michi) mansion, who believes
them to be honest and honourable citizens, Memphis catches up with them
and makes them his captives ... and soon enough everything amounts to a
game of cat-and-mouse between Memphis and Mosquito, where it's not quite
clear who's the cat and who's the mouse.
The whole thing climaxes in the trio running into a German family
camping in the countryside whom Memphis locks into their trailer before
pushing the trailer into a nearby lake to watch them drowning - ouch.
Thing is, young and impressionable Lennox is everything but repulsed by
this action, he has by now taken a liking to Mosquito and tries to imitate
the two gangsters' way of life ... and when in the finale both of them are
shot dead by the police when trying to cross the border, Lennox puts up
their gun and fires some shots as if he wanted to protect them
nevertheless ...
So-so exploitation movie that has a few memorable if gruesome scenes -
like Maria totally trashing their getaway car or Memphis drowning the
Germans - and is mainly carried by a purposely overacting Telly Savalas
and a restrained Franco Nero ... but on the other hand, the whole
coming-of-age subtext is about as terribly clichéd as it is unbelievable,
and a very bland young Mark Lester is doing little to bring his role to
life.
Definitely this is not the worst film out there, and it even
features some interesting concepts ... but then again, you might have seen
much better elsewhere.
|