Wild Dogs

It is ironic that Mario Bava, master of Italian fantasy, should make a gritty, realistic thriller as his last film. Gone are the atmospheric lighting that made films as Lisa and the Devil and Kill, Baby, Kill! so unforgettable. The claustrophobic scenes in the getaway car are expertly handled. The increasing hysteria of the gangsters and the anxiety and despair of the kidnapped woman are, in true Italian fashion, slightly over the top. It works, though. Bava never loses his grip on the situation and one is kept on tenterhooks throughout. This, then, is classic 70's low budget filmmaking and it is a shame we had to wait for more than 20 years to finally see it. Rabid Dogs is up there with Edgar G. Ulmer's Detour and Ida Lupîno's The Hitch-Hiker as one of the best examples of this exciting subgenre.

I often say that «La maschera del demonio» (Black Sunday) is my favorite film. If I make an inventory of what I remember that I have seen in 66 years, it would probably be ousted by something else, but it was definitely the movie that made the first big impact on my mind. So excuse me, but I will first make a brief summary about its director. Mario Bava was extremely skilled at narrative, visual and budget economy. A master of cinematography, he saved more than one film by directing additional scenes of unfinished projects under the orders of Riccardo Freda, Raoul Walsh, Sergio Leone, Jacques Tourneur and others, for which --as a "prize"-- he was given the opportunity to direct the first film of his own. The result was the classic Italian horror film «La maschera del demonio» in 1960. Thirteen years later, after directing more classics («The Three Faces of Fear», «The Whip and the Body», «Diabolik») and cult movies («Hercules at the Center of the Earth», «The Girl Who Knew Too Much», «Terror in Space») and contributing to the emergence of the "giallo" genre («6 Women for the Murderer», «The Red Sign of Madness», «5 Dolls for an August Moon») that influenced the careers of his son Lamberto, Dario Argento and Quentin Tarantino, Bava went into decline and in 1973 set out to win again his place with this motion picture in which he would demonstrate that he was able to adjust to the times and make an effective police film, following the scheme of a road movie, according to the story "Man and Boy" by Michael J. Carroll. Unfortunately Bava faced great obstacles. The budget was so low that he also had to assume the cinematography, its producer went bankrupt and the courts seized the footage. When Bava died in 1980, the film was still incomplete and was not released until March 1996, at the Brussels Festival of Fantasy Films, thanks to the effort made by actress Lea Lander, Lamberto Bava and producer Alfredo Leone. I did not expect much, but believe me, what a good movie this is! As it has been written, it is a true journey to hell: a tense, cruel, violent, disturbing, repellent, virulent story of a brutal robbery in which the savage assailants take for hostages a man with a car, his sick son who needs urgent medical attention and a woman who went shopping. The number of dead and the humiliation of the hostages increase as the films advances guided by the firm hand of Bava, who introduces humor in the midst of the terror (in the character played by Maria Fabbri, for example), until he leads us to a surprise ending. Riccardo Cucciolla (Sacco in "Sacco e Vanzetti") is very good as the father, calm, explosive at times, unpredictable. There are at least six versions of the film, but certainly the best is the one close to the original screenplay, also known as «Semaforo rosso». Mind you, do not let anyone ruin the end. This is without question one of Mario Bava best films.

Far better than I remember from a viewing a few years back, this is a taught and most assured thriller from Bava. What it lacks in colour and theatricality from a lot of his work it certainly makes up for in down right dirty gritty realistic nastiness. These ruthless robbers are quite clearly capable of anything and we never for a moment doubt the sincerity of their various threats of violence and worse. For most of the film the action is confined within a car and with these mixed and varied characters, becoming more desperate all the time, the tension is considerable. George Eastman is at his most manic and some of the close-ups of him and his immediate sidekick are really scary. Riccardo, beautifully underplayed, in contrast to the rest, is hijacked in his car and together with a sick child and a woman hostage are forced to endure a remarkable journey, incredibly well paced. Full of surprises, but nasty all the time, this brutal outing from the master is well worth seeing.

After the heist of the payment of the employees of a chemical industry where the treasurer and a security guard are murdered, the driver of the runaway car of the criminals Dottore (Maurice Poli), Bisturi (Don Backy) and Trentadue (Luigi Montefiori) is shot and a bullet hits the gas tank. The car runs out of gas and the trio is forced to run to the parking lot of a mall where they kill one woman and kidnap her friend Maria (Lea Lander) and use her car to escape from the police. They are chased by the police but they carjack the car of the middle-aged Riccardo (Riccardo Cucciolla), who is driving his unconscious ill son to the hospital for an emergency surgery. They force the calm RIccardo to drive them out of the city using secondary roads to escape from the blocks in the highway. During the trip, the tension increases but Riccardo and Dottore manage to control the situation until an unexpected conclusion.

"Rabid Dogs" is a masterpiece of tension and suspense by Mario Bava. The immediate association that I made was with the famous Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" that is visibly inspired in this movie, but less realistic and tense. This is the first time that I have seen "Rabid Dogs" and the dialogs and situations are still very impressive; imagine thirty-five years ago the impact of this movie. The claustrophobic location inside a car where most of this feature was shot transmits the horror of Maria with the cruelty and sadism of Bisturi (that means scalpel and not blade) and Trentadue. The final twist is totally unexpected but makes a perfect sense to the plot. Now I intend to see the restored version "Kidnapped" also available on the DVD. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Cães Raivosos" ("Rabid Dogs")

Note: on 19 June 2020 I saw this film again.

Cani Arrabiati/Rabid Dogs is a terrific crime drama from the usually horror film-minded Mario Bava. This movie shows why he has been admired by directors around the world for many before and after his death. It is well done because of it's closed atmosphere that entrap the main characters of the story. Rabid Dogs gives an indication that he could succeed outside the horror genre. It's different from his other films because he goes for realism instead of fanstasy.

A couple of things it does have in common with some of his other feature films is it deals with the themes of human nature, greed, and the sheding of the skin to reveal the true self of the person. This film is more closer to Dog Day Afternoon(1974), then The Last House on the Left(1971) when it comes to story. Until recently, this film was lost to the public due to be unfinished for over twentie years. Rabid Dogs could be consider a companion piece to his film A Bay of Blood(the first slasher flick) in that they share some of the same themes and philosophies. It would be one of the last films Mario Bava would direct(the next two would be Shock(1977), and a made for TV movie) before his death at age 66 in 1980.