Gang War in Milan

The storyline is the Italians vs. the French. More accurately, the Italian pimps vs. the French drug pushers. Antonio Sabato stars as Salvatore Cangemi, Milan's biggest pimp who refuses to get in the drug trade with some French gangsters. Ah, a pimp with standards. Of course, this is what makes MILANO difficult. How can one root for a guy who repeatedly degrades/beats women and smacks around people because "the English language annoys him" at a bar? The film is interesting to watch in that it is Umberto Lenzi's first crime/mafia film. Up until this point, Lenzi had done westerns, gladiator films, spy films and a couple of giallo but nothing this focused on Italy's crime element (unless you count KRIMINAL). This comes off as a blue print for his later works. I wonder if Lenzi gauged what audiences liked the most and least from this film and infused them into his next entries. It is a theory that may hold some water because just a year later he would deliver ALMOST HUMAN, his Italian crime classic.

Antonio Sabato is the perfect mixture of smarm and charisma in the role of Salvatore "Toto" Cangemi. He's a big name in the produce business in Milan, but this is really just a legitimate front for what he really likes to do: run a prostitution ring. His troubles begin when a smooth French criminal, Roger "The Captain" Daverty (Philippe Leroy), starts putting the pressure on Toto to get into drugs. Toto is pretty peeved, especially when The Captain insists on pocketing most of the potential income. This leads to a war between Toto and his fellow Sicilians and the Frenchman and his gang, with some interesting twists and turns along the way.

It's amusing watching an amoral p.o.s. like Toto be the focal point of a solid, if unexceptional, Eurocrime story. You don't like him - he's misogynistic, for one thing - but he remains fairly compelling. In fact, in this yarn there are very few innocents, or characters with genuine rooting interest. Still, it's fun to watch as these not-so-honourable crooks figure out ways to mess with each other. The film has its moments of violence - like acid thrown in a face, or the mutilating of a breast - but in truth is not all that gory. It IS an entertaining exercise in sleaze, and fans of the genre will have cause to be reasonably pleased. It's very nicely shot in widescreen and given an atmospheric score by Carlo Rustichelli.

Sabato is ably supported by a rich gallery of European talent: Leroy as the drug kingpin, Antonio Casagrande as Totos' associate Lino, lovely Carla Romanelli as novice hooker Virginia, Alessandro Sperli as wise American mobster Billy Barone, Franco Fantasia as the Inspector tasked with fighting organized crime, Tano Cimarosa as the victimized Nino Balsamo, and sexy Marisa Mell as Jasmina Sanders, the woman who turns Totos' head.

Noteworthy as the first Eurocrime feature for Umberto Lenzi, who may be better known (at least to some North American viewers) for his horror films of the 80s, like "Cannibal Ferox" and "Nightmare City".

Trashy and politically incorrect, "Gang War in Milan" shows its audience a good time.

Seven out of 10.

The first of Umberto Lenzi's Eurocrime film and went on to see several in the late 70s like The Tough Ones (1976), The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist (1977) and Brothers Till We Die (1978). This one is fine and maybe they get a bit better later. It is rather sleazy and certainly nasty but I have to say that the action gets on at the start and never stops. Antonio Sabato is a Sicilian who stars as a pimp with a massive prostitution operation while Philippe Leroy the great actor was French and gets into the action with his drugs and he is rather cool unlike Sabato is rather always shouting about. He was in a couple of gialli, The Man With Icy Eyes (1971) and Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (1972) also starred again and also with Lenzi. Leroy had made so many films like the splendid The Laughing Woman (1969) with Dagmar Lassander, Caliber 9 (1972) and The Night Porter (1974). Lenzi gets better with his Eurocrimes although with this one, he was in the middle of his great Gialli phase.

"Gang Wars in Milan" is Umberto Lenzi's worthwhile and compelling imitation of "The Godfather" – in Italy during the 1970's this type of films got labeled as the "Poliziottesco" – about the rivalry and battle between Sicilian pimps and French drug dealers. The drug barons are putting severe pressure on the sly and sleazy Salvatore "Toto" Cangemi, who practically has a monopoly over the prostitution network in Milan, to have his hookers sell heroin. The greedy French wolves also demand 70% of the profit, so you can image Toto refuses. The "negotiations" rapidly run out of hand, with some car-bombs left, some drug labs getting destroyed right and a handful of prostitutes being mutilated center, and gradually escalate into a devastating gang war. So, basically, what I've learned from this film is the actual definition of a mafia partnership: they start a war over 20% and when they finally do reach an agreement, all they do is double-crossing each other! "Milano Rovente" isn't the most spectacular of Italian crime epics of the 70's, as there are reasonably few car chases and violent shootouts on display, but it's nevertheless a solidly scripted and professionally acted atmosphere-driven thriller. There are some excellent plot twists to keep you interested throughout and the bit of cruelty (especially towards women) are quite hard to stomach. The film may lack some essential Poliziottesco aspects, like a dazzling soundtrack and ultra-psychopathic characters, but it was definitely a terrific predecessor to Umberto Lenzi's ultimate crime masterpiece "Almost Human".

As I said before Umberto Lenzi always pleased me with yours priceless movies, whatever the genre, in his first incursion on Poliziottesque a pejorative name gave by Italian's obtuse critics, a Sicilian gang leading by Antonio Sabato who control all Milano's circle of the prostitution, a profitable business, suddenly appears (Philippe Leroy) a high class French drugs dealer offering partnership in hard conditions, a war between them is predicable, a pressure imposed by both sides lead to an endless reprisals but shortly end up in a truce, great piece of Euro Crime, displaying the underground of the exploitation of prostitution on how they get the drugs from the Roma's supplier, in this context police department is get ready to act if has enough elements to sustain on Court house, incredible well done, meanwhile Sabato dislike to work with Lenzi who yelled frequently on acting, gorgeous girls, amoral subject, many unexpected twists, a true overview of the Milano on the seventies!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8