A Man Called Magnum

Ah, M. M. Tarantini ... This man, who's not to be confused with the obviously much less talented American director whose name ends with an "o", perhaps wasn't the greatest or most prolific director of his Italian generation, but I have yet to see a film of his that disappoints me! "Massacre in Dinosaur Valley" and "Women in Fury" are tremendously entertaining exploitation schlock-movies from the 80s, and with "Poliziotti Violenti" from 1976 he also proved himself more than capable of making solid & action-packed euro-crime thrillers. "Napoli Si Ribella" is also a very worthwhile "Poliziotesschi" for the fans of this wondrous sub-genre to seek out, although admittedly it's less spectacular and extreme than the contemporary efforts by fellow directors like Umberto Lenzi or Stelvio Massi (and usually starring Maurizio Merli)

For starters, I refuse to use the commercially promoted title "A Man Called Magnum". Luc Merenda's protagonist character is named Mauri, and everyone in the film also addresses him as Mauri. Nobody calls him Magnum. Mauri is a highly respected police commissioner from Milan who travels to Napoli with the mission to rid the city of drug cartels, gang wars, and the brutal mafia executions that put innocent civilians at risk. Mauri takes his job very seriously and finds an unexpected ally in the big Don's 10-year-old daughter who sends drawings to the police station, revealing details of the clan's upcoming crimes.

"Napoli Si Rebella" features several strongpoints, including the ingenious plot detail of the little girl's drawings, a few exciting car chases and shoutouts, and a terrifically loathsome and utmost evil henchman character who goes by the street name "Dogheart". You know the type, he's the guy who does all the dirty work for the distinguished gangsters that never leave their lair, and who has zero moral values or job restrictions. As depicted by the stoic Adolfo Lastretti, "Dogheart" is as relentless as Italian gangsters come.

The movie has its weaknesses too, obviously. Although an excellent and charismatic actor - and a true icon of Poliziotesschi to boot - Luc Merenda's role is somewhat disappointing. He's a good cop, but not the borderline obsessive or wildly unorthodox cop that we have grown to expect. He doesn't drink, upset his superiors, sleep with female informants, shoot criminals on sight, or wrecks half the city when chasing the bad guys. How boring. All the other Poliziotesschi trademarks (soundtrack, nudity, comic relief, rough editing, explosions, ...) are there as well, but not as prominent as in other titles.

Man, I pity those poor fellows who end up being Mafia bosses. Must be a really stressful job. You've got to uphold the exterior 'upstanding citizen' routine so that hotheaded cops can be shouted down by their superiors, you make high pressure drug deals with other high-level guys, and worst of all, your employees are all nasty criminals by default, so the ever present threat of one of them double crossing you must be a terrible strain.

Look at the fella in this film, Don Whatsisface. He sets up a nice deal with German guy to supply him a whole lot of dope, then someone turns around, guns down the dealers, and still steals the blow. You just can't get the employees. Get this though - someone then double crosses the henchman that double crossed the mob boss, which ends up in a whole heap of corpses for the cops to clean up.

One of those cops in Luc Merenda, and he's just arrived in Naples from Milan to find that the pizza is a lot better, but the crime is just as bad as everywhere else. Luc and his Neopolitan sidekick set off to figure out what the hell is going on with these shooting, with a little help from a mystery grass who keeps sending him hand drawn pictures of crime that are about to happen.

So it's business as usual for this Eurocrime film, but there's loads of action, car chases, and Merenda beating up bad guys, so who's going to complain? That actor playing his sidekick is rather good too, giving a bit more humanity to the blossoming bromance between the two cops. There's also a fair amount of violence with one particular gangster whacking rather a lot of people, including one guy who get blown up by dynamite.

Okay, I've seen my fair share of 70's Italian crime movies... about half that exist I'd imagine, maybe a little less. The only ones worse than this are the ones from Mario Bianchi and Alfonso Brescia just because those are so campy. What really sinks this one is a very low budget. Everything seems awfully third-world, from the flatly shot dialog scenes, boring chases, and toned-down shootouts.

Not to mention the dubbing - by God, this has to be the worst dub-job I've ever seen on an Italian film! Borderline unwatchable had it not been so unintentionally funny. Take the scene where Sonia Viviani gets raped by Salvatore Billa for instance... the actress dubbing her voice is far less than convincing and just keeps calmly saying "no please let me go" about 16x in a row. I don't even think the dubbers actually watched the movie, as the plot points don't even make sense, and the comic relief provided by the lieutenant just confusing.

That said, this has a very good cast (Lastretti, Merenda, Murolo, Billa, and the genre regulars) and moves along fairly quickly with its fair share of violence. There's just a lot of better ones out there such as anything by Castellari, Lenzi, or even Stelvio Massi. This one looks more like a better-funded-than-usual student film.

Brutish, bold and fast moving Italian police thriller set in a decayed Naples. Characterful faces abound, as does the gang rivalry and bloody violence. Luc Merenda is so cool throughout you begin to wonder if he has noticed just what is going on, but then he is there ready around the corner. Probably about five car chases but there are not overlong and in fact work well amid the terrible street traffic. The chase against the city train is very well done, as are all the set pieces and elements of sleaze are provided for by the presence of a luscious Sonia Viviani. Always looking sensational and half the time nude she suffers a beating, a rape, forced drug injection and being shackled naked, all for our viewing pleasure and to underline the brutish element within Naples gangland. Tough, gritty and well worth a watch.

Well not exactly ... but let's just agree that there are a lot of shootouts here. Oh how I've missed those noises guns used to make back in the day ... it's always a nice throwback. And you also get quite the gritty characters with morals all over the place.

Now if that is something you can subscribe to ... go ahead and watch this. Just be sure to not feel offended by the violence and the sexism at display here. Different times and all that. I have issues with certain depictions myself, but still can black most of them out and enjoy this as exploitation as it is meant to be. Not the best movie I've seen from that era, but then again, so many have been made ... sometimes you might even have issues to distinguish some of them ... Still a decent effort if you're a fan of that era and that genre.