Despierta y mata

Gifted Director, Carlo Lizzani's audacious, adrenaline-fuelled, greatly influential poliziotteschi classic 'Wake Up & Kill' (1966) is the ceaselessly locomotive true crime classic that so energetically dramatizes the frantic, media-hyped rise, and subsequent ignominious fall of photogenic smash-and-grab merchant, Luciano Lutring. While filmed a good few years before the hyperbolic, bullet-blasted, road-carnage heyday of poliziotteschi mayhem masterminded by exploitation titans, Lenzi/Martino/Massi et al., Lizzani's no less thrilling 'Wake Up & Kill' expresses its very own unique personality! The dynamic, cinema verite style, the director cannily utilized allowed for considerably more intimacy, pathos and emotional gravitas over the grievous, downward spiralling plight of infamous jewel thief, Lutring (Robert Hoffman) and his ravishing songbird paramour, Angela (Lisa Gastoni).

This consistently exhilarating 60s true crime drama forcefully grabs you from the explosive intro, as screenwriter, Ugo Pirro's cogent script keeps the viewer wholly immersed in misguided misfit, Lutring's cavalier, hubristic, whiskey-soaked Riviera crime spree that inexorably attracts the mercenary attentions of the over-mythologizing press, hyperbolically dubbing him the 'machine gun soloist'; a glib moniker that wily inspector, Moroni (Gian Maria Volonté) ardently hopes he might be able to stop becoming a statistical fact! The autobiographical film's vivid action sequences are no less dynamically rendered than the morbidly fascinating, increasingly desperate relationship between steadfastly loyal, Angela, and her fractious, machine gun-toting hoodlum husband, ostensibly leading them both to an inevitably destructive climax! 'Wake Up & Kill' might still be highly regarded as an influential true-crime masterpiece even without its scintillating score by, Ennio Morricone, yet sonorously endowed with such an enthralling theme, Carlo Lizzani's muscular, torn-from-the-headlines thriller is vertiginously elevated to that of a minor genre masterpiece! The beautifully restored Arrow Video Blu-ray is a fantastic addition to any avid film fan's Euro-Cult collection.

Although the poliziotteschi sub-genre would not dominate the Italian box-office until the 1970's - a period which also saw crime movies in American cinema become distinctly grittier - it's roots can be traced back to the early work of director Carlo Lizzani. His early work, such as Wake Up and Kill (also known as Wake Up and Die) and The Violent Four (1968), laid the foundations for a rougher crime flick, movies that weren't afraid be socially aware or show Italy as the haven for crime and corruption it had become. For Wake Up and Kill, Lizzani took inspiration from one of the country's most popular Robin Hood figures - Luciano Lutring.

To be honest, I hadn't heard of Lutring before I was reading up about the film before watching it. I also doubt many people outside of Italy, or perhaps France (where Lutring served 12 years in prison), would have heard of him either, but his story is a familiar one. The likes of Ned Kelly and Jesse James come immediately to mind - criminals who are pardoned of their acts through folk-tales, becoming mythic heroes in the process. Lutring (played with a charismatic swagger by Robert Hoffman) robs jewels in broad daylight by smashing shop windows with a hammer and grabbing what he can. As his fame rises and his reputation hardens, he turns increasingly violent, carrying a sub-machine gun in a violin case which lends him the name "the machine-gun soloist,".

At first, Lizzani draws us into a sexy world of crime where every robbery lacks sophistication but sets the pulse racing, with sexy club singer Yvonne (Lisa Gastoni) soon on Lutring's arm before she realises what she's gotten herself into. Led by the determined Inspector Moroni (Gian Maria Volonte), the police are always one step behind Lutring's crime-spree. A few moments of casual domestic violence aside, Lizzani mainly portrays Lutring in a sympathetic light, being sexed-up by the media and blamed for crimes he didn't commit. For the crimes he does commit, Lizzani delivers a couple of well-handled and realistic set-pieces, usually in broad daylight. But at just shy of two hours (there are various versions of the movie out there - it appears I saw the longest) Wake Up and Kill feels dragged out, despite closing with a fantastic open-ended final scene.

The whole film is about Robert Hoffman and Lisa Gastoni. They are both very beautiful, it's true, but they do the same thing again and again, in Milano, Como, Nice, Paris, etc. Gian Maria Volontè, the greatest actor of all time, has just a smaller role. The music of Ennio Morricone is good. Carlo Lizzani has directed much better films as "The Violent Four" (1968)Banditi a Milano (original title), with the same Gian Maria Volontè, but in a super role, or "Torino nera" (1972), with Bud Spencer, Françoise Fabian and Marcel Bozzuffi.

Arrow Video are very good at remastering old crime and exploitation classics and breathing new life into them. This is from 1966 and stars Austrian actor Robert Hoffman as Luciano Lutring – he was a famous jewellery thief who used a sub machine gun for some of his heists. He was seen as a romantic figure at the time – though God only knows why. He did work at a dairy before he met his future wife. This is the singer - at the less salubrious venues – Yvonne, played by Lisa Gastroni . He falls in love with her and then decides to give her everything fabulous by stealing it.

He gets involved with other gangs and goes on a crime spree across Europe but mainly France and Italy. The film tells his story and it does it in a style that was very much the sixties. Lutring is a bit of a misogynist with a violent temper but Hoffman plays him brilliantly. Those of a certain age will remember him from the sixties TV series 'Robinson Crusoe' that was a staple of children's summer TV on the BBC etc. There are some continuity errors and the plot seems to jump in places but they are fairly minor in the overall scheme.

The quality of the print does vary from excellent to passable which is fine for a transfer of a film this old. The sound is all dubbed as was the way then but I got used to that fairly quickly too. It is also a great time capsule with regards to the fashions, the cars, music dancing – everything. At two hours too I felt this may out stay its welcome but far from it. This is one for those who love Italian crime capers of a certain era, but do not expect modern techniques to be on show here and you will be far from disappointed – recommended.

Given the choice of viewing a full length original subtitled version of a film or a shortened UK language version, I would always choose the first option. Given this choice on the Arrow Blu-ray release, however, I learned from somewhere that the original version might appear to drag in parts and went for the shorter version. This is so great, with fast action and continuous, exciting location cinematography that I will now have to watch the other as well. Based on a true story with filming beginning just three months after the guy's arrest and in the cinemas within a year, this is breakneck, budget film making at its best. Robert Hoffmann and Lisa Gastoni are both effective and charismatic in the lead roles but in truth it is those fabulously shot sequences along sparkling streets, shop fronts and bar interiors that make this such an evocative and exciting movie.