Il giustiziere sfida la città

One of the myriad "poliziotteschi" to emerge from Italy during the 1970s, to which both director Lenzi and star Tomas Milian contributed a good deal; in fact, their previous collaboration – ALMOST HUMAN (1974) – is considered among the genre high-points. This, however, is fairly indistinguishable – apart from the fact that the surname of Milian's character is Rambo!; it does include plenty of typical action, not to mention a funky score by Franco Micalizzi. Rambo is a reformed gangster who now supplies iconoclastic help to the Police; predictably, his best pal in the force (actually a special vigilante squad) ends up murdered before long – which sets Rambo on exacting private revenge. This sees him coming face to face once again with his former boss, a now-blind Joseph Cotten (who, like Milian, followed a certain code of ethics in spite of the nature of the work involved) whose 'empire' is being unscrupulously run by the old man's son, Alfredo Lastretti. A smaller rival band of criminals – among whose members is the ubiquitous Luciano Pigozzi – also gets into our disheveled hero's hair by kidnapping an eminent citizen (Silvano Tranquilli)'s son. Incidentally, this incongruous sentimental emphasis on kids – since Milian also dotes on his cop friend's idolizing offspring – does the film the biggest harm; at the same time, while keeping an affectionate (but platonic) eye on the latter boy's mum, he is romantically involved with a prostitute (Femi Benussi) – who, unsurprisingly, is eventually victimized by the baddies for it. Though consistently offering reasonable gratification of various sorts, most examples of the poliziottesco genre suffered from a shallowness that made them instantly forgettable – and this one, alas, proved no exception despite the involvement of two of its major exponents.

A decidedly lighter tone lingers in Tomas Milian and Umberto Lenzi's next pairing after the dark and demented MILANO ODIA. This time around, Milian plays Rambo, a drifter who rides on a motorcycle from town to town teaching things to kids and reluctantly getting involved in anti-gang activities. Once his goofball security guard friend gets killed after snooping around a little too close to a kidnapping scheme, Rambo decides to hatch his own Yojibo-like plan to get all the local gangs to kill each other. However, they unexpectedly prove slightly smarter than you'd expect and end up teaming up to fight together against our hero, albeit with no better results than they'd have otherwise.

Right from the get-go, I knew it was going to be good just judging by the opening credits and how many of the usual "Euro-Henchmen" receive top billing. Riccardo Petrazzi, Adolfo Lastretti, Bruno Di Luia, Mario Novelli, Benito Pacifico, Claudio Ruffini, Giuseppe Castellano, and Luciano Pigozzi would go on to make type-cast careers as henchmen and goons throughout the rest of the 70's owing largely to how well this movie worked out. Even Antonio Casale, the "Brion James" of Italian 70's crime movies, pops by to lend us another sweaty, ugly face for our hero to beat to a pulp and put a bullet in. Sadly we're missing only Nello Pazzafini, Biagio Pelligra, Bruno Corazzari, any Dell'Acqua's, Peverello's, or Sal's Borghese and Billa. Toss in a Sergio Smacchi and our henchman reunion would be complete.

With all the potential and solid cast of villains for Rambo to beat up and shoot, the film doesn't quite hit the high notes that later films like VIOLENT NAPLES or ROME ARMED TO THE TEETH would the next year. There's a distractingly silly Micalizzi score and the plot contains enough holes and slow spots to take this down a notch. Best for genre completists or those interested in seeing the true genesis of Milian's later "Nico Giraldi" character. Notable mostly for a demented scene in which a female character gets unintentionally beaten to death by a gang of clueless hit-men.

Fantastic picture on the recent Blu-ray release, certainly a great improvement of the old copy of a copy, I once had but a little surprisingly lacking in over the top violence. Moves along as one would expect a Lenzi film to and Tomas Milian holds the attention throughout, just a little short on that certain something. Violent enough here and there and Milian motorcycles around in a wooly hat always out to save the day with an eye for the ladies and a helping hand for their young sons. Joseph Cotten looks to be on his last legs but would in fact live another 20 years and make another 15 films plus TV, so maybe he was just drinking heavily - too much of the J&B maybe.

Infamously tempestuous and fruitfully incestuous filmmaking bedfellows, the reigning cannibal king, Umberto Lenzi, and his audaciously wig-sporting partner in-Euro-crime, Tomas Milian team up again for the roustabout, boorishly boy's own, Cops an' Robbers actioner, 'Il Giustiziziere sfida La citta' aka ' Syndicate Sadists', and while this isn't on par with the luridly iconic, mercilessly machine-gunning home-invasion sleaze-fest, 'Almost Human', it still manages to dutifully deliver the requisite amount of breathless thrills an' bellicose blood-spills to effectively embellish the tired plot machinations; with red-beanie-wearing, gleefully anti-social anti-hero, Milian playing volatile ex-biker cop, Rambo!!!, whose singular penchant for righteous revenge is entirely apropos, and 'Rambo' is given ample opportunity for slow-motion, blood-squibbing, jaw-cracking, justice-seeking spectacle, once he disturbingly discovers to his escalating chagrin that his beloved brother has been slain by foes nefarious!

Rambo's relentless retribution is fuelled by the ecstatic crime funk of maestro, Franco Micalizzi, his deliciously infectious grooves galvanizing all the the numerous health and safety-taunting bike chases, nimble numb-skull battery, and ubiquitous ballistic overkill one expects from the murderously entertaining, delightfully dizzying milieu of 70s Euro-crime! Even with its discernible dearth of excruciatingly elaborate ultra-violence, 'Syndicate Sadists' makes for a highly entertaining, exploitative riff on Dashiell Hammett's classic 'Red Harvest', and ardent, Lenzi/Milian/poliziotteschi aficionados shouldn't be too disappointed, although, to be fair, it falls somewhat short of living up to its blood an' thunder moniker! So, perhaps, not ideal for Euro-crime newbie's, but if you keep your expectations low, 'Syndicate Sadists' is not without amiable grubby charm, and, I, for one, could happily watch, Milian merely open an envelope, caring not one measly jot if he refused to push it into pastures new!

Syndicate Sadists is yet another film based on Dashiel Hammett's novel Red Harvest which was adapted more famously by Akira Kurosawa in Yojimbo and Sergio Leone in A Fistful of Dollars, amongst many others, but it also has some other intriguing origins. Its star Tomas Milian while filming in the US, picked up a cheap novel at the airport by David Morrell entitled First Blood a tale of a special forces soldier by the name of John Rambo, Milian was intrigued by the character but wanted to stay away from violent sadistic roles he had become famous for in films like Milano odia: la polizia non può sparare (1974). So together with Lenzi and Luciano Martino they agreed to blend both stories together in a modern crime drama. While the film has some resemblances to both films its different enough to stand alone as an interesting film. Milian is excellent as the odd, scruffy biker with a heart, that turns to violence to avenge the murder of his brother by one of a group of rival crime gangs, he was investigating. Milian decides to play both sides against each other, his unkempt image, floppy red hat and large goggles, perhaps luring the criminals into a false sense of security that costs them dearly in some increasingly violent confrontations. Not Milian or Lenzi's best but still very watchable. Joseph Cotten also puts in a turn as one of the crime bosses, in what surely must be THE most wooden performance by the man ever, at one point he actually looked like a Gerry Anderson puppet…no really! For once the Italian didn't steal an idea, they had Rambo first. Oh and watch out for an homage to Steve McQueen.[