Hold-Up, instantánea de una corrupción

It is not a masterpiece, the script is not great, it is very predictable and risks becoming very boring for those who do not have patience until the end, because about 70 - 80% of the film are long scenes in which Robert Cunningham, the character played by Frederick Stafford, plays games of chance, poker, roulette at the casino and, with one exception, always loses and drinks a lot of alcohol until he gets drunk and becomes irresponsible. Also many scenes with the same Robert Cunningham, in fact the same scene always, in which he tries to remember where the suitcase with money is and fails. Anyway, Stafford is a very good actor and is believable and convincing in all scenes. Nathalie Delon and Marcel Bozzuffi are just as good, credible and convincing. And Alberto de Mendoza is good in the role of Ashley. The only one who is not credible is Enrico Maria Salerno, an excellent actor in many other films, in which he always played positive heroes. Here, with his face of a good man, he does not convince in the final scene that in fact he was the scoundrel all along who stole the money stolen by the bandits. The first scene in the film, the attack on the van with money, is clearly superior to the rest of the film, it is extremely dynamic, it almost seems real, true, and Bozzuffi demonstrates how expert he was in such roles.

A man who loses his memory should be a man who is extremely cautious with those around him. Who can he trust? Frederick Stafford takes the right option when he decides just to hit the drink and gamble all the time.

Fred used to be a cop, but then one day him and his partner Enrico Maria Salerno were caught up in a violent hold up where a load of cash was stolen. Some point shortly afterwards, an incident happened were Frederick hit his head and lost his memory, but then again, Marcello Bazzuffi, a robber who was there during the hold-up, has now started hanging around, and he thinks that Frederick is pretending not to have a memory on purpose, and also reckons that Fred knows where that cash ended-up...

It's kind of similar I guess to Calibro 9 in that neither the bad guys nor the audience know if the protagonist is at it or not. It does genuinely seem that Frederick lost his memory in a car crash, but does that absolve him of the theft of the money? And if he did hide it, how can all the people out for a sniff of it get Fred to get his memory back.

Featuring a lot of back and forth jumping in the timeline and without revealing much plot, it's an interesting film that with a pretty complex main character. Frederick isn't any kind of hard case but can give it out when needed, but the best bit is when he completely goes on a bender and starts drunkenly berating Salerno while smashed out of his nut!

I've probably watched too many of these films so I wasn't too surprised by any of the twists, but I'll watch anything with Enrico Salerno in it, so that was a good starting point for me.

A thrilling film that is advertised with such well-known actors as Frederick Stafford , Enrico Maria Salerno, Marcel Buzzoffi, Nathalie Delon, Alberto de Mendoza and that was also made in such wonderful places as Nice, Cannes, San Remo, Marbella and Monte Carlo, had to be a big hit , however , failing partially , and unfortunately does not reach its real potential. Robert (Frederick Stafford) is a police agent of American origins who lost his memory through a car crash during a robbery in a branch of the Bank of America. As Robert Cunningham is retired after the blatant robbery and he manages to survive as a gamer with no memory . Along the way , he falls in love for Judy (Nathalie Delon) who helps him and seems to continue to love him unconditionally despite his constant escapades . Doesn't care if he's a cop, a card player, a liar, a drunk or a man with no memory, the girl is always with him . After a while, a robber Steve Duggins (Marcel Bozzuffi) who survived the crossfire is convinced the ex-agent is faking his amnesia, just to then get rid of him and enjoy the loot, in which the other delinquents lost their lives , together with his ex lover . To make matters worse, following his appointment as a police inspector , Robert's previous colleague, Mark Gavin (Enrico Maria Salerno), starts investigating the deeds , and he firmly clings to the investigation

A criminal fiction with suspense , intrigue , frantic action , turns, a lot of twisted incidents , at the same time charged with tension and high level staging which the viewer could really enjoy . The film is interesting enough , though it has several flaws , gaps and failures . It has some characteristic elements from Poliziesco sub-genre , including Noir aspects with femme fatal , along with the necessary seasonings as the typical car pursuits with crashes and bounds. It is an acceptable action movie with the ordinary love story , betrayal , heists , in which the protagonists are immersed in a continuous voragine of incidents , plot twists and surprising climax ending . Stars the serious actor Frederick Stafford (OSS 117, Shadows unseen , Topaz) , born in Czechoslovakia in 1928 under the name "Friedrich Strobel von Stein", Stafford first tried his hand as a professional hockey player and swimmer, before pursuing various activities as a miner, locomotive driver or truck driver, and finally a doctorate in chemistry in 1962. After meeting and falling in love with German actress Marianne Hold during a business trip in 1964, he married her on the spot and began a very film career. Here he plays a corrupt state official with no memory, who tries to distract himself from the endless brooding by heavy drinking and risky gambling . While The French actress , screenwriter , director and former Alain Delon's wife, Natalie Delon , performs the role of the loyal Judy , his supposedly faithful girlfriend . Enrico Maria Salerno plays police officer Mark Gavin, who is named an inspector, while his former partner flaunts his streamlined hairstyle and otherwise shows a routine and confident performance , albeit a bit more restrained than usual. We get to the opposite criminal side , in which the French Marcel Bozzuffi imitating the villain who played in very convincing way in the classsic "French Connection" , which makes our man very horny so that his contender lost records of the robbery can return as soon as possible. Bozzuffi (Caliber 38 Identification of a Woman , Z , The passage , The syndicate of Horror) performed very well this role of the cruel villainous Steve Duggins, as well as Alberto de Mendoza (Naked bodies , A lizard with a woman's skin , Scorpio's tail) who shines as the flimsy swindler Dr. Ashley as he operates his own perfidity.

The Spanish scriptwriter and director Germán Lorente shot regular but professionally this moving thriller , but the final result unfortunately failed to create a homogeneous police film show . This prolific filmmaker made movies of all kinds of genres as comedy, drama, thriller and softcore . He began wrting films as ¨Un tesoro en el cielo¨ 1956 by Jose Maria Nunes and ¨No dispares contra mi¨ and after producing ¨Un Vaso de Whisky¨ by Julio Coll , ¨Altas variedades¨ by Francisco Rovira Veleta and ¨Bahia de Palma¨ by Juan Bosch . His first film was ¨Antes del anochecer¨ 1963 , following ¨Donde tu estés¨ , ¨Playa de Formentor¨ , ¨Vivir al sol¨, ¨Su nombre es Daphne¨, ¨Cover Girl¨ , ¨Sharon vestida de rojo¨ . His international thrillers co-produced with Italy had success enough , such as ¨La chica de Via Condotti¨, ¨Hold-up¨ and ¨Atraco en la costa Azul¨ . Subsequently , he made erotic and softcore movies as ¨Sensualidad¨, ¨La Violación¨ , ¨Strip-tease¨ , ¨Tres Mujers de Hoy¨ and ¨Adolescencia¨ . Most of his films were performed by popular and international stars as Elke Sommer , George Chakiris , Beba Loncar , Frederick Stafford , Terence Stamp , Corinne Cléry, among others. Rating : 5.5/10 . Passable and acceptable thriller.