Il giorno del Cobra

My review was written in February 1985 after watching the film on Media Home Entertainment video cassette.

"The Day of the Cobra" is a pleasant surprise: an effective Italian action film, shot in 1980 and imported as a video cassette, bypassing U. S. theatrical release.

Picture harks back to a very fine decade-earlier opus, "Detective Belli", with star Franco Nero comfortably essaying another Bogart-styled police detective on a big narcotics case. Both features include solid acting and action sequence plus serviceable storylines.

Working as a private eye in San Francisco, Larry Stanciani (Nero) is summoned by Goldsmith (Wiliam Berger) of the narcotics bureau to go on a mission to his hometown of Genoa in search of drug kingpin Kandinsky. Unofficial assignment holds the promise of getting Stanciani his police job back -he lost it and was sent to jail years back in a frameup engineered by Kandinsky.

Amidst a series of doublecrosses, solid fight scenes and chases, Stanciani has a run-in with glamorous disco deejay Brenda (Sybil Danning) and disco owner Lola, who turns out to be a transvestite in an effective plot twist, the clue for which is that Lola is the tallest thesp in the cast.

Nero is very good in this role, his hard boiled personality balanced by sentimental scenes with his cute young son. Both Nero and Danning so their own English dialog in a generally well-dubbed (articulation is in English) soundtrack. Pic is a welcome change of pace from director Enzo G. Castellari, who has been making numerous imitative fantasy and science fiction films lately.

This Eurocrime is simply amazing. Not because its violence as it nearly tops a Terrence Hill & Bud Spencer-movie, but because of the bad acting of Franco Nero which is so hard to believe that this is one of the funniest movies you can imagine. The story is your usual Eurocrime-stuff, but it kind of works and it was great to see Sybil Danning as well.

Like other Enzo Castellari - Franco Nero teamings, this is a case of a routine script directed with flair. Castellari stages plenty of energetic fistfights and chases, and Franco Nero brings some of the qualities that made him a cult favorite - his humor, his athleticism, and of course his accent (IMDB lists the language as Italian, but I think it was filmed, not dubbed, in English). The script, however, is strictly formula stuff; some of the twists I guessed (seriously, is there anyone who has watched even one Italian film before who couldn't guess the fate of Nero's innocent son?), some I did not (Sybil Danning's role turns out to be more important than it appears at first), but generally there is nothing here that you have not seen before. Except maybe for the scene where Nero fights a karate-chopping transvestite, but even something similar to this has happened at least once before - in the beginning of "Thunderball". (**)

"I don't give a damn, I am the Cobra." That is a terrific theme song. Too bad the rest of the movie doesn't come close to High Crime or Street Law. But Day of the Cobra has its moments. Most of these moments are courtesy of Franco Nero. This guy is fun to watch even if he's just endlessly running or descending stairs. I was pretty entertained for about the first third of the film. After that, the plot started to lose some of its sparkle. The whole father/son subplot where we cut to scenes of Nero and his son playing baseball or discussing how they'll "be together forever" just didn't seem to fit. Overall, a good film but not the best Nero/Castellari collaboration.

At first glance, DAY OF THE COBRA is a spiritual remake of Castellari's genre-defining HIGH CRIME. Both take place in Genoa, both star Franco Nero as a tough-as-nail law enforcement character fighting drug dealers, both feature a kid getting nailed by a car, and a henchman being shot in the groin from below.

Unfortunately this film just doesn't have the same energy going for it. Everything feels markedly smaller and cheaper and the plot goes a bit too far out to be believable with plenty of silly dialog. It also contains some surprisingly poor performances and far too many instances of Enzo alluding to his other, better films. Nero's real life son Carlo acts in the film (as himself basically) but his subplot seems overall unconnected and just strange.

What the film does have are a few exciting foot chase scenes and a silly fistfight between Nero and a transsexual. The main theme song is silly but very hummably infectious and the whole movie moves at a brisk, though casual pace. Sybil Danning provides some welcome if brief nudity, and we learn here that she actually wears high heels in bed. Also worth mentioning is the excellent supporting "dream team" cast of legendary Italian stuntmen such as Rocco Lerro, Massimo Vanni, Angelo Ragusa, and Romano Puppo all allowed to display their respective talents as various henchmen.

Overall though the film is just too pedestrian and mediocre. Probably the least of Castellari/Nero teamings though still a cut above most of the pack of later Eurocrime movies.