Le nouveau boss de la mafia

Poliziottesco with Telly Savalas and Antonio Sabato

Attention: risk of confusion! This film has nothing to do with the great Italo classic "La mala ordina / The Italian Connection", which also came out in 1972 and in which EUROPEAN FILM AWARD nominee Mario Adorf delivered a brilliant acting performance .

In this film by Alberto De Martino (1929-2015) we see GOLDEN GLOBE nominee Antonio Sabato as Sicilian farm boy Antonio Mancuso, who becomes the confidant of mafia boss Don Vincenzo (Telly Savalas) as a killer. He even sets up the smart young gangster with his lovely niece Monica (Paola Tedesco), which of course brings jealousy (Guido Lollobrigida) to the scene. Antonio's loyal brother (Giuliano Persico) also has to get involved. Fierce turf wars in the gangster milieu would follow, if there weren't still a shadow from the past...

Experienced mafia thriller from Italy, which has some plus points with the good cast, surprising locations (in addition to Palermo, Milan and Rome, it was also shot in Hamburg) and the camera work of the later dirty filmmaker Joe D'Amato, but not at the level of classic Poliziottesci like "La polizia ringrazia / Execution Squad" or "Il Boss / The Boss" achieved.

Alberto De Martino had previously directed the war film "Dirty Heroes" and the Giallo-Poliziottesco mix "The Man with Icy Eyes". The latter also starred Antonio Sabato (1943-2021).

In the documentary "EuroCrime" (2012), which was a monument to the Italian gangster films of the 1970s, super macho Antonio Sabato complained even after 40 years that the then 20-year-old actress Paola Tedesco had dared to do it , keeping her underwear on during a sex scene with him. People were used to something different in Italian cinema in the 1970s! But a courageous woman didn't let everything happen to her. Respect!

Before his great success as "Kojak", ACADEMY AWARD nominee Telly Savalas (1922-1994) appeared in several Cinecitta films, including alongside the enchanting GOLDEN GLOBE winner Elke Sommer in the Mario Bava classic "Lisa and the Devil" .

Strangely, this Alberto De Martino film starts with Antonio Sabato riding a motorbike while the credits run, exactly like De Martino's The Man with the Icy Eyes. This time though Antonio is on the other side of the law. He's a low level mafia foot soldier whose family name has been sullied by his Mafioso father double crossing someone and being killed for his troubles.

Antonio's out to make a name for himself so he heads for Milan and guns down a turncoat mafia Capo who was also responsible for his father's death. With the help of his brother, he heists some heroin from two soldiers working for Milan-based Mafia Don Telly Savalas, and Savalas is impressed enough to take him under his wing. It also helps that Savalas has a hot niece whom Antonio gets the hots for, but is Antonio playing it off legit or is he working the long con?

This film does have some action sequences but doesn't quite hit the mark mainly due (once again) to Antonio Sabato's lack of emotion and Alberto De Martino's laid back approach to story-telling. There's a lot of characters introduced throughout the story which leads to an awful lot of dialogue, meetings (who doesn't love a meeting in an action film!) and talk of loyalty, when instead we should have things exploding, car chases, and shouting.

I'll give the film credit for having someone turned into bars of soap years ahead of Fight Club, however. I'm not saying this is a particularly bad film, mind you, but it's lacking the frantic action of other films of this type. Maybe De Martino was aiming for a more serious take on the subject, but for a genre that generally has few clunkers, this is just so-so.

Something about Antonio Sabato's lead vehicle always turn out to be dull. He a good action star, but films he stars in always turns out to be slow. Sabato joins Telly Savalas (who isn't dubbed) organization and havoc happens with predicatable ending. Savalas is always fun to watch. Good director and production people worked on this, but the film runs slow. I kind of wished Henry Silva popped up or even John saxon. Not recommended.

Telly Savalas and the senior Antonio Sabato are the only folks we Americans might know from this continental cast of Crime Boss. Savalas is in the title role and Sabato is a contract killer looking to make his bones.

About the only thing this film has going for it are the location shooting in Rome, Milan, Palermo, and Hamburg. The whole thing though is unbearably dull and lacks any kind of pace.

Skip this one folks. Good thing Telly Savalas had Kojak in his near future.

As if there weren't enough of those floating around at the time already, we have here another lame GODFATHER clone from the director of IL CONSIGLIORI (1973) which I had watched earlier this year. The marquee-value name roped in this time is Telly Savalas who belatedly enters the proceedings and is first seen from behind, rather campily tending to his flowers and wearing a beret in the style of French painters! Apart from not looking minimally Sicilian, he sports no accent of any kind other than his familiar drawl. Antonio Sabato, then, makes for an unlikely gangster - apart from being a resistible leading man; his relationship with Savalas, which becomes paternal at the flick of an eye, is also unconvincing (especially since he subsequently becomes romantically involved with the latter's spirited teenage niece)! Besides, for a gangster flick, there's precious little action to speak of and none of it is in any way memorable (though the finale set in a clinic is well enough handled); furthermore, the score by Francesco De Masi is serviceable but nothing else. Incidentally, the bargain-basement DVD I rented starts off midway through the credits so that none of the cast members - or even the film's title - is ever listed!