Spécial magnum

A thrilling and bizarre film in which a two-fisted Ottawa police captain (Stuart Whitman) , -helped by a Sergeant (John Saxon)- searches for the person who poisoned his sister , who was attending the university in Montreal, Canada . So desperate is he for vendetta , as he starts using his own violent methods to discover the murderer . There are various suspicious people , as a doctor (Martin Landau) , a teacher (Gayle Hunnicut) ...who's the killer ? Soon he finds out that not everything is what he thought it was . Walk with her if you dare...for every step will bring you closer, closer, closer to the meaning of fear! Enter at your own risk ... for there is no such thing as a truly empty room

Poliziesco/Giallo movie with decent production design as well as budget enough , it contains intriguing events , breathtaking scenes , noisy action , vicious killers , and spectacular car pursuits with subsequent crashes . It is a passable actioner with some moving scenes , a straightforward story with lots of shootouts , robbing , fights , twists and turns . The film benefits itself of an interesting issue and disconcerting premise , the strange murder at an University boarding house of a girl who results to be sister of the starring , a tough policeman , and the latter then searching for a merciless revenge by discovering a real series killer . Displaying a great number of red herrings , thrills , plot twists , and suspenseful events . In spite of some flaws and gaps , action keeps breathless, thanks to tension and intrigue . Notable widescreen scenes , which will suffer on TV small screen and including some zooms , as usual . It belongs to Poliziesco subgenre adding some Giallo elements . As a subgenre, the poliziesco (literally, "tough cop") has its beginnings in the late 1960s with films such as Lizzani's Bandiits in Milan (1968), but finds its greatest influence in the American policemen of the early 1970s in the Dirty Harry films (from 71 to 88), William Friedkin's French Connection (1971) or Sidney Lumet's Serpico (1973). Here stars Stuart Whitman as a tough Ottawa police inspector who seeks the killer who poisoned his sister and giving a notable acting . He's well accompanied by a nice cast , such as John Saxon , Martin Landau , Mia's sister : Tisa Farrow , Carole Laure , Jean LeClerc and Gayle Hunnicutt.

It has a tense and attractive musical score by Armando Trovajoli. As well as atmospheric cinematography by cameraman , later famous director, Joe D'Amato , in Technicolor Techniscope , though a perfect remastering being absolutely necessary. The motion picture titled Una magnum Special per Tony Saitta (Italy) or Strange Shadows in an Empty Room or Spécial magnum or Blazing Magnums was professionally directed by Alberto De Martino, though with a sense of disunity between cast and filmmaking , having some shortfalls and failures. This Italian filmmaker was a good artisan who wrote and directed a lot of films of all kinds of genres and exploitation movies , as well as various straight Rip-offs with less attention to plot detail . He usually shot films to cash in on other hugely boxoffice successes as The "Exorcist" Martino made "Anti Christ" and " The Omen" he filmed this " Holocaust 2000" . As Alberto De Martino shot Peplum or Sword and Sandals genre : ¨Spartan Gladiators¨ , ¨Invincible Gladiator¨ , ¨Seven Spartans¨, ¨Valley of Stone Men¨, ¨Secret Seven¨ . Spaghetti Western sub-genre : ¨Django shoots first¨, ¨Providence¨ , ¨Charge of Seven Cavalry¨ . Europe Spy subgenre : ¨OK Connery¨ , ¨Operation Lady Chaplin¨ and Terror : ¨The AntiChrist¨, ¨Miami Golem¨, ¨Horror¨ , ¨Holocaust 2000¨ and several others .

Now this is more like it! An Italian/Canadian 'joint' that isn't dubbed, starts with the feel of a seventies TV movie but then veers madly in tone as the film goes on, and has the distinction of being on of the few De Martino films that doesn't drag. At all!

On the campus of a Montreal college, a young man watches as his ex-girlfriend has a very public argument with her lecturer and possible lover, Martin Landau. Scheming with her, the young man and the girl later play a prank on Landau when the girl (Carol, her name is Carol) fakes being ill during a party. When she non-prankingly dies after being administered medicine by Landau, he becomes suspect number one. Unluckily for him Carol's brother is hard-ass actor Stuart Whitman, and he's a cop to boot, with John Saxon as his icy-eyed partner.

De Martino scores a winner here because he's been clever enough to have a giallo (murder, many suspects, photograph clue etc) with all the elements of a Euro-crime film thrown in for good measure. For example, when we first meet Whitman, he's too busy blowing away bad guys to answer an important call from Carol, and when he approaches the transvestite community to merely ask them if they knew any transgender mates that have been missing, it turns into a huge, random, over the top battle where people are punched through glass windows, Whitman himself nearly falls off a building, and a transvestite gets a pair of straighteners up the arse for his/her trouble!

Not content with that, De Martino also throws in a random car chase that lasts for ages too, and this time he only wanted to show a guy a photo! These two scenes make the film a lot more fun than it would have been as a straight giallo, some I'm grateful they're there.

Tisa Farrow, who would go on to some real Italian exploitation highs in a few years after this film (Zombie Flesh Eaters, The Last Hunter and Anthropophagus), gets the best scenes as the blind piano tutor who is unlucky enough to have quite a bit of the film's action take place in her apartment. This might actually be my favourite De Martino film. Well done mate!

Unlike a lot of the low budget fare made around the mid to late '70s, it still holds up pretty well to repeated viewings. This isn't a fantastic movie, but it is at least watchable and features a cast that can actually act. The inimitable John Saxon, star of many a western Stuart Whitman, and even Martin Landau (Post 'Space 1999' I think) make their appearences, supported by the likes of Tisa Farrow (Mia's sister) and TV queen Gail Hunnicut (Where is she these days?). One great element of this film is the execellent music composed by Armando Trovajoli. At times, he has included themes which are a combination of classical music, along with synthesizer riffs. And the heavy bass line help to hieghten tension during the scary scenes. As someone has mentioned before, this is a mix of genres from the Italian giallo, to the usual US cop thriller. But it all seems to work well.

Methinks the over-rated Dario Argento could learn a lot from a film such as this!

Until rugged cop Stuart Whitman makes full use of his Dirty Harry tool, you've got to wait until the very end of the movie. Along the way, you get your money's worth – a lineup of veteran Hollywood actors having fun poliziottesco style, a sex shop scene high on the 70s sleaze-o- meter, karate killer transvestites, Mia Farrow's sister as a blind girl, the stunning beauty of H'wood actress Gayle Hunnicutt, the admirable tits of Québécois Adjani lookalike Carole Laure, the creative use of a curling iron, plus a quite spectacular car chase in the streets of Montreal, expertly executed by legendary stunt coordinator Rémy Julienne (The Italian Job, six Bond movies, a dozen Belmondo action flicks). Of course Blazing Magnum is just a ripoff, but a highly entertaining one, in its molto-trasho-appeal unquestionably superior to each and every 70s Clint Eastwood vigilante vehicle. Gritty six stars, the seventh being for Armando Trovaioli's groovster soundtrack: That ain't Montreal, it's Funkytown.

When this briefly played in the U.S. in 76-7, American International marketed it more in the line of a horror thriller than the shoot-em-up it leaned toward. Six capable perfomers, most of whom were accustomed to making the most out of low-budget material, appeared to varying degrees of success. DeMartino was a workmanlike director who, like most of his Italian contemporaries of the era, made his way around all of the heavily produced genres from western and superhero to crime and horror.