Spécial magnum

"Blazing Magnum" often gets too easily categorized as a spaghetti imitation of "Dirty Harry", its first sequel "Magnum Force" and "The French Connection" (groundbreaking hardcore American action movies of the early 70's), but this slick and unforgettable Italian exploitation product has SO much more to offer. Director Alberto De Martino, clever marketer that he was back then, does indeed cash in on the popular tough cop-thriller trend, but simultaneously his film also contains authentic Giallo story lines, which was another contemporary favored exploitation sub genre at the time. The versatility of the script is illustrated through particularly two of the numerous titles for the film. "A Special Magnum for Tony Saitta" is an archetypal "Poliziottesco" title and "Strange Shadows in an Empty Room" is a prototypic Giallo title. Both of them titles are very irrelevant, by the way, as there's nothing even remotely special about Tony Saitta's Magnum and the shadows in an empty room only refer to a minuscule sequence near the end of the film, but admittedly they sound terrific. Unorthodox Canadian copper Tony Saitti is too busy blasting bank robbers to pieces one day, and so he misses a phone call from his sister who sounded clearly upset. Later that same night, the girl – who's at least 30 years younger than Saitti for some reason – dies from poisoning during a party at her university. Tony Saitti now takes his time to devotedly investigate the case, along with his reliable colleague Sgt. Matthews. He discovers that his sister was having an affair with the prominent Dr. Tracer and holds him responsible for the murder, but the case soon proves to be more convoluted and including jewelry theft and a community of local transvestites. The story of "Blazing Magnum" could be told in barely half an hour or so, but the exciting and adrenalin-paced action interludes make the film so indescribably entertaining! Of course nobody wants to cooperate with Tony Saitti's investigation, thus all his attempts to question suspects or witnesses result in extended bare-knuckle fights and incredibly flamboyant chase sequences; either by car or on foot. It's almost hilarious to witness Tony apprehend a suspect after a 10 minute chase and having beat half of the poor guy's teeth out, only for it to end with him asking: "Have you ever seen the necklace in this photograph before?" Especially the car chase sequence deserves to be legendary, in my humble opinion. It truly feels as if Alberto De Martino and his camera crew opened a big picture book with descriptions of all possible car stunts imaginable and then simply re-enacted them one by one! Other irresistible exploitative highlights include Tony's bitter fight with a clique of transvestites and a tough confrontation in the little boy's room. There's a lovely amount of sleaze and several scenes in the film are delightfully tasteless, like for example the killer threatening to slice up a newborn baby at the hospital. The filming locations are adequate, the soundtrack is quite exhilarating and De Martino could also depend on a stellar cast. Stuart Whitman is a decent enough Clint Eastwood clone, but I particularly fancied seeing John Saxon and Martin Landau starring together in this Italian-Canadian co-production. Tisa Farrow plays a poor defenseless blind girl, just like her more famous sister Mia did in "See No Evil" a couple years earlier. Talk about exploitation and clever marketing!

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!

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 .

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.

With a great cast featuring Stuart Whitman, John Saxon, Martin Landau, AND Tisa Farrow this film glides with the greatest of ease. STRANGE SHADOWS IN AN EMPTY ROOM is sort of a cross between the Italian crime/police potboiler and your average giallo thriller. An interesting and fun blend it is. I'd rather not give too much of the film away since it's better going into it knowing next to nothing. Let's just say there's murder, mystery, car chases, blood, funky 70s music, karate-kicking drag queens, and of course your all-star cast! Have fun.