Cobra

"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.

Being a Poliziotteschi-buff and a great fan both of director Enzo G. Castellari and leading man Franco Nero, I still only had mediocre expectations for "Il Giorno Del Cobra" aka. "Cobra Day" of 1980. And while "Cobra Day" is certainly no masterpiece of Italian Crime cinema I have to say that my expectations were slightly surpassed, as this is a very entertaining film. Unfortunately, I have not yet had the pleasure to see the two foregoing Poliziotteschi from the director/leading man team Castellari/Nero, "High Crime" (aka. "La Polizia incrimine la legge assolve") of 1973, and the supposedly excellent "Street Law" ("Il Cittadino Si Ribella"/"The Citizen Rebels") of 1974, but I sure intend to. When "Cobra Day" was made in 1980, the heyday of the Italian Poliziottesco was already over, and the film does indeed not bring up anything new. Yet Franco Nero makes up for the lack of originality, and everything is delivered with style, even if some of the 'twists' are more than a bit predictable. Nero plays Larry Stanziani, an Italian private eye in San Francisco, who is sent back to his hometown Genoa by his former employer - the head of the narcotics department. Stanziani, who is nicknamed the 'Cobra', is to detect a homosexual drug dealer and murderer named Kandinski. Not only is Kandinski a ruthless criminal, however, he is also responsible for what earned Stanziani a three-year stay in prison, which makes the whole thing personal... As said before, "Cobra Day" delivers little that is new, but the good old formula is delivered stylishly. Nero fits greatly in his role of the slightly scruffy but tough and super-cool private eye. Sexy Sybil Danning makes a great female lead, and the cast furthermore includes the great late William Berger as the head of the narcotics department. The action sequences and photography are well-done and the film has a very cool and catchy theme song that proclaims: "I don't give a damn I am the Cobra". The teaming of Nero and Castellari sure has brought better films than this one (the awesome Spaghetti Western "Keoma" is just one of them), but this is not to say that "Cobra Day" is not an entertaining film itself. In case the expectations are not too high, this is a worthwhile and entertaining film, which I recommend to my fellow fans of Italian Crime flicks.

Both The Shark Hunter and Day of the Cobra feature director Enzo Castellari punching actor Franco Nero in the face. Is this some sort of in-joke?

Nero scruffs up as an Italian private investigator living in San Francisco as some sort off disgraced ex-cop. Down on his luck, he's contacted by Narcotics agent William Berger and given the task of going back to Genoa to track down a sinister figure called Kandisky, whom we see killing a guy who looks like Alan Partridge and stealing a key off him. This Kandisky person seems to be Nero's mortal enemy, and he heads off to Genoa to kick ass.

Once there, he enters a shady world of drug smuggling, imports, and Massimo Vanni wearing dodgy porn moustaches as he tries to track his prey. All is not as it seems, however, as he's followed everywhere, Kandisky starts taunting him by phone, and even glamourous night club ladies might actually be kung-fu expert men in drag.

This one takes a while to get cooking but its plain sailing due to Nero's eccentric Cobra character, who constantly chews gum and leaves it everywhere while bouncing a rubber ball all over the place. There's plenty of action, mostly of the punch up kind at first, but as the story goes on it becomes darker and more violent, with Nero not being able to trust anyone. He does have time to bed Sybil Danning a few times. Or maybe he was checking she wasn't a dude.

I do have a couple of niggles, however. While I'm always up for Nero shooting Massimo Vanni, he'd already shot him in the balls in High Crime, and Nero loses a kid to a speeding vehicle, like he did in the film High Crime. I have a sneaking suspicion that Castellari might have been running out of ideas here, which is why perhaps he moved on to ass-kicking post apocalyptic films.

You can't fault the back up cast here: Big Romano Puppo and Wee Massimo Vanni on hired goon duties, Ennio Girolami, William Berger, even Enzo's daughter Stefania sporting some dodgy looking dreadlocks. It all worked for me.

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.

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 . An American narcotics agent is murdered in Italy. The head of the department (William Berger) decides to contract Larry Stanziani, 'The Cobra'. Larry, a former agent and now a third-rate private eye goes to Genoa , Italy , where he uses the opportunity to get even with an old enemy, but soon he finds out he's facing a merciless criminal organization with mafia connections. As Larry looks for the main enemy , Leo Kandinsky (ordinary director Michele Soavi) , while he falls in love for a suspect disco music public relations called Brenda (striking Sybil Danning) . The ex-Italian agent is a man of action who'll stop at nothing to get his purports and at whatever cost , as he takes on a powerful European drug ring resulting in fateful consequences.

Formula thriller with plenty of action , crisply edition , intrigue , suspenseful , skin bared , twists , turns and lots of violence in exploitation style with reminiscent to "The French Connection" , "Dirty Harry" and ¨Charles Bronson¨films . A cop movie set in the Seventies , being realized in Italian style , and made by the prolific and cult director Enzo G Castellari . Here he delivers frenetic action , thriller and violence enough along the nail-biting flick . There is a good stuntwork with car races , spectacular action scenes , shootouts and grisly killings , many of them shot in slow-moving . Passable entry in Poliziesco sub-genre with noisy action , thrills , shootouts , betrayals , car chases , explosions and large doses of violence . It belongs to Italian Poliziesco sub-genre , essentially developed in the Seventies and including ordinary trappings such as lasting car pursuits sequences , virulent blowing up and a lot of murders executed in cold blood . The film is interesting enough , though it has some flaws , gaps and failures . This film results to be one of the best among the whole saga of Poliziottesco that had its splendor in the Seventies and early Eighties . Main and support cast are pretty good , as Franco Nero is terrific as the tough private detective who comes closer to the top of the underworld organization by using expeditive means against delinquents , then his odds of survival decrease , as he battles hardly against organized crime. Being an Italian production , here appears several familiar faces at the time , as the Italian secondaries as Mickey Knox , Massimo Vanni , Romano Puppo and William Berger. Furthermore , gorgeous Sybil Danning who provides some attractive scenes if brief nudity .

It contains atmospheric cinematography by Giovanni Bergamini. As well as thrilling and moving musical score by Paolo Vasile. The motion picture was well written by ordinary Tito Carpi , Fabio Carpi and Aldo Lado , produced in medium budget by Fabrizio De Angelis and professionally directed by Enzo G Castellari in his peculiar style. Enzo is considered to be one of the best Italian artisans, who has made a nice career, shooting all kinds such as Wartime : Counterfeit Commandos , Eagles over London. Adventures : Scaramouche, Shark hunter, Tuareg , Shark 3 . Sci-fi : Bronx warriors, Escape Bronx, Warriors of wasteland. Thrillers : Light blast, Il grand racket ,The day of Cobra, La via della droga , Forajidos 77. Terror : Diabla. Westerns : Keoma, Tedeum, 7 Winchester for a massacre, Matalos y vuelve, Johnny Hamlet, Any gun can play . Rating 5.5/10. Decent and acceptable Poliziesco that will appeal to Italian exploitation fans. Worthwhile watching for thriller crime enthusiasts but neither notable , nor extraordinary , but passable .