Il cinico, l'infame, il violento

Good poliziottesco flick

Maurizio Merli plays a tough, Chuck Norris lookalike ex-cop on the case to bring crime bosses to justice (AKA: to kill them). It's fun. There's a lot to like here. Chase scenes. Fight scenes. Heist scenes. The acting is pretty average. All in all, it's worth a watch if you're a fan of this kind of film!

'The Cynic, The Rat & The Fist' boisterously remains a most genial Lenzi-helmed poliziottesco classic, starring the appealingly familiar Teflon-tough triumvirate of Merli, Milian and Saxon; replete with so much scene chewing testosterone, it's a miracle that any celluloid remained for the final print!!! Sinful Saxon plays the boorish crim, Frank Di Maggio with charismatic muscularity, and there really can be only one avenging, fists-first, triumphantly thug-baiting copper up to the titanic task of carving a crimson swathe of retrograde justice through the ubiquitously iniquitous backstreets of Rome, and that man is the icon of hep-cat Poliziotteschi cool; an uber bellicose, bullet-blasting geezer with a majestic moustache fashioned out of living granite; give it up for, Maurizio Merli!!! The protean arch nemesis to sordid skeezers, blood-thirsty blaggers, and pernicious pimps, be they vertical inebriate, or horizontal degenerate; you foolhardily cross that intractable line on murderously macho Merli's gimlet-eyed watch and you're going home in a gore-spattered, snug-fitting zip lock tuxedo! The swarthy Saxon fatally bites off more than he can chew, and ends up choking on the fist-sized, jaw-breaking, righteously roundhouse-rocking might of Maurizio Merli!

While 'The Cynic, The Rat & The Fist' isn't the greatest Merli/Lenzi pairing, it's pretty damn close, and that can only mean one thing, my Eurocrime-loving compadres, an exhilaratingly intense example of J&B-fuelled, ferociously Fiat-fragging Italian action!

This is one of the better poliziotteschi I've seen - written by Lenzi with two other Euro-Cult stalwarts, Ernesto Gastaldi and Dardano Sacchetti - and also, perhaps, the quintessential Maurizio Merli film (not that this, in itself, is a guarantee of quality!).

From the title, one presumes that this was intended to be THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (1966) of crime films - although, here, the shifty alliance is made between two baddies (Tomas Milian - dubbed "The Chinaman", for some reason a favorite nickname in films from this subgenre! - and John Saxon). Again, having just watched COP IN BLUE JEANS (1976) the previous day, I couldn't help noticing just how many of these films open with a robbery sequence; likewise, the leading man's girlfriend generally emanates from the wrong side of the tracks and is victimized for aiding our hero during the course of the film!

As is to be expected, the film's pace never lets up by providing a steady quota of highly proficient action scenes - culminating in a heist committed at one of Saxon's offices by Milian's thugs(!) and which also involves Merli and "The Professor", an elderly pint-sized expert in gadgetry, in the elaborate diffusion of the building's security system. Still, characterization is not entirely neglected: Merli is obsessed with catching Milian (even if the two only come face to face at the climax) and, feigning his own death, works undercover to this end but remains in contact with his chief; Milian is a small- time hood with ambitions of taking over the territory of American mobster Saxon; the latter, then, is the typical gangster - wealthy, ruthless (with a penchant for leaving traitors at the mercy of his enormous hounds!) and apparently omnipotent. The scenes in which the villainous duo clash - each with his own agenda which sees no place in the scheme of things for the other! - constitute some of the film's highlights; Franco Micalizzi's score is also notable.

Even if the film's in no way a spoof as COP IN BLUE JEANS had been, its script features a comparable surfeit of hard-boiled dialogue which is so over-the-top as to be quite funny - extending even to the notes of condolences passed on amongst the criminals as a means of heralding someone's death sentence!

I've always remember of Umberto Lenzi in "La Montagma di Luci" that never hear about and hope one day see it again on DVD, fantastic picture from one the most prolific italian director of all times, he made several movies in every genre you can imagine, in this poiziotteschi he made an another crime movie exploited a famous underground of the gangs which have to launder the dirty money from their so many felonies, the leading trio Milian, Merli are a true italian, already John Saxon is an Oriundi, specifically speaking over Merli l've have to confess never saw a thing from him, but undoubtedly a fine actor (Franco Nero's Cover??) the plot is unusual and intense pace, Lenzi does it again!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5

My estimation of Umberto Lenzi has risen over the years. Maybe I shouldn't have started with his late-era movies like House of Lost Souls etc, but during the seventies he was one of the great. This is a perfect example of what I'm talking about.

If there's a bad Italian crime movie, I haven't seen it. This one has Maurizio Merli as a cop driven to fake his death as Tomas Milian gets out of jail and swear revenge. You seen these films, right? I don't have to explain any more (gunfights, fistfights, car chases, showdowns).

These films, above all Italian genre movies, make me feel like a little kid again, from the music, to the style, to John Saxon's moustache, you just can't beat them. This is benefits from having Merli, Saxon, and especially Milian trying to out act each other.

The Cynic, The Rat and The Fist makes me want to go out, by a kipper tie and flared pastel suit, grow a moustache, grab a bottle of J&B, light up a Malboro, slip the safety of a sub-machine gun and jump onto a moped with a hooker with a heart of gold (who isn't averse to a friendly smack in the chops if she gets lippy).

Get it now - you can get box sets of these from the US for pennies.