Tough Guys

Having previously been in Black Caesar and its sequel, Hell Up in Harlem, it's not too surprising to see Fred Williamson play the kind of role that's the opposite of his usual good guy. As such, he's not in the movie very long despite his name being one of the three above the title. The other two are Lino Ventura and Isaac Hayes, the latter making his film debut as well as contributing the music score not unlike what he did for the original Shaft. Ventura is a priest and Hayes is an ex-cop who's looking for the same people for different reasons. I'll just now say this was quite an exciting thriller taking place in the city of Chicago during the time I lived there as a child with my family. Unfortunately, the print I watched online was a second generation one looking nearly blurry throughout. Still, I recommend Three Tough Guys. P. S. I also like Paula Kelly in this.

The Black Moses, The Hammer, and The Preacher Man. They've got their own kind of mean game.

This film is directed by Duccio Tessari, assisted by a staff of other unknown Italians. What else has he done? A whole lot of things you never saw, including a film called "Sundance Cassidy and Butch the Kid".

The opening theme sounds like a take on the "Shaft" theme, which is no surprise as it is sung by Isaac Hayes, who stars alongside Fred Williamson. Mysteriously, the song is about "two tough guys" (not three, as the title claims) and seems to be the inspiration for Hayes' later song about Beavis and Butt-Head.

The picture quality, at least on the Fortune 5 DVD, is incredibly blurry or fuzzy at times, especially when light saturation is involved. Aside from that, it is pretty standard for the time, and almost good considering the notoriously awful quality Italian productions have.

Seems to be set in America, but the priest has a thick accent. What is this?

THREE TOUGH GUYS is a film with varied influences. Made with French and Italian funding, shot in America by an Italian crew and produced by Dino De Laurentiis, it's a movie that attempts to cash-in on two big genres of the time: the blaxploitation film and the gangster epic. Thus we get a buddy-buddy cop story in which a hard-fighting priest and a tough black ex-cop team up to battle some gangster types searching for missing loot. The guy directing this is Duccio Tessari, a guy who pumped out a few peplum and spaghetti western flicks among others during a long and varied career.

Despite – or maybe because of – the diverse influences, this film actually works as a fairly good thriller. It hasn't got much in it that's not been seen elsewhere, but the story moves along quickly and the various shoot-outs and fist-fights are well handled. It also boasts some interesting leads. I don't know who Lino Ventura is, but his hard-bitten priest character is definitely tough. Isaac Hayes, playing opposite him, is a giant of a man with the softest of voices, and contributes some decent music to the proceedings. The third of the tough guys is Fred Williamson, appearing as a little-seen villain in this. It's unusual seeing Williamson cast as a bad guy and I wish he'd been on screen more, but there's no knocking his presence. Character actors familiar from Italian cinema pop up, like William Berger and Jess Hahn.

There are a few car chases thrown in for good measure, along with some antagonistic cops and a fantastic interlude in which one of our heroes is very nearly fed into a furnace. The set-piece finale takes place at a run-down bowling alley, but not before plenty of people have been shot or beaten up. It may not win any awards for wit or originality, but THREE TOUGH GUYS is a perfectly serviceable entry in both the blaxploitation and crime genres.

This is to my knowledge Lino Ventura's only American production (though directed by an Italian director):it's amazing for an European to see him play opposite Isaac Hayes ,but the pair works quite well.

Ventura portrays a priest ,an updated version of Leo MCCarey's Father O' Maley ("going my way" ) in the seventies ,who does not content himself with celebrating the mass (the way he finishes his second service is very funny) but keeps a close watch on his flock and plays the occasional detective .His colorful character contrasts with his co-star's restrained performance who also wrote the music as he often did at the time.There's also a supporting part of a finally modern bishop.

Good actors ,but a very derivative screenplay however.

It's probably due to the cheap and clumsy transfer to the Grindhouse Collection DVD, but the picture quality and lighting of this film are absolutely awful! I know this is supposed to be some type of "Blaxploitation" movie, but if I'm not mistaken, this term doesn't mean staring at a black screen the whole time! Several sequences, especially during the first half hour, you have completely no idea what to make of because you only see darkness and vague shadows moving around. And now that we're pointing out the abnormalities anyway, there's something seriously wrong with the title of "THREE Tough Guys". Three? Somebody bring on an abacus, because the correct title ought to be TWO tough guys. At least the soulful theme song got it right. It's not hard to guess why the producers opted to put the number three in the title, though. Fred Williamson receives top billing even though he barely has any screen time and he's also referred to as another one of the tough guys in spite of the fact he's not so tough (he beats women and shoots people in the back) and operating on the wrong side of the law. Williamson's name obviously just served to attract more viewers, as he just scored big Blaxploitation hits with "Black Caesar" and "Hammer", whereas the real tough black dude - Isaac Hayes - would only become a huge star shortly after the release of "Three Tough Guys", namely with his very own testosterone-packed blockbuster "Truck Turner". Say what you want about these Italian filmmakers, but they are great marketers! Anyway, onwards with the story, this opens with the cowardly murder of an insurance agent outside a nightclub. Apparently he was single-handedly investigating a million dollar bank heist and came a little too close to the truth. His closest friend – a tough ex-veteran turned priest – swears to catch whoever killed him and starts a nightly private investigation via sleazy bars and dark alleys filled with heavily armed thugs… on his bike, nonetheless! Father Charlie soon receives back-up from a former cop who has a score of his own to settle. It's no real secret that all traces eventually lead to Williamson, the über-villain for a change! "Three Tough Guys" is a neat hybrid between Italian exploitation and Baadassssssss Cinema, although not highly memorable and badly suffering from the lamentable production values. There are slightly too many tedious sequences to struggle through, but the on screen chemistry between Isaac Hayes and Lino Ventura feels surprisingly authentic and the script contains several funny parts. The amount of brutal violence and sleaze is quite a letdown, but Hayes' own soundtrack is very catchy and Duccio Tessari's ("The Bloodstained Butterfly", "Death Occurred Last Night") direction is fairly solid. So far, the Grindhouse Collection box-set is the only way to get your dirty little hands on this film, but I do hope a fully restored version will appear on DVD in the near future, as it deserves to be slightly more known.