Milano rovente

Antonio Sabato is the perfect mixture of smarm and charisma in the role of Salvatore "Toto" Cangemi. He's a big name in the produce business in Milan, but this is really just a legitimate front for what he really likes to do: run a prostitution ring. His troubles begin when a smooth French criminal, Roger "The Captain" Daverty (Philippe Leroy), starts putting the pressure on Toto to get into drugs. Toto is pretty peeved, especially when The Captain insists on pocketing most of the potential income. This leads to a war between Toto and his fellow Sicilians and the Frenchman and his gang, with some interesting twists and turns along the way.

It's amusing watching an amoral p.o.s. like Toto be the focal point of a solid, if unexceptional, Eurocrime story. You don't like him - he's misogynistic, for one thing - but he remains fairly compelling. In fact, in this yarn there are very few innocents, or characters with genuine rooting interest. Still, it's fun to watch as these not-so-honourable crooks figure out ways to mess with each other. The film has its moments of violence - like acid thrown in a face, or the mutilating of a breast - but in truth is not all that gory. It IS an entertaining exercise in sleaze, and fans of the genre will have cause to be reasonably pleased. It's very nicely shot in widescreen and given an atmospheric score by Carlo Rustichelli.

Sabato is ably supported by a rich gallery of European talent: Leroy as the drug kingpin, Antonio Casagrande as Totos' associate Lino, lovely Carla Romanelli as novice hooker Virginia, Alessandro Sperli as wise American mobster Billy Barone, Franco Fantasia as the Inspector tasked with fighting organized crime, Tano Cimarosa as the victimized Nino Balsamo, and sexy Marisa Mell as Jasmina Sanders, the woman who turns Totos' head.

Noteworthy as the first Eurocrime feature for Umberto Lenzi, who may be better known (at least to some North American viewers) for his horror films of the 80s, like "Cannibal Ferox" and "Nightmare City".

Trashy and politically incorrect, "Gang War in Milan" shows its audience a good time.

Seven out of 10.

Antonio Sabato is Salvator 'Toto' Cangemi, a Milanese fruit and veg wholesaler whose more profitable sideline is prostitution. When French drug-dealer Roger 'The Captain' Daverty (Philippe Leroy) arrives on the scene, insisting that Toto uses his women to peddle heroin, a war breaks out and violence erupts. Toto's right hand man Lino Caruso (Antonio Casagrande) suggests bringing in his uncle Billy Barone (Alessandro Sperli), a gangster from America, to deal with the Frenchman, but in doing so, Toto faces further problems.

The general consensus seems to be that Umberto Lenzi's Gang War in Milan is not as good as his subsequent Poliziotteschi, Almost Human. I suspect the problem for many is that Toto, the central character, is every bit as unlikeable as those he is fighting against: he's a smarmy misogynist who treats women as commodities and will stop at nothing to maintain control of his business (whereas Tomas Milian in Almost Human was someone you could root for). Toto reminded me of Pacino in Scarface, but in my opinion that's not a bad thing: sometimes it's fun to watch a film full of characters with very few redeeming qualities battle it out for money and power, especially one that sees most involved get what they deserve in the end.

Unlike Almost Human, this film features absolutely no humour: it's a hard-edged crime film that delivers plenty of sleaze and brutality, much of the violence directed at women. It's gritty stuff and Lenzi, renowned for his gory Cannibal films, doesn't shy away from the violence. Toto's women are targeted by Daverty's henchmen, the ladies beaten, robbed, and killed. A prostitute has acid thrown in her face, and two are found mutilated in a car. But it's not all misogynistic brutality: in one harrowing scene guaranteed to have men crossing their legs, Lino is tortured with bare electrical wires applied to his genitals.

Lenzi keeps the action flowing nicely, with never a dull moment, and his cast are great, with Alessandro Sperli putting in a particularly fine, scene-stealing turn as Billy Barone, who puts a stop to the gang war once and for all in the predictable, but satisfying conclusion.

The first of Umberto Lenzi's Eurocrime film and went on to see several in the late 70s like The Tough Ones (1976), The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist (1977) and Brothers Till We Die (1978). This one is fine and maybe they get a bit better later. It is rather sleazy and certainly nasty but I have to say that the action gets on at the start and never stops. Antonio Sabato is a Sicilian who stars as a pimp with a massive prostitution operation while Philippe Leroy the great actor was French and gets into the action with his drugs and he is rather cool unlike Sabato is rather always shouting about. He was in a couple of gialli, The Man With Icy Eyes (1971) and Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (1972) also starred again and also with Lenzi. Leroy had made so many films like the splendid The Laughing Woman (1969) with Dagmar Lassander, Caliber 9 (1972) and The Night Porter (1974). Lenzi gets better with his Eurocrimes although with this one, he was in the middle of his great Gialli phase.

Salvatore "Toto" Cangemi(Antonio Sabato) is a sicilian who has made it big in Milan as a crime boss, his area being prostitution. He is approached by a French crime boss know as "Le Capitaine" he wants to go into business with Toto using his hookers to sell his drugs, only problem is the French aren't giving Toto much of an option. He decides against it and this leads to a big gang war, with tit for tat killings and Toto's hooker being beaten and kidnapped. Toto's second in command Lino Carruzzi, proposes getting his American crime boss uncle "Billy Barone" involved, Toto has little option but to agree in order to save his business. Highly un pc film, that denigrates women all over the place, promotes racial stereotypes and its also homophobic, despite this its an entertaining ride, there's even time for Toto to have some liaisons with the mysterious Jasmine (….but underused Marisa Mell). The violence is as you'd expect with Lenzi quite violent with breast slashings galore and even some genital electrocution…nice! Carlo Rustichelli's jazzy score is nice but a little overused.

As other reviewers have said this Umberto Lenzi "polizieschi" really pales compared to the director's earlier "Almost Human", which was one of the best of the entire genre, and Anthony Sabato is indeed a poor substitute for the great Tomas Milan. But this one does have its moments. This movie is about a "gang war in Milan" (the English title) between Sicilian pimps and French-connection drug dealers. The leader of former group (Sabato)brings in another menacing Sicialian godfather "Billy Barone" (Alessandro Sperli, who gives by far the best performance here) who ultimately turns out to be an even bigger threat than the "Frenchies".

Most of the violence here is actually aimed at the prostitutes who get raped, beaten, have acid thrown in their faces, etc (although the testicles of one male character do suffer an unfortunate encounter with a car battery). The violence against women may be kind of turn-off for some, but it's also pretty standard for this genre. Marissa Mell is kind of wasted as the protagonist's gold-digging upper-class girlfriend, but the luscious Carla Romanelli (who played the sexy maid in "The Sensuous Nurse") is good as a sympathetic streetwalker.

The film is enjoyably amoral. The police are almost irrelevant, and the gangsters are all equally vicious and double-dealing (and all of them are perfectly willing to traffick drugs). This is not one of the great Italian polizieschi, but it's pretty fun if you like the genre in general like I do.