La legge dei gangsters

Part groovy Italian exploitation and part gangster movie, about the only enjoyable part of this movie is studying the young Klaus Kinski. I suppose this was made before Klaus became unbearable to work with due to the fact this was one of eight movies he made in 1969 alone. He's young, strong, and takes direction well. Only a minor performance from Franco Citti (Bruno) whom you can also find in the Italian segment of The Godfather (1972) as Michael's bodyguard and in Pasolini's Decameron (1971) though not much elsewhere unless you like more Italian crime films. The rest of the cast played well, but the movie lacked direction from the beginning. At only 89 minutes, it felt that at 40 the movies should have already been finished. After the robbery and flashback portion, the movie ran out of steam and regressed into droll segments highlighting each robber's downfall. Ending with ineffective shootouts and car chases, I was squirming in my seat for the movie to wrap up what I already knew was going to happen. Aside from short scenes of dancing in a night club that was shot and edited in a decidedly "groovier" style than the rest of the movie, I don't recommend renting or buying this Italian-made crime/revenge caper.

A botched bank robbery has just taken place. One of the gang is wounded and lying in the back of a van being driven to a rendezvous point. The film then flashes back to events prior to the robbery, where we see Mr Pink and Mr Brown…wait…I'm just foolin. Gangster's Law isn't that similar to Reservoir Dogs. It's much better than that.

Our band of dodgy robbers include an Italian guy with sunglasses, his mate the Italian guy, and a big Italian fella with a moustache, and an ugly Italian guy who's really bad at dancing, and two Italian guys who frequently attend 'freak out' parties, one of whom has a really startling pair of eyebrows! But they wouldn't be anything without their financier, non-Italian, hat wearing Klaus Kinski. He doesn't do much when the robbery happens, but he sure gets proactive when the cash is procured.

Kinski doesn't do much for the first half of the film (besides driving), so instead we get to know our robbers. Turns out they ain't a bad lot really, just a bunch of something or others with a heart of gold and that. You do get a bit attached to them and the whole set up and execution of the robbery is well done, thanks to a very groovy soundtrack and a tense atmosphere, so when Kinski goes nuts and comes after them with a pistol, it's either temporal lobe epilepsy or you actually care about the characters.

Highlights include: the bit at the end there at the docks, the demented speech by one of the robber's girlfriends that involves a lot of muttering about freaking out and changing the world, Kinski stalking a robber with a machine gun, and Kinski, with his patented 'one eye going to the shops and the other eye coming back with the change' look, trying to passionately kiss an actress who must be waking up in a cold sweat to this day. Cool it down Klaus! You look like you're trying to swallow her head! In fact, you are Klaus Kinski after all, so that might be what you're trying to do.

Lowlights include: the terrible full frame copy provided by 23rd Century, which at one point drops out completely and gives the viewer a 'no signal' message as well as cutting out what must have been loads of cool action from the edges of the screen. Why can't fly-by-night pound line, dodgy grey area pirate copy vendors get their act together and release a widescreen version of this? And don't give me that '23rd Century went bust about six years ago' jive.

Given the relative obscurity of this I didn't expect much, but it's considerably better than a lot of 70s Italian crime/cop thrillers (and indeed feels more mid-70s despite being a few years older).

As for a prior reviewer's complaint that there's not enough Klaus, well--of course you have never have enough Klaus, but while he doesn't appear much in the first half (and then only in isolation or with a girl, never with the other main actors), he dominates much of the second half as a cold-blooded killer who muscles in on the protagonists' bank robbery after it's a done deal. Klaus doesn't get a lot of dialogue but he's fascinating nonetheless, making his character shift constantly from an icy, complete lack of empathy to (any time he's threatened himself) complete cowardice.

The rest of the cast, playing the motley crew of heist conspirators, are a fine assortment of 2nd-rung Italian lead and character actors from the era, plus the usual couple Eurobabes with decorative if thankless roles. The script is above-average, the direction more than competent, the whole thing pretty consistently interesting and well thought-out if never wildly original. The one very 60s element is a couple scenes at a psychedelic discotheque (the music throughout is very good, both instrumental score and songs).

The big minus in the cut-rate old VHS I watched was that it was full-frame, and this was very clearly a widescreen movie--sometimes significant figures or action were cut off. If I'd seen it in ideal form I'd probably bump it up to a 7.

Given the mediocre and derivative nature of many Italian crime flix that followed, it seems odd this quite good if not certifiably great one doesn't have a better rep.

well being a Kinski fan if felt that it didn't contain enough scenes with him in it. There were some nice surprises along the way but nothing of real substance---including 'B' movie substance--- unfortunately it was too boring to be a nice form of kitch. There is one nice scene of a 60's art party where devilry and fornication included some horrible psychodelia and sweaty Italians dancing. Not bad---but not enough to keep a sane person interested. There is a few scenes where Kinski is being a total malicious killer and he thinks much like a wild animal killing anything for his own greed and no human emotion is felt by him. I wouldn't bother with this one leave it and go do something constructive with your time like watch your laundry in the dryer.