Napoli si ribella

When Naples steps out of line: EuroCRIME with Luc MERENDA

This film by Michele Massimo TARANTINI is certainly not the strongest crime film from the Italian heyday of the genre.

Luc Merenda plays an inspector who comes to Naples and has to get used to some of the drudgery. Enzo Cannavale plays his assistant, who is completely different from the dashing inspector. But he can drive like hell; it's not for nothing that they call him "Nicola Lauda." The way the unlikely team pulls together and sets their sights on their common enemy Don Domenico (Claudio Gora) is one of the film's strengths. It is also interesting that three complex female characters are introduced: the not so "eternal" victim Rosa (Sonia Viviani), the cunning lady boss Carola (Marianne Comtell) and the smart girl Luisa (Francesca Guadagno). Beyond that, only dozens of items are offered from the assembly line. There are more worthy representatives of the genre.

The Italian audience seems to have liked it quite a bit, with 999 million ITL sales in the domestic box office being decent. The film did not make it into West German cinemas.

This is the first film I've seen by Tarantini and hope to see other work by him. The story is about a Milanese cop (Luc Merenda) assigned to bust the mob in Naples. What makes the film worth watching is that the film has bits of unexpected originality sparking what would have been in lesser hands, a routine film. Tarantini also uses very dynamic framing in the cinematography, with lots of low angle shots as well as using extreme close ups for contrast. The action includes several shoot outs, car chases and a fistful of dynamite. While some of the humor is culture specific with the rivalry between northern and southern Italy, other bits are handled lightly eliciting some earned chuckles courtesy of co-star Enzo Cannavele. The DVD probably looks better than when the film first hit theaters, with 5.1 Dolby I am sure it sounds better.

Ah well...the title says enough really. This is a cheap Eurocrime flick and it shows. The hero is played by a "handsome" Italian with the acting skills and charisma of a goldfish. Action is okay, soundtrack is pretty loud. All in all...there are better Eurocrime films out there.

Man, I pity those poor fellows who end up being Mafia bosses. Must be a really stressful job. You've got to uphold the exterior 'upstanding citizen' routine so that hotheaded cops can be shouted down by their superiors, you make high pressure drug deals with other high-level guys, and worst of all, your employees are all nasty criminals by default, so the ever present threat of one of them double crossing you must be a terrible strain.

Look at the fella in this film, Don Whatsisface. He sets up a nice deal with German guy to supply him a whole lot of dope, then someone turns around, guns down the dealers, and still steals the blow. You just can't get the employees. Get this though - someone then double crosses the henchman that double crossed the mob boss, which ends up in a whole heap of corpses for the cops to clean up.

One of those cops in Luc Merenda, and he's just arrived in Naples from Milan to find that the pizza is a lot better, but the crime is just as bad as everywhere else. Luc and his Neopolitan sidekick set off to figure out what the hell is going on with these shooting, with a little help from a mystery grass who keeps sending him hand drawn pictures of crime that are about to happen.

So it's business as usual for this Eurocrime film, but there's loads of action, car chases, and Merenda beating up bad guys, so who's going to complain? That actor playing his sidekick is rather good too, giving a bit more humanity to the blossoming bromance between the two cops. There's also a fair amount of violence with one particular gangster whacking rather a lot of people, including one guy who get blown up by dynamite.

Ah, M. M. Tarantini ... This man, who's not to be confused with the obviously much less talented American director whose name ends with an "o", perhaps wasn't the greatest or most prolific director of his Italian generation, but I have yet to see a film of his that disappoints me! "Massacre in Dinosaur Valley" and "Women in Fury" are tremendously entertaining exploitation schlock-movies from the 80s, and with "Poliziotti Violenti" from 1976 he also proved himself more than capable of making solid & action-packed euro-crime thrillers. "Napoli Si Ribella" is also a very worthwhile "Poliziotesschi" for the fans of this wondrous sub-genre to seek out, although admittedly it's less spectacular and extreme than the contemporary efforts by fellow directors like Umberto Lenzi or Stelvio Massi (and usually starring Maurizio Merli)

For starters, I refuse to use the commercially promoted title "A Man Called Magnum". Luc Merenda's protagonist character is named Mauri, and everyone in the film also addresses him as Mauri. Nobody calls him Magnum. Mauri is a highly respected police commissioner from Milan who travels to Napoli with the mission to rid the city of drug cartels, gang wars, and the brutal mafia executions that put innocent civilians at risk. Mauri takes his job very seriously and finds an unexpected ally in the big Don's 10-year-old daughter who sends drawings to the police station, revealing details of the clan's upcoming crimes.

"Napoli Si Rebella" features several strongpoints, including the ingenious plot detail of the little girl's drawings, a few exciting car chases and shoutouts, and a terrifically loathsome and utmost evil henchman character who goes by the street name "Dogheart". You know the type, he's the guy who does all the dirty work for the distinguished gangsters that never leave their lair, and who has zero moral values or job restrictions. As depicted by the stoic Adolfo Lastretti, "Dogheart" is as relentless as Italian gangsters come.

The movie has its weaknesses too, obviously. Although an excellent and charismatic actor - and a true icon of Poliziotesschi to boot - Luc Merenda's role is somewhat disappointing. He's a good cop, but not the borderline obsessive or wildly unorthodox cop that we have grown to expect. He doesn't drink, upset his superiors, sleep with female informants, shoot criminals on sight, or wrecks half the city when chasing the bad guys. How boring. All the other Poliziotesschi trademarks (soundtrack, nudity, comic relief, rough editing, explosions, ...) are there as well, but not as prominent as in other titles.