The Swap

Incorporates scenes from the 1969 film "Sam's Song" of Robert DeNiro (as Sam) playing an aspiring director who meets a couple (Warren and Mickey) and an apparently single woman (Crawford) with whom he develops mutual bonds over one party-filled weekend at the beach. But when he's murdered, his fiercely protective brother (Charnotta) vows to avenge his death and ten years' later upon his release from gaol, he pieces together Sam's final days to seek retribution.

Neither DeNiro nor Warren - whose stars had risen in the intervening years between the 1969 footage and this 1979 re-edit - appear in the subsequently shot scenes, though naturally much is made of their names in the credits for marquee value. Both Mickey and Crawford reprise their roles, but Charnotta is essentially the central character here, his interrogations abetted by Lisa Blount as his frustrated chauffeur who once 'worked' for his brother. James Brown has a couple of scenes as a detective warning Charnotta not to dig too deeply into his brother's murder, and the sultry Sybil Danning playing the modern-day Warren role is entirely wasted sitting behind a desk.

Tedious attempt at a film noir, bereft of action and suspense, just a dreary series of one-on-one conversations interspersed with flashbacks of the melodramatic romantic quartet, making the most out of DeNiro's scant, unrelated footage. Though there's an occasional promise of something entertaining, it never eventuates. Even the film's climax is a non-event, hampered by a shoestring budget that teases, but fails to deliver.

One of Robert De Niro's earliest films was a bad and forgettable film called "Sam's Song". A decade after its release, some unscrupulous boobs decided to integrate a few tiny clips of him from this film into a new film in order to capitalize on his recent successes such as "The Godfather" films as well as "Taxi Driver". And, to further exploit his fame, they gave him top billing even though he's barely in "The Swap" at all! Apart from the intro and a few tiny clips used here and there, he isn't even in the film!

As for the plot, it is also a rip-off. Clearly it's a reworking of the excellent Michael Caine film, "Get Carter". In both, a guy is in prison when his younger brother is killed--and he's determined to find and punish those responsible. Caine's film is a classic--this other version features wooden acting, terrible editing of the old and new film footage and almost zero energy. Overall, it's an awful little film that is better forgotten.

In 1969, Sam Nicoletti (Robert de Niro) is a film editor. He gets killed by a mysterious stranger. Ten years later, Sam's brother Vito gets out of prison. He starts investigating Sam's death as De Niro appears in flashbacks.

In 1969, an unknown Robert De Niro starred in a little movie called Sam's Song. It is little seen. Director Jordan Leondopoulos uses footage from that movie to incorporate into his new movie. He obviously couldn't get De Niro or anybody from the first movie. This is a jumble mess. I would love to watch a young De Niro in a nothing movie like Sam's Song. This is watching snippets of disjointed sections of that movie. I couldn't follow Sam's story and Vito's story is horribly stiff. Sam's Song looks like a bad indie and the new footage looks infinitely worst. Other than seeing a younger De Niro, this is not worth the effort.

In 1969 a young Robert De Niro starred in a drama called Sam's Song. It didn't make much in the way of profit but it got him noticed. Ten years later, a filmmaker wanted to get De Niro onto his project but didn't have the resources to do it. So he took to stealing much of Sam's Song & incorporating it into his own film. The result was The Swap.

Vito Nicoletti is released from prison after serving a twelve year sentence. He is on a mission to find out who killed his younger brother Sam ten years before. Meeting up with his late brother's friends, Vito finds that Sam was a porn filmmaker & had an underage girlfriend before he was killed. After a few close calls on his life, Vito sits down to watch the films that Sam had made in an effort to understand the murder. But upon watching the films, Vito realises that he had already met the killer.

The Swap was a complete disaster in terms of story-telling. When De Niro found out about the film's existence, he nearly launched a lawsuit. But this cheap thriller is so poor that it cancels itself out, leaving it to be relatively obscure today. The main problem is that De Niro's character is turned from a young romantic lead into a pornographer & a paedophile thanks to whoever wrote the film's script. This is part of why the film fails to entertain. Anthony Charnota makes a poor hero but at least he takes himself & his work seriously despite his gruff demeanor. Lisa Blount, about three years away from making a slightly better impression in the zombie film DEAD & BURIED makes a strangely cold love interest / sidekick to Charnota's ex-con.

Don't be duped by this. This is a poor movie. I made better in high school in the early nineties. It's preposterous that they had any right to use old footage of the great Robert DeNiro. Don't watch, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.