Gli amici di Nick Hezard

Fernando De Leo nicks The Sting's plot for this Italian version of that Paul Newman heist film. That said, I'm so dumb I didn't realise this was the case until about forty minutes into the film.

Luc Merenda this time plays Swiss (French?) con artist Nick Hezard, a man who, along with hooker mother and non-hooker father, like to pull cons on rubes. Little does Nick know that big time crook/seemingly legitimate business Lee Cobb has just had his own diamonds stolen, killed the thief he hired to do the job, claims the insurance on the stuff, and sets up Nick Hezard to be the fall guy.

Hezard gets winds of this while pulling a scam on a train involving a dwarf as Cobb's hired goons plant a stolen jewel on him, and his fence then gets his throat slit for his trouble. At this point Hezard decides to scam Cobb of all of his cash using an extremely elaborate ruse, not made easy by Cobb's goons and an over-zealous investigator from the insurance company. Throat slashing aside, it's jolly japes from then on out.

I going to say right now that this is a film you've got to be in the mood for. De Leo's trying to shake things up a bit here and it's nice to see all that groovy split-screen work, plus those nifty set designs like Dagmar Lassander's black and white apartment, complete with diminishing nude pictures of herself on the walls, and Nick's mother's house that has scores of dolls hanging from the walls and ceiling. The music's fine too, but the comedy is very broad and Luc Merenda isn't exactly known for being a comedian. In saying that, he does give it a go, so it may just be the guy dubbing him who has let the side down.

Lee Cobb as usual is good as the grumpy old man, and it's nice to see William Berger in a Eurocrime film (he was in another that year, but that one seems lost in the fog of time).

If you think Tarantino is good watch this. It's him but better. This is a very Hitchcockian Poliziotesschi- there's many different kinds, some closer to grindhouse, some focusing on human drama, still others closer to giallo; this one is noir influenced. In these films you can see the massive influence that Euro crime hand on such 'visionaries' as Quentin Tarantino and especially Brian De Palma. True, they had bigger budgets and made the films look more refined but this is the wellspring of the modern Neo-noir and artistic thriller of today, taking things the next step after Hitchcock created the template. Absolutely phenomenal film! Look at his films Caliber 9, The Italian Connection, and The Boss for more great Euro Crime to see where this type of artistic thriller came from.

It should come as little surprise that this extremely likeable Italian Poliziottesco is made the grand magus of stylish 70s Euro-crime, Fernando Di Leo. 'Nick The Sting' has an engaging cast, a splendidly serpentine plot, sleek, break-neck pacing, and an excess of cinematic chutzpah. This cracking, twist-laden thriller remains no less essential to poliziotteschi freaks as 'Milano Calibro No 9' or 'Manhunt'. When two-bit con-man Nick Hezard (Luc Merenda) is hand-picked by duplicitous mob boss, Robert Clark, (Lee J. Cobb) to be the fall-guy for his audacious insurance scam; ultimately they both get a bit more than they initially bargained for!

Slick Nick's delectably sly revenge is to swindle the conniving Mobster for a ton of cash, besmirching his reputation, so severely that the disgraced gangster must leave town! Watching the artfully orchestrated heist, still makes for compelling viewing, as Fernando Di Leo's outstanding poliziottesco comes replete with all the requisite action one expects from the master filmmaker, plus a well-crafted script, and the muscular performances from Hollywood Heavy, Cobb, and relative newcomer, Merenda prove irresistible! Nick the Sting remains a refined, genuinely exhilarating crime caper, and it's a shame that such credible entertainment is so rarely mentioned outside of the cloistered, J&B-soaked world of the Euro-crime cognoscenti. A definite must-see for fans of, Di Leo's seemingly effortless brand of cinematic cool, and, once again, Luc Merenda's signature coiffure is a voluminous vision of transcendent beauty!