Le boss

Henry Silva again appears in this, the final part of the Mileau Trilogy (along with The Italian Connection and Caliber 9). Three great films by Fernando Di Leo.

While this is the weakest of the three, it is the one closest to my heart as my family comes from Palermo and Camporeale in Sicily. It's a mafia war, and has a heavy influence from The Godfather.

In fact, the top Godfather in this film is Richard Conte, Don Barzini from The Godfather, Antonia Santilli plays Don D'Aniello's daughter, who is kidnapped in the battle. She is a wild child that bonds instantly with the kidnappers.

The one thing I cannot figure from the translation is how Italian police talk about "wankers." Did a Brit do the translation?

The Boss is the third and final part of Fernando Di Leo's loose trilogy based on organised crime, and it's also the weakest. Milano Calibro 9 and The Italian Connection are without doubt two of the finest examples of this genre, but while this one isn't particularly bad; it's not great either, and despite a number of standout moments; The Boss grinds to a halt on more than one occasion, and I was nowhere near as gripped during this film as I was during the other two parts of this trilogy. The film is more focused on the 'organised crime' angle than the other two films; and The Godfather seems like an obvious influence. The film focuses on a war between two rival mafia families. Things start to get out of control after an attack on the local porn theatre, which leaves a load of gang members dead. Naturally, the wronged gang decides to take revenge for these killings and goes about kidnapping the rival don's daughter Rina Daniello. At the centre of the tale is the Nick Lanzetta, the assassin behind the killings in the theatre.

The film gets off to an explosive start with a sequence that sees the central character blow a load of people away with a grenade launcher. This is somewhat misleading; as a film with an opening like this really promises excitement all the way through, but unfortunately things slow down after that, which really annoyed me. The film does feature some other interesting scenes (including a nice death scene that sees someone get a flick knife in the mouth), but The Boss never manages to top its opening scene. A lot of the film is made of talking, and that's not what I tune into this sort of film for; I prefer my Polizi full blooded and full of car chases and gun fights. Like the superior 'Italian Connection', this film stars Henry Silva. The cult actor made a number of these films, and he suits the hit-man role well. Seasoned Italian cult film actor Richard Conte stars alongside Silva and also does well also. I have to say that I was losing interest by the end, but thankfully the film does have just about enough about it to ensure that it's worth seeing for fans of this usually wonderful genre.

The indelibly iconic, 'Il Boss' remains a sinuous, stiletto-sharp, heroically hard-boiled Mafiosi-noir from famed poliziotteschi stylist, Fernando Di Leo. Starring the notably stern, Stoic to the point of terminal rigidity, Henry Silva, delivering yet another coolly charismatic performance as the vicious,ice-veined terror-thug, Nick Lanzetta, with fading Hollywood matinee idol, Richard Conte lending his swarthy, old world gravitas to the meaty role of octogenarian Sicilian king pin, Don Carrasco. All this uniquely explosive, stylishly rendered retribution is excitingly catalysed by another funky, uber infectious score by long-time, Di Leo collaborator, maestro Luis Enriquez Bacalov. 'Il Boss' thunderously remains an absolutely essential, mongoose mean Spaghetti shoot 'em up, and thankfully, Di Leo flinches not a jot from the requisite Mafiosi movie mantra of seriously squib-happy ultra violence! If you have yet to be dazzled by any of maestro, Fernando Di Leo's strikingly stylish, meticulously crafted gangster epics, one should manifestly start here, as the Neolithically nasty, Nick Lanzetta is one of the most mesmerically Machiavellian, blithely blood thirsty hit man to have ever blazed a ballistically bellicose swathe across the Silva screen!

One of his best films from Fernando Di Leo, violent and thrilling, sometimes thought of as the, 'King of the B's', and those were certainly considered the best of the poliziesco films. Known as writer and director early on of one of the best scripted spaghetti western and later for directing these splendid thrillers. Although he made a couple of sexy ones, Asylum Erotica (1971) with Rosalba Neri and Klaus Kinski and really liked, To Be Twenty (1978) with Gloria Guida and Ray Lovelock. But he is really known for these splendid action-packed poliziesco. This is the third of his trilogy, first with Caliber 9 (1972) and The Italian Connection (1972) even if these are thought of as better than this one this is still great and especially has a wonderful turn by Henry Silva. This is the one with the amazing killing in the porno cinema at the beginning and although there is a number of great actors like Richard Conte and the poor girl, who had to be kidnapped, is Antonia Santilli, had been in theatre and as a model and appeared in Playmen, an Italian adult magazine. She does a real performance in this, nude most of the time (a copy of the magazine in the film?) and has a sad ending, although I have to say that such a lot of people die in this one.

The first Fernando Di Leo film I've seen, and I heard it was one of his lesser films. But wow, if this is true than I can't wait to see the rest because I am impressed. Firstly it opens with a bloody, explosive scene borrowed from by Quentin Tarantino in "Inglorious Bastards," which makes Quentin's version a tad lamer. After that it doesn't lose its momentum, and were given an hour and a half of cool violence by an Italian hitman with a killer soundtrack playing in the background. The lady love in this film, a nympho, the daughter of the "Don" was also nice to look at. Overall an original film with decent characters and little dull moments. A good poliziotteschi.