Lutring... réveille-toi et meurs

Although the poliziotteschi sub-genre would not dominate the Italian box-office until the 1970's - a period which also saw crime movies in American cinema become distinctly grittier - it's roots can be traced back to the early work of director Carlo Lizzani. His early work, such as Wake Up and Kill (also known as Wake Up and Die) and The Violent Four (1968), laid the foundations for a rougher crime flick, movies that weren't afraid be socially aware or show Italy as the haven for crime and corruption it had become. For Wake Up and Kill, Lizzani took inspiration from one of the country's most popular Robin Hood figures - Luciano Lutring.

To be honest, I hadn't heard of Lutring before I was reading up about the film before watching it. I also doubt many people outside of Italy, or perhaps France (where Lutring served 12 years in prison), would have heard of him either, but his story is a familiar one. The likes of Ned Kelly and Jesse James come immediately to mind - criminals who are pardoned of their acts through folk-tales, becoming mythic heroes in the process. Lutring (played with a charismatic swagger by Robert Hoffman) robs jewels in broad daylight by smashing shop windows with a hammer and grabbing what he can. As his fame rises and his reputation hardens, he turns increasingly violent, carrying a sub-machine gun in a violin case which lends him the name "the machine-gun soloist,".

At first, Lizzani draws us into a sexy world of crime where every robbery lacks sophistication but sets the pulse racing, with sexy club singer Yvonne (Lisa Gastoni) soon on Lutring's arm before she realises what she's gotten herself into. Led by the determined Inspector Moroni (Gian Maria Volonte), the police are always one step behind Lutring's crime-spree. A few moments of casual domestic violence aside, Lizzani mainly portrays Lutring in a sympathetic light, being sexed-up by the media and blamed for crimes he didn't commit. For the crimes he does commit, Lizzani delivers a couple of well-handled and realistic set-pieces, usually in broad daylight. But at just shy of two hours (there are various versions of the movie out there - it appears I saw the longest) Wake Up and Kill feels dragged out, despite closing with a fantastic open-ended final scene.

Given the choice of viewing a full length original subtitled version of a film or a shortened UK language version, I would always choose the first option. Given this choice on the Arrow Blu-ray release, however, I learned from somewhere that the original version might appear to drag in parts and went for the shorter version. This is so great, with fast action and continuous, exciting location cinematography that I will now have to watch the other as well. Based on a true story with filming beginning just three months after the guy's arrest and in the cinemas within a year, this is breakneck, budget film making at its best. Robert Hoffmann and Lisa Gastoni are both effective and charismatic in the lead roles but in truth it is those fabulously shot sequences along sparkling streets, shop fronts and bar interiors that make this such an evocative and exciting movie.

Gifted Director, Carlo Lizzani's audacious, adrenaline-fuelled, greatly influential poliziotteschi classic 'Wake Up & Kill' (1966) is the ceaselessly locomotive true crime classic that so energetically dramatizes the frantic, media-hyped rise, and subsequent ignominious fall of photogenic smash-and-grab merchant, Luciano Lutring. While filmed a good few years before the hyperbolic, bullet-blasted, road-carnage heyday of poliziotteschi mayhem masterminded by exploitation titans, Lenzi/Martino/Massi et al., Lizzani's no less thrilling 'Wake Up & Kill' expresses its very own unique personality! The dynamic, cinema verite style, the director cannily utilized allowed for considerably more intimacy, pathos and emotional gravitas over the grievous, downward spiralling plight of infamous jewel thief, Lutring (Robert Hoffman) and his ravishing songbird paramour, Angela (Lisa Gastoni).

This consistently exhilarating 60s true crime drama forcefully grabs you from the explosive intro, as screenwriter, Ugo Pirro's cogent script keeps the viewer wholly immersed in misguided misfit, Lutring's cavalier, hubristic, whiskey-soaked Riviera crime spree that inexorably attracts the mercenary attentions of the over-mythologizing press, hyperbolically dubbing him the 'machine gun soloist'; a glib moniker that wily inspector, Moroni (Gian Maria Volonté) ardently hopes he might be able to stop becoming a statistical fact! The autobiographical film's vivid action sequences are no less dynamically rendered than the morbidly fascinating, increasingly desperate relationship between steadfastly loyal, Angela, and her fractious, machine gun-toting hoodlum husband, ostensibly leading them both to an inevitably destructive climax! 'Wake Up & Kill' might still be highly regarded as an influential true-crime masterpiece even without its scintillating score by, Ennio Morricone, yet sonorously endowed with such an enthralling theme, Carlo Lizzani's muscular, torn-from-the-headlines thriller is vertiginously elevated to that of a minor genre masterpiece! The beautifully restored Arrow Video Blu-ray is a fantastic addition to any avid film fan's Euro-Cult collection.

In German-speaking countries, the Austrian actor Robert HOFFMANN (1939 - 2022) became known through his title role in the ZDF Advent four-parter ROBINSON CRUSOE (1964) and through a supporting role in the horror thriller NEUES VOM HEXER (1965). But soon the Roman dream factory of CINECITTA also became aware of the handsome HOFFMANN and cast him in an exciting precursor to the numerous Italian gangster films that later appeared.

In Milan, Luciano Lutring (Robert HOFFMANN) is active as a small-time crook. The pretty singer Yvonne (Lisa GASTONI) initially has no idea about this when she falls in love with the smart blonde. After all, she desperately wants to get away from her criminal ex (Claudio CAMASO as Franco). But soon after marrying Luciano, Yvonne realizes that her husband is also a jewel thief. The singer also likes the jewelry and the many furs, but she is afraid that her husband is slipping deeper into the world of crime. The clever Inspector Moroni (Gian Maria VOLONTE) takes advantage of this fear by turning Yvonne into a tipster.

Carlo LIZZANI's film is largely based on true events and offers other attractions in addition to Milan, Nice and Lugano. Lisa GASTONI gets to wear really adorable clothes (red raincoat and white fur) and sing two beautiful songs written by Ennio MORRICONE (OSCAR 2016: ACADEMY AWARD for THE HATEFUL EIGHT). From then on, Robert HOFFMANN was a busy actor at CINECITTA, without making a big breakthrough. After the end of the Italian cinema miracle at the beginning of the 1980s, his appearances became more and more sporadic. At the end of the 1980s, Robert HOFFMANN appeared again for two episodes as a guest star in the hit series DALLAS (when the Ewings were in Vienna). When the actor died in the summer of 2022, however, he was unfortunately as good as forgotten. No media coverage in German-speaking countries, anywhere!

But you can see him at a very young age in this Italian gangster film from the very beginning. It's definitely worth it for fans!

Before "Bonnie and Clyde" (1968) and the American Ultra-Stylized Revolution.

Italian Cinema was Trending Toward Realistic, although Heightened Imagery.

Influenced itself by the French "New Wave" and the Public's Maturing Taste for Evolutionary Input with Their Entertainment.

More Violence, More Sex, More Action, More Movement, More-More-More.

In this Mid-Sixties Thriller, based on a True Story, the Action Only Let's Up for the Love and Bickering of the "Crash and Grab" Jewelry Thief and His Wife.

Taking Place in Italy and France Mostly.

The Film is Highlighted by Remarkable On-Location, Cinema Verite Style Street Stuff. Glittering, Glossy, and Gritty Scenes and a Prescient Score by Moriconni.

The Police and Press Become Involved and What Happens Surrounding these "Lovers on the Run" is a Sight to Behold.

The Film Feels Disjointed and Jarringly Incomprehensible at Times,

but there is No Time to Dwell, because Things Pick Up and Power On Relentlessly.

For About 2 Hours the Movie Hardly Gives You Time to Breath and the Experience of Watching this Beautiful Mayhem may leave some "Breathless".

A Frenetic, Frenzy of a Film that Paved the Way for American and European Cinema Styles for Decades.

The Influence can Still be Felt Today.

A Must-See for Film Historians,

or Anyone Wanting an Overdose of Movie-Madness at its Most Colorful, Chaotic and Playful.