La mafia fait la loi

I've always wanted to go to Sicily, but this tale of the law and the mafia clashing has now made me fear that an old woman might call me a whore from the window a passing car.

Just outside of a sleep Sicilian town, a construction manager is ambushed in his truck and shot dead while trying to escape. The assassin is spotted by a local man, and we forsee the problems the police are going to have as we as the audience witness people purposefully ignoring the corpse until a member of the Caribinieri forces the driver of the bus he is on to stop.

New hot-shot police Captain Franco Nero is straight on the case, being new to Sicily and naïve about the way things work there. He knows that the local Godfather Don Mariano (Lee Cobb) is behind it all, but in front of him there are endless underlings, hit men, liars and even the general public covering things up. It's all to do with building contracts for a new road, but how can Nero stop them when even the dead man's brothers are reluctant to help?

Hope lies in the shape of Claudia Cardinale, because it was her husband that witnessed the murder, but then again the husband has gone missing. Rumour and lies fly about the place trying Claudia's husband to the killing, claiming that Claudia had made him a cuckold. Claudia is adamant that she has been faithful to her husband, but what can one woman do against the might of the mafia, and their strange 'sweety wife' tactics that turn the public against her.

Those heading here from Andrea Bianchi's mental Cry of A Prostitute or Enzo Castellari's Big Racket will be wondering "Where's all the gunfights, car chases, and bitch slapping?", but they needn't worry. Yes, the only shots fired are at the start of the film, and the film is nearly two hours long, but the plot and the acting of those involved drew me into the story. Franco Nero comes across as a young, naïve and ambitious cop who will stop at nothing to get the biggest catch, but his faults also gradually start to shine through and erase his self-confidence. I'd say Claudia Cardinale stands out the most though, as the desperate mother who doesn't even know if her husband is still alive, with even the police trying to manipulate her, out on her own just trying to tell the truth. Lee Cobb was also good as the over-confident Mafia boss who struts around in front of the police like a rooster with his first hard-on.

Throw in a whole cast of supporting actors who also stand out and you've got an ever unfolding drama set in the sun that just shows you how difficult a job the police have in rooting out the mafia in Sicily. Damiano Damiani proves once again that he's a solid director. No trash here people.

Damiano Damiani was an expert in Mafia movies. Confessions of a Police Captain (1971), L'istruttoria è Chiusa: dimentichi (1971), How to Kill a Judge (1975), I Am Afraid (1977),The Warning (1980), The Octopus(1984) are just some of its excellent movies. Mafia(Il Giorno Della Civetta) is one of the best. The actors are all impeccable, brilliant. Claudia Cardinale is more beautiful and compelling as ever. Lee J. Cobb is a great actor. Tano Cimarosa is downright incredible. Franco Nero, Serge Reggiani, Nehemiah Persoff, are very good. Great music also by Giovanni Fusco. A very good film, from all points of view.

In a town in Sicily, a truck driver is found dead by the side of the road, his truck nearby. Newly appointed captain of the Caribinieri, Franco Nero, investigates, and notices a nearby house. Claudia Cardinale is there with her daughter. Her husband, she says, went out looking for work and she doesn't know when he will be back. As Nero investigates, he knows it has to do with the Mafia, under the control of local capo Lee J. Cobb. He's the man in charge of dividing up local contracts for public works, although he is not the top man; that's someone in Rome. His fellow Mafiosi continue on with business as usual, while Miss Cardinale's story changes as she realizes her husband is dead. But no one will talk in public.

It is directed by Damiano Damiani from his own novel, loosely based on the 1947 murder of Sicilian trade unionist Accursio Miraglia. Everyone gives good performances, but it's Cobb, of course, who stands out as a man who comes to respect Nero, who's willing to use extra-legal methods to obtain justice, and who is constantly frustrated by the fear that enforces silence among the people of the town. Slower and more deliberate than the usual movies about the Mafia, it offers a telling portrait of a system that no one is willing to change.

For more years than I care to think about, I have strongly felt that anything shot/written by the venerable, hugely versatile Italian film-maker, Damiano Damiani is well worth any film fans attention; and as far as I'm concerned, his exemplary, compellingly acted, immaculately crafted crime thriller, 'Day of The Owl' is most certainly no exception to that rule. The uniquely refined entertainment quotient of, 'Il giorno della civetta' elevated by its dazzlingly stellar cast, featuring that implausibly charismatic icon, Franco Nero, the uncommonly beauteous, Claudia Cardinale, a barnstorming, Lee J. Cobb, and another fine performance by the singularly underappreciated character actor, Nehemiah Persoff.

It could be argued that, 'Il giorno della civetta' (1968) aka 'Day of The 'Owl' might also be regarded as one of the earliest examples of the gritty, soon to be ubiquitous, hyperbolically violent Italian police procedural, that would luridly devolve into the more overtly reactionary, action-orientated, Fiat-fragging, blood-spattered poliziotteschi genre which we fans know and love so dearly! As with many other thrilling, Damiani titles, his richly layered, elegantly nuanced Mise-en-scène focuses far more on dense, relatable character development, seamy political machinations, and spell-binding plotting, than tumultuous car chases, and skull-wreckingly vicious haymakers! (Aye!! That would be you, Maurizio Merli!) Even if one were not all that familiar with the more boisterous end of 70s Italian exploitation cinema, maestro Damiani's ceaselessly fascinating dissection of Mafia corruption should still prove to be a most edifying viewing experience!

Italian films have always been the ebst of the best concerning the Sicilian Mafia, or even any Mafia in Italy; Camorra, Ndrangheta.... It brings something authentic, accurate, even more efficient and riveting than any US action flicks. Francesco Rosi, Damiano Damiani and Pasquale Squieteri were the masters on those topics. This one is one of the best examples of what I say. It s a fiction, but facts. It is not an action crime film, such as those Italian film industry made during the late sixties and especially the seventies: the famous poliziottescos, all violent, brutal, misogynist at the most, nothing to do with the films made by Damiani, Squieteri or Rosi. In those Poliziottescos, you have gunfights, car chases, tortures scenes galore till you get fed up. I prefer the Damiani style, more minimalist but true, showing informers, details on corruption, embezzlements, swindles. Acting absolutely flawless. Once more in his career Lee J Cobb, after ON THE WATER FRONT and PARTY GIRL, plays a mob boss.