La rançon de la peur

ALMOST HUMAN is a really clever kidnap thriller. I found myself rooting for the cunning, wretched, murderous and lecherous Giulio Sacchi (played by Tomas Milan who is unrecognizable after I saw him play an earnest journalist in DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING a couple of days ago). He is a character straight out of a Jim Thompson novel.

After he botches up a bank heist, Guilio hatches a plan to kidnap a rich heiress and demand 0.5 billion as ransom. He commits a string of murders during the kidnapping and hostage taking.

One of the main features of Italian police thrillers is that they pushed the boundaries with regard to what could be put on film. Some of the stuff that the Guilo character pulls off in this film would be frowned upon today.

The film has some great writing filled with witty one liners and jokes. Hope it gets a blu ray release.

Anita Strindberg as Milan's hapless but devoted girlfriend invoked sympathy. I find it hard to take Henry Silva seriously. He is unintentionally hilarious like in Cry of a Prostitute.

(8/10)

Umberto Lenzi's Almost Human is a film that takes in all the best elements of seventies Italian cinema and blends it all into one deliriously entertaining thriller! Umberto Lenzi is, of course, more famous for his cannibal and zombie films; but I have it on good authority that his real talent lies in police thrillers, and even though this is my first Poliziotteschi from Lenzi; it appears that would indeed be the case. The film takes obvious influence from successful American films such as Dirty Harry, but it's also obvious that Lenzi has added his own spin on the sub-genre, as the sadistic director implants a lot of scenes that wouldn't be out of place in an exploitation film. Almost Human is graphically violent throughout, and that is certainly no bad thing! The film follows a career criminal known as Giulio Sacci who realises that he's not making a lot of money out of small time crime and so hatches a plot to kidnap a wealthy man's daughter and hold her for ransom. It's not long before Milan's toughest cop; Inspector Walter Grandi gets on the case and sets into motion a bloodthirsty chain of events!

The cast and crew is like a who's who of Italian cinema. Lenzi himself has directed a number of the best Italian films, while nobody will disagree that films such as The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh and The Case of the Bloody Iris make Ernesto Gastaldi one of Italy's finest scriptwriters. The cast is superb, and benefits from two strong lead male performances. Thomas Milan, perhaps best known for performances as Django and a starring role in Fulci's Don't Torture a Duckling, gives a sadistic and charismatic lead performance, while Henry Silva is his opposite number. There are support roles for the likes of Anita Strindberg and Ray Lovelock, and just to top things off; Almost Human is scored by the great Ennio Morricone! The plot is superb and continually delivers the unexpected as the lead character descends further into bloodthirsty insanity. Lenzi does a good job of presenting a dirty and gritty atmosphere for the film, and ensures that the film feels like a police thriller with several car chases and shootouts. Italian films are known for being cheap and nasty; but that isn't the case here, as the production values are good and the film always feels professionally made. Highly recommended for the fan of Italian cinema!

Wow, I was not expecting this one to be as good as it turned out! Possibly Umberto Lenzi's best film, Almost Human is a violent and mean-spirited Italian crime-thriller from that golden age of the 70's. Tomas Milian stars as Giulio Sacchi, a lowly thug who is despised even by his peers. Sacchi has a lot of criminal perseverance, though, and manages to come up with a kidnapping/ransom scheme that should set him and his small crew up for life. Of course, the fact that Sacchi is a mean and crazy bastard makes things difficult (and deadly) for just about everyone involved, inadvertently or not! The dedicated, stone-faced cop investigating Sacchi's reign of terror was played by Henry Silva, who did a fine job in the role. To the tune of the thumping theme by Ennio Morricone, Almost Human delivers the details and action at a strong pace, keeping you on the edge of your seat throughout. And with cool dialogue that Tarantino would love, well, this was just a very entertaining and well-made piece of Eurocrime. The new DVD from No Shame features several interview extras, the best of which being from Milian, who even at his old age manages to be a lively, funny guy.

ALMOST HUMAN (Umberto Lenzi - Italy 1974.

I had missed out far too long on Umberto Lenzi's best known crime flick, which is hands down one of the best poliziotesschi I've seen so far, almost on par with the best of Fernando Di Leo's work, together with Lenzi one of the more prolific directors within the genre. Whilst generally acknowledged to be one of the better Italian crime flicks, Lenzi's somewhat ham-fisted approach to his gialli, had made me a little reluctant to catch up with any of his other work. Although Lenzi's own VIOLENT NAPLES is also a well-made, highly effective genre entry, this one comes close to beating out that one when it comes to sheer brutality and an almost unbelievable barrage of nasty violence.

A rarity in most Italian crime thrillers, this film benefits enormously from an intriguing and woefully ambivalent central character, played with tremendous vigour by Tomas Milian, who plays Guillio Sacchi, a violent low life scumbag with no regard for human life at all and with a real penchant for torture and rape. The other side of the law is represented by stone-faced Henry Silva, who switches to playing a cop this time, instead of his usual turn as the calculating crime kingpin. The story by Ernesto Gastaldi is simplicity itself and doesn't take all kinds of distracting side-roads that make many other genre efforts so forgettable in that department. Anyway, if you're still in doubt about the merits of Italo-crime flicks, watch this one. An intriguing story, Tomas Milian in a great role and Ennio Morricone contributes another impressive soundtrack what must be one of his most recognizable scores this side from Sergio Leone. I keep wondering if the members of the Academy, who recently honoured Morricone with the honorary Oscar, had any idea what kind of films the maestro generally got involved in.

Camera Obscura --- 9/10

Almost Human (1974)

*** (out of 4)

Exciting crime picture has psychopath Giulio (Tomas Milian) growing more and more dangerous as he kidnaps the daughter of a rich man and holds her for ransom. A police inspector (Henry Silva) is following some murders and believes that it is the work of the kidnapper so he sets out to find him.

Umberto Lenzi's ALMOST HUMAN is an extremely entertaining mix of EuroCrime as well as something like DIRTY HARRY. The film offers up two great actors turning in great characters and this is just part of the fun. Many people have called this film dirty and nasty but I'm going to disagree because even some of the American crime pictures from this era contained more violence and blood. What this film succeeds at is telling a very good story and showing what a psychopath one can be.

Lenzi's direction certainly deserves a lot of credit and especially with the flow and style of the picture. There are some effective car chases at the start of the movie but what I liked the most was how Lenzi shows this madman slowly losing more of a grip on reality and falling into his madness. I really liked the character structure of the killer and thought it worked perfectly well against the cop who knows what he's dealing with and wants to handle it himself.

Of course, Milian and Silva are both wonderful in their roles and they bring a lot of entertainment value. Milian is a pure evil snake here and I thought he worked wonderfully as a villain that you love to hate. Silva is a lot more straight and doesn't have as flashy of a role but he too is still a lot of fun. The support cast are also quite good and help keep the film moving. Then you've got a terrific score by Ennio Morricone as well as some very good cinematography.

ALMOST HUMAN is certainly one of the better crime pictures out there. It has a nice story, some great characters and the style that you'd expect.