Les durs

THREE TOUGH GUYS is a film with varied influences. Made with French and Italian funding, shot in America by an Italian crew and produced by Dino De Laurentiis, it's a movie that attempts to cash-in on two big genres of the time: the blaxploitation film and the gangster epic. Thus we get a buddy-buddy cop story in which a hard-fighting priest and a tough black ex-cop team up to battle some gangster types searching for missing loot. The guy directing this is Duccio Tessari, a guy who pumped out a few peplum and spaghetti western flicks among others during a long and varied career.

Despite – or maybe because of – the diverse influences, this film actually works as a fairly good thriller. It hasn't got much in it that's not been seen elsewhere, but the story moves along quickly and the various shoot-outs and fist-fights are well handled. It also boasts some interesting leads. I don't know who Lino Ventura is, but his hard-bitten priest character is definitely tough. Isaac Hayes, playing opposite him, is a giant of a man with the softest of voices, and contributes some decent music to the proceedings. The third of the tough guys is Fred Williamson, appearing as a little-seen villain in this. It's unusual seeing Williamson cast as a bad guy and I wish he'd been on screen more, but there's no knocking his presence. Character actors familiar from Italian cinema pop up, like William Berger and Jess Hahn.

There are a few car chases thrown in for good measure, along with some antagonistic cops and a fantastic interlude in which one of our heroes is very nearly fed into a furnace. The set-piece finale takes place at a run-down bowling alley, but not before plenty of people have been shot or beaten up. It may not win any awards for wit or originality, but THREE TOUGH GUYS is a perfectly serviceable entry in both the blaxploitation and crime genres.

Uomini Duri aka "Three Tough Guys" is an Italian made action film from 1974. Isaac Hayes stars as Lee, a framed Chicago ex-cop who teams up with Father Charlie played by Lino Ventura. Together they fight for answers and revenge in a million dollar bank heist. Fred Williamson in a rare villain role plays Snake. This is a very entertaining film. While set in Chicago and the mob playing second fiddle to the plot, the film is very Italian. It has the feel of an Italian poliziotti film with in your face action and seedy locales. There are many veterans of Italian action films including Jess Hahn and William Berger. Lino Ventura is great as Father Charlie, the priest who can fight and does not hesitate in resorting to violence. Hayes is very underrated as an actor and its a shame he appeared in only one other seventies blaxploitation film (Truck Turner). The chemistry between Ventura and Hayes is excellent, a joining of American and Italian styles. Fred Williamson is good as Snake but his role could have been much more. He appears far too briefly and is pretty much a supporting villain in this film. Isaac Hayes scored the movie as well and the music does not disappoint! The theme "Tough Guys", "Joe Bell", and "Run Fay Run" (used in Kill Bill 1) are highlights on the soundtrack. Lots of shootouts and action are abound in this film but I would have appreciated a great long car chase in this film. It would have rounded out the action perfectly! All in all though a terrific film. -Note, this film is extremely hard to find as it was never released on video or DVD, worth seeking out.

He will forever be known to people my age as the man who wrote and sang "Shaft." To the younger generation, he is "Chef" from "Southpark." He is the man Isaac Hayes, and, in his first film, he is running with one of Europe's best character actors, Lino Ventura, as Father Charlie.

Their enemy is the great Fred Williamson (Black Caesar, From Dusk to Dawn), former football star and blaxploitation actor.

Add a lot of Italian actors and an Italian director who worked with Sergio Leone in A Fistful of Dollars, and you have the Italian version of a blaxploitation action flick.

Nothing to write home about, but some fun entertainment.

I was kind of baffled what Lino Venutra was doing in an Issac Hayes/Fred Williamson film, only to find out this was a Italian film! Lino toplines as a priest who doesn't want to carry a guy, but he is very two fisted, teams up with Isaac Hayes to solve a mystery that all leads to Williamson. Wiliamson doesn't play the good guy, so this is not really three guys fighting for good, it's more like two. Seeing familar character actor Romano Puppo as a thug makes me wonder if all the interior was shot in Rome? Good music by Hayes as numerous Kung-fu films stole it after this film. It's not a bad film, but it's no SHAFT. Check it out if you want to see a standard action film.

A film like this never gets any respect from the industry it bankrolls. Someone tacked the title "Three Tough Guys" onto the film when it obviously should have been "Two Tough Guys" (as the title sequence song by Isaac Hayes accurately reflects). But someone wanted to the public to think that the film featured as much of Fred Williamson as it did the actual "two tough guys", when in fact, Williamson is barely involved. I would be surprised if analysis revealed that he was on-screen for more than 10 or 12 actual minutes. So if you want to see this film just for Williamson, you probably will be disappointed.

But the film has a lot going for it - at least for a genre exploitation film.

I could listen to Hayes read the phone book and enjoy it.He's not really an actor, but he's relaxed and comfortable on camera and he's fun to watch. It's a shame that his film career didn't go further. I've never seen the Italian guy before, but he is pretty convincing here as the world's toughest crime-fighting priest; he has a forceful presence that lets him pull off what is essentially a ridiculous role. A lot of actors couldn't make this part work (even some pretty good ones), but he mixes piety and punching in a way that carries the movie quite well.

There isn't a lot of chemistry between the two leads, but the dialog is spare and unsentimental and it hardly ever seems forced. The screenwriter (and the Italian film industry) didn't indulge in their normal practice of having everyone talk way too much (especially in the English dub) for once, and the results are pretty good for American sensibilities.

There's lots of punching, lots of gun-play, a bit of actual suspense, and some fairly good characterization (for an Italian exploitation flick) even for the minor parts. (One exception is the "bishop", who is forced to play the exasperated part usually reserved for the rogue cop's chief in standard cop thrillers. He sucks on toast, but it's not really his fault - it's the weakest and most contrived role in the movie and there isn't much he can do with it.)

The DVD conversion in the "Grindhouse Experience" collection is pretty bad - lots of blurring, some scenes so dark you can hardly tell what's going on, some muffled sound here and there,etc. But I've seen worse conversions - even in this collection - and for once the English dub is pretty good.

If you can't find this movie, don't fret - you aren't missing all that much. But as a representative choice for a "Grindhouse Experience", this is actually a very strong entry in the collection, easily in the top 5.