Quelli che contano

If you are a big fan of "spaghetti westerns" then I highly recommend "Cry of a Prostitute" as a mafia version of "A Fisful of Dollars". Instead of Clint Eastwood playing both families against each other, you get a brutal Henry Silva. Barbara Bouchet taking milk baths isn't a bad thing to see either. Like the Italian Westerns the plot is secondary to style, and the outstanding soundtrack is an integral part of the story. The editing is choppy and the dubbing atrocious, but this violent film has definite entertainment value. The closeups of Henry Silva's cold black eyes certainly elicits thoughts of Lee Van Cleef, and Silva is every bit as evil as "angel eyes" ................. - MERK

WOW! Another false ad campaign by Joseph Brenner! He mis-advertises this film at the theatres as some kind of a woman beating movie, as the poster shows a woman's face all bruised up, with the caption "for a lousy 50 bucks he could do whatever he wanted with her", when it is another Italian Mafia film with Henry Silva! Even the video box hints it is some kind of a motel sex film, when it isn't! And it isn't a good mafia movie either! This is one of the mafia films that is so bad it probably ENDED the mafia film craze! The opening credit isn't even the original, as it is a tacked in credit with music from DELTA FOX! UGH! To be avoided!

It would seem that this film is more of a godfather rip-off than anything else, but it's clear that the film takes its fair share of influence from the western genre. Many Italian films lift plots from other successful films, and in this case it's A Fistful of Dollars that provides the influence (though in fairness to this film, Leone's first masterpiece did take its plot from Yojimbo...). The film also takes influence from the crime films that were rising in popularity in 1974, and could be described as an urban western. The plot focuses on Tony Aniante, a loner who arrives in a Sicilian town with a pair of warring families. He decides to be friends with both of them, until the moment to strike presents itself and he can have both families implode on themselves. The prostitute of the title refers to Barbara Bouchet's character Margie; one of the mob's whores who takes a liking to Tony and ends up getting embroiled in his little war with the rival mafia families.

The film features all the things that make the Italian crime films popular, including fist fights, gun fights and car chases and none are in short supply. Andrea Bianchi never got himself a reputation for making high quality films, and that really isn't surprising considering how much Cry of a Prostitute borrows from other, more esteemed, sources. However, he does at least manage to keep things entertaining and that is of course the most important thing about a film like this. Of course, the fact that the plot has been seen many times before means that it is not difficult to guess what is going to happen by the end, which kind of spoils it a bit. The lead actor is Henry Silva and he does a good job in the central role. My main reason for seeing this film is the fact that it stars the lovely Barbara Bouchet. Barbara has never come across as being shy, and she doesn't here either! Overall, I wont say that Cry of a Prostitute is a must see Italian film; it adds very little for the experienced Italian film viewer; but it's not bad and is worth a watch.

I saw this movie, the 97 mins uncut version for the first time recently after reading a glowing review by Coventry which is spot on.

This movie is indeed brutal n very misogynistic.

After drugs are found inside the dead body of a kid, mafia bosses get angry at this despicable act and a senior Don Coscemi hires Tony (Silva), a misogynist n cold-blooded psychopath to wreak havoc on the perpetrators of the heinous act.

After arriving in Italy, Tony who has his own agenda, gets himself in the middle of a feud between two mafia families. He manipulates both families into believing he is on their side but is seduced by Margie, a former prostitute now married to one of the mob bosses. A shocking relationship between Tony and Margie wreaks havoc on both of them.

Silva's character Tony is the epitome of misogyny. His character whips a woman, punches her eye, sodomizes her while pushing her face in the carcass of a butchered pig and even bites off her cheeks.

And inspite of all the nastiness Tony is capable of, we still root for him.

His character even bulldozes two fellas by an asphalt bulldozer.

The circular saw machine scene is shocking.

Andrea Bianchi wasn't a great (or even good, for that matter) Italian exploitation director from the 70s-80s period, but cult fanatics will surely remember his name forever, if only because his films are so much sicker, more perverted and more nauseating than the rest! Everybody knows Bianchi's zombie classic "Burial Ground", and more particularly the crazed-out scene in which the creepy kid bites off his mother's nipple. Bianchi's contribution to the giallo-genre, "Strip Nude for your Killer", was also more obscene and nastier than the others. This "Cry of a Prostitute" marks Bianchi's attempt to tell a mafia-tale, but - here as well - the most memorable aspects are the film's extreme gore, the brutal misogyny and the unhinged violence.

Admittedly, the international title "Cry of a Prostitute" is a bit too sensationalist, and not entirely relevant. For once, though, the original Italian title (literally translating as "Those who matter") is lame, unenergized and totally unworthy of the depravity shown on the screen. The plot isn't exactly original. It's basically a mafia/euro-crime version of Sergio Leone's western "A Fistful of Dollars" (and thus also of Akira Kurasawa's "Yojimbo"), with the stern and almost naturally petrifying Henry Silva as a professional killer Tony Aniante, manipulating two rivaling mafia clans at the same time. The titular prostitute, played by the ravishing Mrs. Bouchet, is actually just a sub-plot character. She's reluctantly married to one of the mafia Dons, and hopes for a more exciting life as Tony's mistress, but she gets far more than she bargains for.

As stated already, the violence and sheer brutality in "Cry of a Prostitute" are staggering! The film opens quite impressively, with a car accident in which somebody loses a head - literally - and the shocking discovery that dead children's bodies are being used to smuggle drugs over the borders. Yes, seriously!!

There's more nasty stuff where this came from, in fact. Family feuds are solved, next to big guns, with asphalt compactors and circular saws! Silva's character Tony Aniante balances somewhat between being the anti-hero and the most sadistically evil psychopath who ever appeared on a screen. His attitude towards woman is deeply disturbing, to say the least. During sequences that are definitely not intended for sensitive souls, Silva beats Bouchet to pulp with his belt, or rapes her from behind whilst her face is suffocating in a pig's carcass. And all she ever did, was tease him and demonstrate her sensual banana-eating skills.