Death Hunt
Italy
1977. Director: Tano Cimarosa
Cast: Tano Cimarosa, Al Cliver, Rick Boyd, Ninetto Davoli
Aka: No Alla Violenza
Sicilian actor/director Tano Cimarosa tries
to be both Charles Bronson and Michael Winner at the same time in this
hybrid of Death Wish and Dirty Harry. Favorite Al Cliver
plays inspector Morretti who tries to stem the street crime which plagues
his town Messina and he gets his hands full when three hard criminals
all dressed in jeans escapes from prison. When a girl is run over by
the fugitives her father (Cimarosa) goes on a rabid revenge spree and
tracks down the killers one by one. Moretti is closely in his tracks
but when he finally thinks he has surrounded the bad guys he only succeeds
in killing the wrong man, i.e the vigilante. I guess there's some message
there but let's not get into that.
A nice and grey Sicilian setting and a memorably sentimental musical theme by Alberto Bembo (no, haven't heard of him either, but I like his name) sets the film apart slightly from others in this genre. The criminals are a bit more colorful than usual also and some of the english dialogue is little more snappy as well. Also worth mentioning is a bloody Psycho-ish shower scene, a cop shot in the face, some stripdancing, some full frontal nudity and Al Cliver riding on top of a speeding car trying to catch a killer. In terms of story and action Death Hunt is otherwise mostly a routine effort though, rather poorly directed, with the expected fistful of graphic violence and energetic chases. With some other actor in the lead this might have been something, Al Cliver has as much charisma a rock.
© The Inzomniac's Movie Madness Review.