Almost Human
Italy 1974. Director: Umberto Lenzi
Cast: Tomas Milian, Henry Silva, Ray Lovelock, Laura Belli
Aka: Milano Odia: La Polizia non Può Sparare

Umberto Lenzi have worked in almost all genres there are (and some that aren't) during his career and it's quite safe to state that he made at least one good film in each. However, his name has too often been associated with the films he likes the least himself; the cannibal movies of the early '80s. But during the '90s fans around the world somewhat revalued the director's life work, and for them at least Lenzi is today the indispuitable king of hard-assed cop movies. He made many of them but when all is said and done, the most accomplished, and perhaps most loved is Almost Human.

The film was clearly made as yet another vehicle for the clearly deranged but beloved Tomas Milian and revolves around Detective Walter Grandi (Henry Silva) who is after a bunch of kidnappers lead by crazy Giulio (Milian). Guilio has killed a bunch of people and kidnapped the daughter (Laura Belli) of a local man of wealth. The plot isn't really that different from hundreds of other movies of the kind and it is quite irrelevant as well. What matters and what makes the difference is how it is done and, perhaps more so, how it is acted by the two stars, Milian and especially Henry Silva in an underrated, understated even, performance as detective Grandi. Silva has done many crazy suckers in his career, but this time his crazy sucker wears a badge. Giulio may be the bad guy here, responsible for murder and god knows what ugly crimes, and should be punished, but he's the one the public cheer on. Not because he's some kind of anti-hero, or funny in some other way (he's definitely not funny), but because detective Grandi is so cynical and bitter he's distasteful. Grandi represents "typical Italian justice", as one character puts it, so often presented in everything from the Italian western to modern day cop movies, stripped bare to its bone. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. At first Grandi doesn't even have any real reason to suspect Giulio, but he hates him so much he goes after him anyway. When he at the end of the movie, by this point more delirious than Giulio if possible, finally executes him in cold blood it is a fitting and ironic end to the whole story but it leaves a bitter aftertaste. The bad guy on the wrong side of the law may have been exterminated, but the one on our side is still there. Lenzi is at his best when he's ignoring or even desecrates our expectations and Almost Human remains one of his very best films. And it's entertaining and super-violent as well.

© The Inzomniac's Movie Madness Review.