The Boss
Italy 1973. Director: Fernando Di Leo
Cast: Henry Silva, Richard Conte, Gianni Garko, Pier Paolo Capponi
Aka: Hitman

"Everybody's got an appointment with death.. or with Don Corasco!"

There's trouble with the mafia in Palermo. A new generation are taking over and they have no discipline whatsoever. So the cops are trying to call the old mobsters back to get some peace and quiet. Only problem; the devious Cocchi (Capponi) is trying to set up his own gang and he wants to get revenge upon those who killed his comrades. Cocchi kidnaps the daughter of Don Giuseppe and in swap he wants Giuseppe's head on a plate. That's out of the question for Don Corasco (Richard Conte), the biggest mafia boss in town. He calls in hitman Lanzetta (Henry Silva) to get the girl back and if Giuseppe is trying to make a deal with Cocchi, then Lanzetta is ordered to kill Giuseppe regardless. But things are not so easy. Lanzetta is an orphan and Giuseppe is his adoptive father. As suspected Giuseppe tries to buy his daughter out and Lanzetta finds himself stuck between Giuseppe, whom he loves, and his obligations towards Don Corasco, who is God. Then it gets even trickier. Don Corasco, anxious about his position as Palermos' main mafia chief, decides to wipe out the wildman Lanzetta as well.

Based around a novel by Peter McCurtin, the film starts with a bang, literally. A real mess. Lanzetta blows up a whole movie theatre full of mobsters with grenades. Then comes the opening credits. Fernando Di Leo sure knew how to make them rougher than anyone else. As always The Boss contains uncompromising hard violence with a dark, morbid sense of humour, set in small and dark locations, often accompanied by screaming electronic music. Life is cheap and everything is depressive, bleak and ugly. Ironic enough the most human-like character is also the most ruthless bastard of them all, the orphan hitman who will do anything for his adoptive father, even if it includes killing him in cold blood. Who even has sex with his half-sister. It's him we are forced to like. It's he who is the coolest. The baddest. After all, he has a fantastic red vinyl sofa. For an Italian B-movie of this period The Boss has rare substance and good characters, even if the production values are sparse. It's a great movie.

© The Inzomniac's Movie Madness Review.