Patrick Still Lives (1980)
Now this is how you do exploitation.
Take a moderately successful Aussie horror,
Patrick, come up with a similar title, totally unauthorised and bugger all to do with said film except have someone in a coma who kills using psychic powers. Grab a bunch of good looking actors, throw in loads of sex and nudity (And i mean loads), gallons of J&B whisky and some gory violence and away we go.
I absolutely loved this. It's way over the top especially in it's most infamous death scene as a woman is violated in graphic bloody detail by what can only be described as a flying poker which goes in between her thighs and out via her mouth. Seriously! You don't get shit like this in Blumhouse crap.
Everybody in the film bar the doctor (Sacha Pitoëff) is nude at some point, in fact i don't think one woman knew what clothes were, and it's just wonderfully sleazy politically incorrect, questionable brilliance that only an Italian genius like Mario Landi (Giallo a Venezia (1979)) could create.
Film of the month so far.
/ 5
Rome Armed to the Teeth (1976)
For me one of the three great Poliziotteschi films (
Violent Naples and
The Cop in Blue Jeans being my other faves) this classic crime thriller sees Maurizio Merli's
Dirty Harry esq Inspector Tanzi on the trail of Tomas Milian's hunchback.
As with
Dirty Harry the film has a lot to say about crime, violence, police brutality and the criminal justice system and the charismatic Tanzi whose hard nosed methods come under a lot of scrutiny from those above even though the viewer or at least this viewer is completely on his side.
As well as brutal violence, awesome car chases (You'd never want to come back as a roadside cardboard box in an Italian city in the 70's) and classic rooftop thrills the film has an awesome support cast including Arthur Kennedy, Ivan Rassimov and great support actor Giampiero Albertini. Director Umberto Lenzi paces the film superbly - breakneck all the way - and it's simply so much fun.
88 Films recent Blu-ray, titled
The Tough Ones, looks superb.
/ 5