Review of The Italian Connection

Hearty, but tough and resourceful small-time pimp Luca Canali (an excellent performance by Mario Adorf) gets framed as a fall guy by the flinty, ruthless Don Vito Tressoldi (superbly played by Adolfo Celi) for the disappearance of a shipment of heroin. Tressoldi hires volatile hit-man Dave Catania (a splendidly slimy Henry Silva) and his more low-key partner Frank Webster (the always formidable Woody Strode) to rub Luca out, but Luca proves to be a surprisingly worthy adversary who vows revenge on the mob after they kill his wife and daughter. Director/co-writer Fernando Di Leo delivers an exceptionally fierce, gripping, and stirring crime yarn that benefits substantially from a hard, gritty, no-nonsense tone, shocking outbursts of ugly and savage violence, a constant snappy pace, a generous sprinkling of tasty female nudity, and a positively ferocious take-no-prisoners attitude. Better still, there's no needless filler or silly humor to detract from the jolting harshness of the taut and arresting narrative. The uniformly sound acting from a top-drawer cast rates as another major asset: Adorf makes for a likable anti-hero and redoubtable brute force of nature as Luca, Celi totally oozes as the treacherous Don Vito, Silva and Strode as utterly convincing as a pair of very dangerous and threatening dudes, Luciana Paluzzi adds class as elegant escort Eva Lalli, and Femi Benussi acquits herself well in a sizable supporting part as whiny hooker Nana. Franco Villa's polished cinematography makes nice occasional use of tilted camera angles and whiplash pans. Armando Trovajoli's funky, jazzy, syncopated score likewise hits the spot. The climactic shoot-out in a junkyard is simply fantastic. Well worth seeing.