Piero Zuffi was an Italian set designer and painter who worked for a decade at Milan's historic opera house Teatro alla Scala. He also worked as a production designer on several movies, directed and wrote this movie - with Ennio Flaiano - and wrote one other, General Della Rovere.
So yeah, this is a poliziotteschi with giallo leanings, but when you've watched more than four hundred gialli, you start hunting for things you haven't seen. Also released as Red Hot Shot and The Syndicate: A Death In The Family, this is the story of NYPD detective Frank Berin (Michael Reardon) who is trying to learn who killed a pharmaceutical company owner named Mac Brown (Vittorio Duse), gunning him down right in the middle of Wall Street. There are no leads or suspects, so Brown's daughter Monica (Barbara Bouchet) goes on TV and offers a reward of $250,000 for any information.
Berin is no fan of the Brown family, as he's always felt that they ran the heroin trade in the Big Apple, but his case ended when his main witness Fanny (Susanna Martinková) was blinded. And Monica is worried that whoever killed her father is coming after her. That killer could be her fiancee, Don Carbo (David Groh).
What's kind of strange is that Michael Reardon was in two acting roles. This movie and a bit part on the Burt Reynolds' TV show Hawk. And that's it. This movie is near impossible to find and Reardon died in 2006. This was given an X rating for some reason, so it never really played, but it's astounding thanks to Berin going wild with its look, filling it with a great Piero Picceroni score, parties in mirrored rooms, numerous flashing light shows, old rich people gorging themselves on a nonstop menu of food while near a swimming pool and a scene where drug addicts nearly take on the look and feel of Romero's zombies. And perhaps strangest of all, Bouchet is a brunette!
There are giallo elements in this and yes, there are tons of plot holes and the story isn't all that great, but there are so many weird elements in it that I think you really have to see it. Speaking of the soundtrack, it's been released several times, but this hasn't come out on DVD or blu ray. In a world where every movie has been rereleased so many times, let's get this out and into peoples' hands!
So yeah, this is a poliziotteschi with giallo leanings, but when you've watched more than four hundred gialli, you start hunting for things you haven't seen. Also released as Red Hot Shot and The Syndicate: A Death In The Family, this is the story of NYPD detective Frank Berin (Michael Reardon) who is trying to learn who killed a pharmaceutical company owner named Mac Brown (Vittorio Duse), gunning him down right in the middle of Wall Street. There are no leads or suspects, so Brown's daughter Monica (Barbara Bouchet) goes on TV and offers a reward of $250,000 for any information.
Berin is no fan of the Brown family, as he's always felt that they ran the heroin trade in the Big Apple, but his case ended when his main witness Fanny (Susanna Martinková) was blinded. And Monica is worried that whoever killed her father is coming after her. That killer could be her fiancee, Don Carbo (David Groh).
What's kind of strange is that Michael Reardon was in two acting roles. This movie and a bit part on the Burt Reynolds' TV show Hawk. And that's it. This movie is near impossible to find and Reardon died in 2006. This was given an X rating for some reason, so it never really played, but it's astounding thanks to Berin going wild with its look, filling it with a great Piero Picceroni score, parties in mirrored rooms, numerous flashing light shows, old rich people gorging themselves on a nonstop menu of food while near a swimming pool and a scene where drug addicts nearly take on the look and feel of Romero's zombies. And perhaps strangest of all, Bouchet is a brunette!
There are giallo elements in this and yes, there are tons of plot holes and the story isn't all that great, but there are so many weird elements in it that I think you really have to see it. Speaking of the soundtrack, it's been released several times, but this hasn't come out on DVD or blu ray. In a world where every movie has been rereleased so many times, let's get this out and into peoples' hands!