Category Archives: Reviews

Mad Mex, the Blackfighter

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Matt Blake

Wow, here’s a prime slice of out-and-out trash directed by and starring French wannabe Fred Williamson Max H. Boulois. Boulois was a fascinating character, an actor and writer who featured in a forgotten Spanish B-Movie Cabo di vara (78) and Sergio Garrone’s Italo-Turko-Spanish poliziotteschi Killer’s Gold (79). Continue reading →

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Excellent Cadavers, directed by Ricky Tognazzi

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Matt Blake

Not the Francesco Rosi film of the same name, but a TV movie directed by Ricky Tognazzi detailing Judge Giovanni Falcone’s battle against the Mafia in Sicily during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Continue reading →

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The Sicilian Connection

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Matt Blake

The Sicilian Connection is a rather peculiar poliziotteschi from Ferdinando Baldi… Continue reading →

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Revenge of the Godfather

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Matt Blake

It’s hard to think of a decent Italo-Turkish co-production (I have a soft spot for Guido Zurli’s Polizia selvaggia, but that doesn’t make it a good film) and Farouk Agrama’s Revenge of the Godfather is about what you’d expect of the type. Continue reading →

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Naked Violence

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Matt Blake

Naked Violence (aka I ragazzi del massacro) was Fernando Di Leo’s first crime film, released at the end of 1969. It’s less well known than his later, more heralded releases… Continue reading →

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Black Turin – Review

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Matt Blake

Black Turin is a peculiar mixture of boys adventure film and mafia movie, a cross between the kind of stuff that the Children’s Film Foundation used to churn out and a Francesco Rosi film. Continue reading →

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Overrun!

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Matt Blake

Overrun is a 1969 film directed by Mario Siciliano, part of the short live trend for Italian made second world war movies that came in the wake of The Dirty Dozen and Where Eagles Dare. Continue reading →

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Sacred Silence

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Matt Blake

Sacred Silence is a 1996 film written and directed by Antonio Capuano. It’s a borderline crime film in that it deals with the Camorra, although it’s more of a character study and modern day tragedy than a traditional poliziotteschi Continue reading →

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Gang War in Naples

Posted on October 21, 2012 by Matt Blake

Gang War in Naples is a film with a veneer of class. It has a stately pace, epic feel and – the major selling point – quite excellent cinematography from Giulio Albonico Continue reading →

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20000 dollari sporchi di sangue aka Kidnapping

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Matt Blake

Here’s a fascinating if obscure and not entirely effective Spaghetti Western from Alberto Cardone, one of the most underrated figures of the genre Continue reading →

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New Mafia Boss

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Matt Blake

Telly Savalas in a Eurocrime film… what’s not to like! Crime Boss, directed by B-Movie specialist Alberto De Martino, was released a month before The Godfather came out in Italy Continue reading →

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Blood Story, by Amasi Damiani

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Matt Blake

This obscure movie from cult director Amasi Damiani was one of a bunch of Italian crime films made during the late 60s / early 70s and set in prohibition era America. Continue reading →

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008 Operation Exterminate – Review

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Matt Blake

008 Operation Exterminate was the first in a series of four spy films Umberto Lenzi made for producer Fortunato Misiano. It’s got several positive points, but it’s let down by the ridiculous screenplay and some occasionally lackadaisical filmmaking. Continue reading →

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Vampire’s Night Orgy – Review

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Matt Blake

Vampire’s Night Orgy is one of those films that starts – like The Island of Death and A Candle for the Devil – with a busload of strangers arriving in the depths of the countryside. Continue reading →

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More Dollars for the MacGregors – Review

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Matt Blake

Despite the cheeky title, Jose Luis Merino’s Spaghetti Western More Dollars for the MacGregors wasn’t really an attempt to rip off Franco Giraldi’s box office smashes Seven Guns for the MacGregors (66) and Up the MacGregors (67). Continue reading →

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Vortice – Review

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Matt Blake

Vortice has just about all the melodramatic check boxes ticked off: true love interrupted, a dark secret from the past pushing its way into the present, a vulnerable child, a murder and some kind of debilitating illness or disability. Continue reading →

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One Man Against the Organisation – Review

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Matt Blake

One Man Against the Organisation is a thoroughly mediocre crime film from the mid-1970s; a Spanish-Italian co-production which plays more like one of the eurospy films which had been so popular a decade earlier Continue reading →

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Witch Without a Broom – Review

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Matt Blake

Witch Without a Broom was one of several films made in Spain by the charismatic producer Sidney Pink. Continue reading →

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X312 Flight to Hell – Review

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Matt Blake

A kind of unofficial partner piece to The Devil Came from Akasava, X312 Flight to Hell was one of a quartet of films made by Jesus Franco for the German producer Artur Brauner’s CCC Film Continue reading →

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Two Spanish thrillers: The Heat of the Flame and The Great Swindle

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Matt Blake

The Heat of the Flame and The Great Swindle are two obscure Spanish thrillers from the 1970s. Continue reading →

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