WEOPANS OF DEATH

Aka Napoli spara! (I)
1976
Italy
Capitolina Prod.ni Cin.che
Director : Mario Caiano
Story & screenplay : Gianfranco Clerici, Vincenzo Mannino
Music : Franesco De Masi
Cinematography : Pier Luigi Santi {Colore Telecolor}
Editor : Vincenzo Tomassi
Art director : Antonio Visone
Original running time : 99 mins
Italian takings : 187.000.000
Shot at: n/a
Cast: Leonard Mann [Leonardo Manzella] (Captain Beady), Henry Silva (Santorro), Jeff Blynn (George), Evelyne Stewart [Ida Galli] (Lucia), Massimo Deda (Genaro), Adolfo Lastretti (a paedophile), Kirsten Gille, Mario Deda, Enrico Maisto, Tommaso Palladino (Don Callise), Gino Bianchi, Maurizio Mattioli, Enrico Chiappafreddo, Benito Pacifico, Nazzareno Cardinali, Mario Eppichini, Maurizio Guelli, Dino Mattielli, Massimo Vanni, Mario Granato

'He says it's a nice town…crimes almost non existent'
'Huh, no Neoplolitans there then'
There's scum all over the streets again: purse snatching, bank robbing and polo neck wearing. Way to go, daddio. There's also an irritating little tyke called Johnny (a cherubic child actor who appears in several genre items) who constantly appears to the sound of 'aw shucks, isn't he cute' music whilst pulling a variety of dumb scams. Fortunately there's a rather larger and rather more venomous tyke, Santorro (Henry Silva), who pulls of a violent robbery on a train carrying mucho moollah - killing several guards in the act. Inevitably, he has a watertight alibi courtesy of his racketeering chums, but they are becoming increasingly frustrated by his reckless ways. They are also unable to do anything because he is under the protection of powerful old-school mob boss Don Alfredo.

On the other side of the law stand Captain Beady (Leonard Mann), your standard short-tempered cop, and his undercover agent George (Jeff Blynn). After being foiled in their attempts to capture Santorro (or seeing him break out of jail when they do succeed) they set out to find Lucia Parisi (Evelyn Stewart), the only person who can implicate him in the murder of Don Alfredo's beloved son.

A hugely enjoyable film, Weopans of Death is a class example of no nonsense Italo-crime at it's best. Simply plotted, stylishly shot and with an endless succession of bizarre looking characters in bad clothes. The soundtrack causes a strange tapping of the foot and the action flows like Chianti on a summers evening.

Mario Caiano is an underrated director who made pretty decent westerns (Train for Durango (Un Treno per Durango, 67), Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe (Il Mio nome è Shanghai Joe, 72), an above average spy flick (Spies Strike Silent (Le Spie uccidono in silenzio, 67) and a brilliantly sordid/psychedelic giallo (Eye in the Labyrinth (L'Occhio nel labirinto, 71)) amongst others. His quality shows through several scenes here, including an excellently staged robbery in a factory and the station-set climax.

All the usual genre trappings - car chases, fiat bashing, snooker hall fist fights - are entered into with glee. There's a peculiar comic sequence in which George is called out to give a French bird a lift, only to find that she's forgotten she's nude?!? There's also a joltingly nasty moment when a prisoner is castrated by his fellow inmates (all, of course, organised so that Santorro can make his getaway). This is straight out of the cannibal flicks of the time - and all the more potent because the rest is relatively subdued in the pointless violence department.

The performances are fine, with a nice antagonism between the two leads that feels more like that found in the Spaghetti Western genre - at some point during proceedings they both save/spare each others lives, creating a certain level of lethal gamesmanship within their relationship.

I do, however, sometimes despair at the Italian predilection for sentimentality. Throughout the film, little Johnny pops up being ever more annoying. Considering that he's a prime candidate for street-scum-of-the-future status, it's slightly odd that he's treated as an ebullient scamp while lowlifes just a few years older are designated as deserving to die.

Reviewed by Matt Blake