Almost Human

Umberto Lenzi made some great crime/thriller movies during the seventies.
This was probably the best of them. And there are a number of reasons for this; the biggest reason being the great performances given by tomas milan and henry silva. The rest of the cast is first class as well.
But tomas milan really tears up the screen as the monstrous sociopath
who is very small time and comes from the lowest of situations. He is
without any morality or loyalty and he has a chip on his shoulder. So that he sees his crimes as payback for living such a deprived life.
Umberto Lenzi created a film that is a true picture of evil that in some ways rivals the classic 'scarface" movies. (both versions) This movie is straightforward about the depraved killer and his cruelty , who is at best almost human. At this point in Lenzi's career he was doing everything right. He made a series of really great movies like: "oasis of fear", "seven blood stained orchids" , "milano rovente" , 'eyeball" , 'syndicate sadists",
"the cynic, the rat and the fist" and the acceptable 'knife of ice" and the really great 'Rome armed to the teeth" which also featured Tomas milan in another savage performance. These movies showcase his expertise
at storytelling and his tight direction style. People who have only seen Lenzi's later movies will be shocked at how good Lenzi was during his 1970's peak. And if you like gritty fast moving crime flicks with lots of violence then this movie is for you.

Everybody probably already knows that giallo means yellow in Italian. They used to churn out cheap thrillers on yellow paper, the same idea as pulp fiction. Well, this one is certainly a cut or two above average. It reminded me a lot of the Sam Pekinpah movie Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, which by the way came out at right about the same time, in that it tells the story of a pathetic loser who lives a life of small time crime but dreams about that one big score that will set him up for life. In this case the guy, a punk in Milan, Italy, decides to kidnap the only daughter of a rich businessman. There is also an obscure Marlon Brando movie called the Night of the Following Day, which I have heard a lot about but don't believe that I've actually seen, with a VERY similar plot Anyway, he puts together a remarkably well thought out plan, brings in some accomplices, and pulls it off. He does incredibly well at responding to unexpected setbacks and so forth. I found it to be somewhat annoyingly disjointed, however, in that he would seem to constantly bounce back and forth between a whiny screwup punk and cool-headed criminal mastermind. I found it difficult to understand how he can be both people at the same time? There are some very sadistic scenes that reminded me of Rob Zombie's movie the Devil's Rejects. Thirty years ago I probably would have been satisfied with the scenes in this movie but after seeing the Devil's Rejects (and thereby becoming admittedly jaded) I guess I just found these scenes to be too few and too abbreviated. Henry Silva plays a stalwart police inspector relentlessly pursuing the case who like Dirty Harry finds that the Law prevents him from doing a satisfactory job. I won't give away the exact ending but I found it to be too simplistic. In real life Henry Silva would have gone to the girl's rich father and explain that he knows who did it but can't do anything legally. Then the two of them would have approached some vicious gangsters and arranged for them to meet out some underworld justice. That would have been a perfect ending. For those people who are familiar with the Trinity movies the dubbed in English soundtrack has the punk protagonist with Trinity's voice and the judge at the end has Bambino's voice.

› Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews  4.0 out of 5 stars