‘The Italian Connection’ or — The Real Best Gangster Trilogy?
Two hitmen (Henry Silva, Woody Strode) are sent from New York to Milan in order to eliminate a small-time pimp, Luca Canali (Mario Adorf), who’s been ripping off the mob. Yet we soon suspect it’s less to deal with some low-level punk and more for the American head of the organisation to let the Italians know exactly who’s in charge. The hitmen must be conspicuous; their deadly authority readily observable.
Fernando Di Leo’s ‘The Italian Connection’ (1972) starts off in similar(-ish) fashion to Robert Siodmak’s ‘The Killers’ (1946) as we’re somewhat led to believe it’s the two hitmen who’ll be the film’s central focus, and that’s certainly the case for the first act as we see Silva and Strode throw their weight around the Milanese underworld whilst belittling and chastising their Italian counterparts for inefficiency, sloppiness and unprofessionalism. This prompts outraged local mafia boss, Don Vito Tressoldi (Adolfo Celi), to find Luca before the Americans meaning Canali now has multiple assailants after him.
From here on out it becomes Luca’s movie with the focus shifting completely from the killers to their quarry, and one of Di Leo’s sly tricks is to have us not quite sympathising with this unsavoury guy but at least getting us on his side as Luca might be a sleazy flesh-peddler (it’s the reason his wife left him) but it becomes increasingly obvious he’s being unfairly set-up resulting in a desperate and frantic man caught in a Kafka-esque nightmare where he’s relentlessly pursued without knowing the reason why.
Also, he might be guilty of prostitution but he’s not the devastating force of lethal obliteration the Americans are, and this is another reason we find ourselves siding (to the extent that we can) with Luca because this is less about the individual characters and more what they represent. Sure, the Italians might be enamoured by all that American money, power and “sophistication” and be somewhat lacking in their class but at least they’re not going around the world like they own the place and exerting their dominance where they don’t belong. And yes, Italian society might be a mess but how much of that is down to American criminal, geopolitical and cultural hegemony? So say what you want about Luca but at least he didn’t destroy half of Vietnam.
Although let’s not forget that Di Leo was, first and foremost, a director of action-packed B-movies specifically designed to exploit the success of contemporary American crime films and, as usual, Di Leo doesn’t disappoint with ‘The Italian Connection’ being a ludicrously entertaining experience (when Luca is finally pushed to breaking point it results in an extended car and foot chase that’s as exciting as it is ridiculous). All this energy, tension and violence culminates in what might be the most bloody use of a giant, metal claw put to film. Quite frankly, it’s amazing.
Performances are strong and it’s great to see Mario Adorf given top billing while ‘Thunderball’s (1965) Luciana Paluzzi is always a delight. It’s also got a superb score by Armando Trovajoli that’s a blasting mix of beefy brass and groovy funk (imagine David Shire with a touch of Lalo Schifrin).
‘The Italian Connection’ is the second entry in Di Leo’s “Milieu trilogy”, three films made to capitalise on the popularity of ‘The Godfather’ (1972), although if we’re talking about a trio of mafia films I personally think Di Leo’s might just have the edge over Coppola’s. They’re that good.
