‘Tony Arzenta’ or — A 70’s, Italian John Wick?
I was a tad trepidatious settling down to watch ‘Tony Arzenta’ (1973) last night because any film where Alain Delon plays a lone wolf, stoic hitman is automatically going to have me drawing comparisons with the trio of films he made with Melville, and considering those are all masterpieces I adore I was somewhat worried I was in for a let-down of my own making. The good news is ‘Tony Arzenta’ was directed by Duccio Tessari, an excellent genre filmmaker who might not have possessed Meville’s cool, detached style but, instead, was a master of pacing, plotting and bursts of muscular action, and that’s what we get here.
Tony Arzenta (Delon) is a freelance hitman employed by the mafia and we witness his lethal efficiency from the very start. However, Tony is also a loving father and husband so, for the sake of his family, decides he wants out, informing his boss, Nick Gusto (Richard Conte), that this was his last job. Nick tells Tony the other bosses won’t agree as the rule is no one ever leaves the mafia alive and if Tony won’t listen he’ll be silenced. Tony doesn’t listen and when a bomb intended for Tony accidentally kills his wife and son it’s no longer getting out that’s on Tony’s mind but revenge.
What follows initially appears to be a fairly straight forward thriller as Delon’s hitman travels across Europe bumping off the various mob bosses responsible for the death of his family but the way Tessari handles the material keeps the audience constantly on their toes and whilst there are surface similarities to Melville the differences are far bigger, and all the more refreshing for it.
For one thing, despite being a lone wolf professionally Tony is also a family man with an inner emotional life, even if it is this that instigates his doom. So there are scenes where Tony visits his parents, looks after the vulnerable and frequently does the “right thing”. He’s far from a cold monster.
And even though Tessari has his own particular sense of visual style (his placement of flowers has always been a delight and there’s a scene in a nightclub where the use of mirrors rivals that of De Palma’s) he’s more concerned with narrative thrust and keeping everything moving than pure aesthetics alone.
Not that it’s all balls-to-the-wall action with the film frequently pausing for reflective, quieter moments but these lapses in action always serve the function of adding necessary contrast to the mayhem and, more importantly, setting that mayhem up.
When the violence does arrive it’s executed with dynamic gusto (the film contains not one but TWO excellent car chases) and is surprisingly shocking. A great example is a scene where Tony is stalking one of the mob bosses on a train and we see him meticulously sever the electrical lighting to the carriage as it enters a tunnel before the inevitable happens. It plays out as expected but Tessari adds a particularly bloody cheery on top of it all with the Don’s body dangling out the window where its utterly destroyed in a flurry of flashing red, screeching wheels and furious editing. It’s absolutely horrible and made me spit out my mint tea, but it’s also totally awesome.
The film has an excellent cast (Delon, Conte, Erika Blanc, Anton Diffring, Rosalba Neri), some gorgeous cinematography of the various and plentiful European locales and a dynamic score by Gianni Ferrio. But it’s the structure and pacing that’s the real pull here.
‘Tony Arzenta’ is a great 1970’s Euro thriller and a fine example of the work of Alain Delon (he also produced the film). However, taken as an example of the work of Duccio Tessari it’s even better.
