Gastone
Moschin gets out of jail and is almost immediately accused of stealing $300,000
from the Mob. Naturally, he’s innocent,
but if he wants to keep breathing he has to go to work for them to pay it
off. The police want to use him as
a snitch too, and if the Mob begins to suspect he’s in cahoots with the cops,
he’ll REALLY be trouble. To come out on
top, Moschin must figure out a way to double-cross both the Mob AND the police.
Fernando Di Leo’s Milan Calibre 9 was the first chapter in his Milieu Trilogy. Unlike the second installment, Man Hunt, it’s
far too slow moving to leave much of an impression. The constant plotting by not only the hero,
but the villains as well, causes the pacing to hit a wall many times throughout. We occasionally get a taste of Di Leo’s
trademark violence, but there’s ultimately too much talk and not enough action.
Moschin
is much too stone-faced to make a good leading man. He looks like the love child of Bruce Willis and
Nicholas Worth. Or maybe Jason Statham after
a bee sting. Either way, he’s so dull
that the audience has a hard time rooting for him.
The
supporting cast fares much better.
Whenever Barbara Bouchet is on screen, she gives the movie a much-needed
shot in the arm. She has a terrific
go-go dancing scene that is easily the most memorable thing about the film. I also enjoyed the interactions between Luigi
Pistilli and Frank Wolff as the cops who are hounding Moschin. While their sociopolitical discussions drag
the plot down a bit, they are nevertheless fun to watch.
It’s
Wolff who gets the best line when he tells Moschin to "Go play with a
dangling dingleberry!"
AKA: Caliber 9.
No comments:
Post a Comment