Street People
Director:
Maurizio
Lucidi
Year: 1976
Rating: 6.0
Aka The Executioners
Aka The Sicilian Cross
This is an Italian crime film directed by
Maurizio Lucidi that snagged two big foreign stars - Roger Moore and Stacy
Keach. This doesn't seem to have much of a reputation and admittedly by the
end it doesn't make much sense, but it is rather fun getting there with some
very nifty driving. The fact that there were six credited scriptwriters might
have something to do with the story falling apart. One of them though is
Ernest Tidyman, the author of the Shaft novels. Shooting takes place in San
Francisco and Italy.
Moore was in the middle of his Bond films,
but I guess he needed to pay some bills, but then a couple of other films
he was in at the same time like That Lucky Touch, Shout at the Devil and
Sherlock Holmes in New York were not exactly world beaters. Keach had been
in a few solid films - Fat City, The New Centurions and The Life and Times
of Judge Roy Bean. I always think of Keach as Mike Hammer, but he is a very
accomplished theatrical actor winning a number of awards. He and Moore make
for a good pairing with an affable easy going chemistry between them. Interesting
that with these two stars, there is no attempt at making room for a female
actress. The film is all business. Mafia business.
Moore is a consiglieri of sorts to Mafia
Don, Francesco (Ivo Garrani), who is his uncle and patron. When a large statue
of Christ on the cross arrives from Sicily, three guards are killed and the
statue hijacked. There were bags of heroin hidden in the statue worth about
$4 million on the street. Francesco had paid for the statue and in a meeting
with other Mafia heads, he demands that whoever did this be found and dealt
with. That is handed over to Moore, who calls his race car driver friend
Keach to help him. Two very well done car scenes - one a long chase; the
other with Keach destroying a car intentionally one part at a time by driving
into things. The sleazy side of San Fran was a plus.
