Aka – La Mano Lunga del Padrino
The further along this film went the lower the rating became in my head to
the point I wanted to give it a zero by the end. But I didn’t. There was
enough salacious material and Adolfo Celi to keep me going. It just seems
like a wasted opportunity after a good start as it wanders around like a
five-year old at the circus. The director Nardo Bonomi needed to be reminded
that this was an Italian crime film and not a travelogue or romance. Nobody
in the film is particularly likable and I kept hoping that the protagonist
would be killed, the sooner the better. I don’t think that was the director’s
intention but he is as annoying as a pinched nerve. He is played by Peter
Lee Lawrence, a German actor who had some success performing in Spanish Westerns.
Here he is a smug pretty boy nitwit who thinks he is super cool.
Vincenzo (Lawrence) is a low-level minion working for Mafia head Don Carmelo
(Celi) who decides to go into business for himself by stealing a shipload
of guns that had been stolen from the army. It is never a good idea to steal
from the Boss especially if he is played by Celi, one of the great Italian
bad guys. He is most famous for Thunderball but I don’t think I have ever
seen him in anything in which he isn’t the head villain. Vincenzo thinks
he has pulled off the theft but Don Carmelo spreads the word that no one
can do business with him and no one will. Don Carmelo is the law.
Vincenzo has his girlfriend who does business as a part time prostitute join
him. Sabine is played by Erika Blanc, a sexy redhead who isn’t shy. The two
of them spend a lot of time lollygagging in bed. Come on man. Carmelo’s men
are looking for you. Get a move on. Off they go to Morocco to sell the guns
to an Arab prince. And more lollygagging around town. Again, Carmelo knows
where he is and is watching and waiting. It is kind of mean-spirited with
some nasty violence towards women and one pointless creepy scene in which
a husband tries to get his wife a job as a stripper by exhibiting her. At
84 minutes it felt much longer.
