Ricco The Mean Machine (1973/Dark Sky Films)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: C     Film: C+

 

 

Though not quite like his father’s career, Christopher Mitchum got lucky overseas when some actors (especially of the dwindling Political Right in Hollywood talent) found careers overseas as foreign markets got in on the genre filmmaking that was doing well independently in the U.S. in cycles like Blaxploitation, gritty crime dramas, Horror and Spaghetti Westerns.  Though he was not happy with the business result, Murder In A Blue World (1973) was interesting and fascinating enough to work, leading to Ricco The Mean Machine the same year.

 

Instead of an interesting Science Fiction film, he was cast as the title character, an fighter and assassin out of jail in Italy fighting against the mob boss and his cronies that put him there as the new war becomes more and more gruesome.  Though the situation is rough enough, director Tulio Demicheli goes pretty far in several scenes of beaten victims thrown into a vat of acid as the final part of their killing.

 

The most infamous moment is an on-scene castration of a male member, starting with frontal nudity, then use of a knife, followed by it being shoved in the victims mouth and finally, the acid treatment.  Part of this was an attempt to out-Godfather Francis Coppola, but it seems a bit contrived.  The make-up work of the mock male member does not even match the color of the real thing, but it is still shocking 35 years later.

 

Some of the fight scenes are dated too, with Mitchum (who eventually became a black belt) not as quickly paced, yet they are at least in focus and the camera can actually hold a shot.  Fortunately, Barbara Bouchet is fun, Malisa Longo interesting and Arthur Kennedy as the evil Don Vito.  Between the very dated Gangster angle and the acid vat looking more like it was recycled form the hit 1960s TV series Batman than a near-X-rated thriller.  With all that, you have to see it to believe it.  Now you can.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is softer than expected, color can be plugged up, though the print is not in bad shape.  Director of Photography Francisco Fraile (Murder In A Blue World, Tragic Ceremony) delivers some good outdoors shots, but some of the action is static, though better than most A and B-movies we have seen since the 1980s with Martial Arts.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is better, showing its age, but you would expect it to sound decent for a mono film by that time.  Extras include the original theatrical trailer with sharper shots than the main print and featurette interview with Christopher Mitchum about his career and this film.  For more on Fraile and Mitchum’s previous film Murder In A Blue World, try this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1826/Murder+In+A+Blue+World+(PAL

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo