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
