Director Andrea Bianchi is probably best known for the nauseatingly brutal Zombie Gore flick "Le Notti Del Terrore" (aka. "Burial Ground", 1981) and the super-sleazy Giallo "Nude Per L'Assassino" ("Strip Nude For Your Killer", 1975), so it is not surprising that his contribution to the Italian Crime genre, "Quelli Che Contano" aka. "Cry of a Prostitute" of 1974, (which he co-directed with his brother) is one of the most brutal and misogynist films in a genre that generally isn't for the squeamish. This might be seen as a warning for the sensitive, faint-hearted and politically correct, but it definitely serves as a word of recommendation for my fellow fans of Italian Exploitation cinema from the 70s.
Genre icon Henry Silva stars as Tony Aniante, a super-tough mob hit-man (who is sort of a more exaggerated double of Silva's absolute greatest role of hit-man Lanzetta in Fernando Di Leo's masterpiece "Il Boss" of 1973). The film already starts out intensely brutal when an apparent family has a fatal car crash in gory detail. The autopsy makes it clear that the kid was already dead before the crash, and just transported by mob-related drug-dealers who use children's corpses (!) as means for heroin production. Since such depraved methods are even despicable by organized crime standards, and furthermore bad for business, the dons of the Sicilian mafia assign Tony Aniante to clean up among the dirtiest of their own...
The violence in this film is very intense, even by brutal Italian 70s crime standards, and the degree of political incorrectness is as high as it gets. The great Henry Silva is super-tough, super-cool and cold as ice as always; whenever he offs someone in this flick he whistles a cool tune. The man simply is the best guy ever to play mafia hit men. Period. Cult-goddess Barbara Bouchet is ravishing as always in the role of a nymphomaniac ex-prostitute turned mob-boss' wife, who enjoys getting raped and severely beaten. Fausto Tozzi plays her perverted mafia don husband, who gets off on hearing his wife talk about her extramarital activities. Between macho talk, revenge-vows and mafia conspiracies, the film features brutalities such as rape, people being beaten to a bloody pulp, decapitation and autopsies and dozens of bloody gunfights. The storyline isn't the most intriguing in Italian crime cinema, and the film has some minor logical flaws, but these are secondary to the tons of gritty and hard-boiled entertainment that it provides. Definitely one to watch for my fellow Italian Crime / Poliziotteschi fans.
