Oof! This is an Italian crime film that really has a nasty edge to it. Helmet Berger is a career criminal who escaps from jail with some buddies, gives a prison guard a kicking and throws him out of car, runs cop Richard Harrison off the road (not before Harrison plugs one of the escapees in the head), beats two men in a petrol station almost to death, grabs the snitch that landed him in jail, rapes his girlfriend, beats the guy to death, and buries him in lime. This all happens within the first fifteen minutes of the film.
Berger's mental with a capital M, and is out to get enough money to get out of the country, so he enlists the snitch's girlfriend against her will to set up a heist involving getting money from her father, but she doesn't take too well to being raped and goes to Harrison, who can think of nothing else but snapping Berger's neck. Much violence, hostage taking, and beatings ensue, and believe it or not the film manages to get even more nasty as it progresses, as the final scenes in a warehouse involve a guy getting shot multiple times in the face and a girl being tortured with a straight razor.
Harrison (of the insanely great Ninja Terminator, and many other films with Ninja in the title) is basically a ball of rage who won't stop till he's got his man, but the film really belongs to Berger, who plays a man who has no rules and barely a soul (although he does meet with his sister and treats her nicely enough). He beats, stabs, shoots, and rapes to get what he wants, and those cold Tuetonic eyes just add to the icy character who'll sink to any level for his own gain.
If you like Italian crime films, there's scores and scores of them that will easily satisfy. To me it seems to be the genre where the filmmakers always hit a home run. I've never watched one I didn't enjoy, and while Mad Dog hasn't got much in way of plot, it sure gets the adrenalin going. While not as nasty as Fulci's Contraband (although I'm sure there possibly might be an Italian crime movie that's more violent than that), I'd place Mad Dog on a par with Almost Human (which is quite similar). The only let down here is the presentation by Mill Creek, which is a severely cropped full screen version, although I must say I'm just glad to see the film at all.
