Il tempo degli assassini

One of Joe Dallesandro's First Films outside of the Warhol Factory. It's an Italian Film So naturally the Sound on the North American Release Video is dubbed. Even Martin Basalm's Voice too. The plot Revolves around a bunch of hoods terrorizing the town with crimes galore, only Martin Basalm Is in the way to stop him. Guess who wins.

In this one, Joe Dallesandro manages to be an even bigger jerk than he was in both The Climber and The Savage Three. Once again, Joe is an arrogant criminal terrorizing people on the streets of Rome, with too much ambition, and a not very good way of treating the ladies.

Piero (Joe) leads a gang of thugs who love beating people up, driving like nutters, and raping. Piero also has an unwanted kid to a local prostitute who constantly berates him, as well as a priest who tries to serve as the voice of reason. Piero won't listen, however, as his father towed the line and ended up in a mental institution, and he wants to enjoy life now.

Busting Piero's balls however is burned-out cop Martin Balsam, who has tried everything to rid the streets of the gangs and has now resorted to treating everyone like low-life scum, playing people off against each other, and even setting the thugs up so that the citizens themselves can take shots at them. Unsurprisingly, this causes conflict between Balsam and the priest.

Piero also gets to break out his romantic skills on a naïve young girl he meets and soon enough they are in love...or at least that's what she thinks, even though every time she mentions marriage Piero goes completely mental. This leads the film down a very dark and tragic road which just adds to the never-grim atmosphere.

Well, apart from that upbeat part when Piero and his gang go to the beach for some beach antics! The guffaws! The funky soundtrack that rips-off "Here Comes The Sun" and "Stand By Me".

Hey Joe, where ya goin' with that gun in your hand?

Little Joe is still beautiful, but his character is plug ugly. There is little positive to say about Pierro, except perhaps that he vomits in sympathy after inviting his buddies to gang rape his girlfriend (she has the bad taste to get pregnant). Pierro's a bit of a punk, you see, and bodies seem to pile up in his vicinity. Martin Balsam and Rossano Brazzi play the feckless adults in his life, one a police chief, the other a priest. They get to speak in their own voices, but, for some reason Joe is dubbed. He'd play a mute a year or two later in "Black Moon," but on the whole, Italy wasn't very kind to Andy's superstar. He doesn't even get to appear naked in "Season for Assassins." The action scenes are the best. There's a terrifying joyride at the beginning of the film, and a car chase at the end. The short wave relay scene, involving a man in braces who must climb a stairway to alert the police of a robbery in his house, is suspenseful. But none of it adds up to much. Completists will want to see it for Joe. Others beware.