Antonio Sabato is Salvator 'Toto' Cangemi, a Milanese fruit and veg wholesaler whose more profitable sideline is prostitution. When French drug-dealer Roger 'The Captain' Daverty (Philippe Leroy) arrives on the scene, insisting that Toto uses his women to peddle heroin, a war breaks out and violence erupts. Toto's right hand man Lino Caruso (Antonio Casagrande) suggests bringing in his uncle Billy Barone (Alessandro Sperli), a gangster from America, to deal with the Frenchman, but in doing so, Toto faces further problems.
The general consensus seems to be that Umberto Lenzi's Gang War in Milan is not as good as his subsequent Poliziotteschi, Almost Human. I suspect the problem for many is that Toto, the central character, is every bit as unlikeable as those he is fighting against: he's a smarmy misogynist who treats women as commodities and will stop at nothing to maintain control of his business (whereas Tomas Milian in Almost Human was someone you could root for). Toto reminded me of Pacino in Scarface, but in my opinion that's not a bad thing: sometimes it's fun to watch a film full of characters with very few redeeming qualities battle it out for money and power, especially one that sees most involved get what they deserve in the end.
Unlike Almost Human, this film features absolutely no humour: it's a hard-edged crime film that delivers plenty of sleaze and brutality, much of the violence directed at women. It's gritty stuff and Lenzi, renowned for his gory Cannibal films, doesn't shy away from the violence. Toto's women are targeted by Daverty's henchmen, the ladies beaten, robbed, and killed. A prostitute has acid thrown in her face, and two are found mutilated in a car. But it's not all misogynistic brutality: in one harrowing scene guaranteed to have men crossing their legs, Lino is tortured with bare electrical wires applied to his genitals.
Lenzi keeps the action flowing nicely, with never a dull moment, and his cast are great, with Alessandro Sperli putting in a particularly fine, scene-stealing turn as Billy Barone, who puts a stop to the gang war once and for all in the predictable, but satisfying conclusion.
