Battle of the Godfathers

This violent crime film from Jürgen Roland is the definitive German mafia thriller - and together with Rolf Olsen's breathtaking and even more thrilling BLUTIGER FREITAG the best German crime movie of the Seventies (note that both films are in fact German-Italian co-productions, which I think explains a lot).

Herbert Fleischmann leads the cast as Hamburg business man Otto Westermann, who is also the boss of the organized crime in the city. His reign as godfather is in danger, though, as ambitious Sicilian mafioso Luca Messina enters the North German metropolis, coming directly from New York. Messina's goal is clear and simple: He wants to take over Hamburg. But Westermann isn't as easy to defeat as the Sicilian expects. And soon Hamburg is on the verge of a bloody mob war.

The ace of this movie is without a doubt Henry Silva in the role of Messina, who once more gives a frenetic performance as in most genre films of that time (two of many other examples are IL BOSS and QUELLI CHE CONTANO). But Herbert Fleischmann is also perfect in his role, and the two actors fight a great battle throughout the movie.

There are also some great action scenes, mainly the climactic speed boat chase sequence, preceding the similar chase in the fine Dutch thriller AMSTERDAMNED for 15 years. The final twist is magnificent, even though slightly predictable. The only negative point to make about the film is the unnecessary love story between Westermann's son and Messina's daughter, which diminishes the flow of the story considerably. Otherwise, ZINKSÄRGE FÜR DIE GOLDJUNGEN is an exciting crime movie and definitely not to be missed by aficionados of the genre.

Henry Silva kicks down Hamburg's brown door and paints it white on the way out in this German-based gangster film. Silva plays Luca Messina, an American/Sicilian mob boss who has picked Hamburg as his new territory, much to the annoyance of German mob boss Otto Westermann,

Silva arrives in town with his gangsters, his mistress, his daughter and his overbearing Sicilian mother and gets right on everyone's case by muscling in on all the whorehouses, gambling dens, and mob-run Greggs. He also just brazenly walks into one of Otto's meetings and declares himself boss of all, which for some reason doesn't go down too well with the German lot, many of whom are literally waving sausages about when they speak.

Complicating matters further is the burgeoning romance between Henry's daughter and Otto's son, which is fuelled by their kid's hatred for the life their father's having chosen. This is the only part of the film that slips a bit but I guess they had to inject some sort of sub plot into things instead of just having mobsters blow each other way for an hour and a half. Also, any hopes you might have of this romance uniting the two families should be dashed when Henry murders Otto's other son - via two Kung Fu masters, this being 1973 and all...

I love the way that almost the entire plot is thrown out of the window when Henry does something completely stupid near the end of the film and we go into a car chase followed by a speed boat chase. In fact, I don't know why but I get the feeling the whole film was a bit of a rush job, as quite a lot of the cast are dispensed with rapidly, and I wasn't even too sure of the sub plot with Henry's mistress and one of his mobster friends, but then by that point things were snowballing so I didn't dwell on it.

For those looking for a quick fix, this one will do - there's plenty of sauce for those interested in naked women who are now drawing a pension if they are still alive at all, and it makes a change to see a bunch of German mobsters smoking and drinking beer instead of Italian gangster smoking and slapping women around.