The Salamander

When the Chief of the Italian Defence Staff is found dead, it is put down to an heart attack and the nation mourns. Colonel "Dante Mattuci" (Franco Nero) is drafted in to handle what ought to have been a peremptory investigation, but it is soon clear to him that there is much more going on here than meets the eye. Pretty quickly, he is enveloped in a conspiracy to take over the state - but who might be behind it? His boss "Prince Baldasar" (Christoher Lee); the General who succeeded him "Leporello" (Eli Wallach) or perhaps the wealthy kingmaker "Manzini" (Anthony Quinn). The production is a bit all over the place, here, but the cast work well on this quite well paced story of internecine politics. Nero is efficient, as are Wallach and Quinn, and the story moves along quickly amongst some beautiful surroundings. The ending lets it down a bit - it is just too implausible given what has gone on before, but though flawed it is still a decent thriller that pulls together some good supporting stars - Claudia Cardinale and Anita Strindberg provide the glamour, if not a great deal else - and is still worth watching on the telly on a wet Tuesday afternoon.

THE SALAMANDER had so much potential, especially with an all star cast of supporting actors like Anthony Quinn, Martin Balsam, Eli Wallach, Christopher Lee, Cleavon Little, Paul Smith, and Claudia Cardinale. The leads were Franco Nero, who had such a strong Italian accent that his English was hard to understand and Sybil Danning, who played her character with the personality of a roof shingle who was always dressed like a nun or the wife of the Quaker Oats guy so she was playing against type and her persona. She was suppose to be a spy and the mistress of the assassinated General but the conservative and bland way she was dressed indicated to me that he might just have committed suicide.......On the DVD extra's one of the men associated with the film referred to Sybil with this disrespectful comment, " " which I found shocking because there was no cleavage displayed at all with that Puritan wardrobe in the movie. There is very little action in the film, basically one car chase and then the torture scene which turned out more like comedy then anything else where Paul Smith was to torture Franco Nero to get information and what made it funny is it turned out to look like Franco Nero was torturing Paul Smith by sexually assaulting him hanging on his back with Paul Smith screaming and Nero with his bare arse hanging out of his jock strap. The scene was so absurd and ludicrous that it came off as comical rather then scary. The best acting was done by Martin Balsam who played Nero's father figure like partner, who gets killed midway so you lose the most interesting character in the film. Anthony Quinn was 2nd to Balsam in performance and he made the most of the material he worked with. Cleavon Little has a small part and did a great job but you wonder why he was not given more and the most disappointing part of the film were the two villains, Eli Wallach and Christopher Lee who barely had any screen time and just a few lines. They just weren't utilized and neither was Claudia Cardinale who was so stunning in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST but had the same wardrobe designer as Sybil so she looked like an Amish farmer or Quaker Oats girl with maybe two lines of dialog. It was not the worst film, it just did not live up to its potential

Peter Zinner won an Oscar for editing THE DEER HUNTER (1978); for his only directorial effort, he chose this adaptation of the Morris West best-seller which was shown on local TV back in the day (actually, that is how I first heard of it). He did manage to assemble an impressive all-star cast: Franco Nero plays the hero carabiniere in a throwback to some of the political thrillers he had made in his native country – such as DAY OF THE OWL (1968), in which he co-starred with Claudia Cardinale, and CONFESSIONS OF A POLICE CAPTAIN (1971), also featuring Martin Balsam; both actors also appear here, the latter as Nero's closest collaborator who eventually falls in the line of duty. Anthony Quinn is the titular figure (a wealthy industrialist and ex-legendary WWII partisan), Sybil Danning the mistress of a dead army officer (whose apparent suicide sets events in motion) but also serving as Nero's unconvincing love interest, Eli Wallach the General leading a proposed coup d'etat, Christopher Lee as Nero's superior (actually a prince[!] who is unsurprisingly inextricably related with the Government takeover plot – interestingly, his on-screen wife was played by Lee's own real-life spouse in an infrequent appearance), Cleavon Little as a Black American ex-colleague of Nero's (whom the latter calls upon when he is in a fix) and Paul Smith (as a sadistic "surgeon"). There are, however, also a number of Euro-Cult regulars: John Steiner in the role of Wallach's aide as well as lover of his neglected wife Cardinale, Renzo Palmer, Marino Mase' – unenviably playing a corpse! – and Nello Pazzafini. While tolerable as entertainment (though there is less action than I had anticipated) and featuring a decent score by the great Ennio Morricone, the film is ultimately too superficial and uneven to make a ripple in the circles it professes to denounce; nevertheless, the clever climax is surprisingly (but effectively) handled in the style of the "Thin Man" movies! Besides, one particular scene nearly turns this into a camp classic i.e. when the hero, caught and about to be tortured by Smith, attacks the latter clad only in a harness along his waist (which gives unwarranted prominence to Nero's groin while leaving his buttocks completely exposed!) but ends up slammed against the wall hanging upside-down instead!!

This film felt more like a made for t.v movie. It does pace slow for about the first 30 min or so. You see the funeral of a general, intro to all the big players. Nero goes around interviewing them, some of it is too talky and drags out, a couple more deaths occur and he goes into hiding with the help of Anthony Quinn to continue his investigation, it leads up to a really good climax. One of the best bits of dialogue comes from Martin Balsam talking to Nero about a story of wanting cigars and what happened when he went home. Quinn character is great too as your never really sure who's side he's on. Great performances by Martin Balsam, Anthony Quinn, Eli Wallach, Christopher Lee,Franco Nero, Claudine Cardinale, and the sadistic "sergeon". John Steiner performance is not as top notch, and Sybil Danning I felt kinda phoned it in. Over all decent watch.

A political thriller involving secret plans to re-create a fascist government in Italy. This film is chocked full of stars like Christopher Lee, Anthony Quinn, Eli Wallach and the whole parade is led by Franco Nero who does a top notch job as high ranking officer investigating the murders involved in trying to obtain these documents.

They had some cash to spend on this film as you can see how elaborately furnished the interior shots are and most everything else.

The film mostly has Nero obtaining facts from interview to interview and there is a few chase scenes but its not a tense thriller just really interesting. The actors were amazing. If you get a chance give it a watch.