Rico

If you have ever seen the title "Cauldron of Death" in your horror section, and it has the same cover or close to it as what's seen on this page, you are in for a definite surprise!

This is actually a very well made crime/revenge flick starring Chris Mitchum as Ricco. Who upon release from prison delves back into the underworld to seek revenge for his Mafia Chief fathers murder.

A great soundtrack and a hell wad of violence makes this a real winner for Italo/Crime buffs

Ultra-nasty gangster film from Italy with Christopher Mitchum and Barbara Bouchet

After his release from prison, young Ricco Aversi (Christopher Mitchum) has to cross a symbolically long highway bridge to get to his family's run-down gas station. There isn't much left for the Aversis since their father Gaspare (Luis Induni) was treacherously murdered by his competitor Don Vito (delightfully evil: the five-time ACADEMY AWARD nominee Arthur Kennedy). Ricco's sister Conchetta (Paola Senatore) and brother-in-law (Luigi Antonio Guerra) don't get to see much of anything other than the intensive mattress sports they do together. Due to their constant obsession with orgasm, they completely neglect the small gas station. It's only understandable that the wheelchair-bound mother (Rina Franchetti) puts her last hopes on Ricco. He should finally avenge Don Vito for his father's murder. But the long-haired milky face has other plans. Then, during a visit to downtown Turin, he meets the beautiful fraudster Scilla (Barbara Bouchet), who, in a breathtaking pants suit (only the fantastic Bouchet could wear that!!!), sells her uncle's (Angel Alvarez) counterfeit money to drooling guys. Ricco learns from the two that Don Vito also picked up his former bride Rosa (Malisa Longo). Although Ricco realizes that, despite her dislike for Don Vito, she has already adapted too much to the monster's behavior, he can't help but screw Don Vito in his business with the help of Scilla and the rogue Cirano (Eduardo Fajardo). To spit. The situation escalates when Don Vito catches his wife Rosa in bed with his hunky bodyguard Tony (Manolo Zarzo). Don Vito's anger no longer knows any bounds, and Ricco and his family will soon feel this too...

What a tough police officer! Tulio Demicheli's film is really a trip into human depths. Arthur Kennedy (1914-1990), the "nice" Dr. Quimper from the Miss Marple classic "4:50 p.m. From Paddington" (1961), convinces as a super nasty mafia boss. In the 1950s, the actor was nominated for an Oscar five times. The scene in which he cuts off a rival's best piece (close-up!!!) has long since become a cult! As a soap manufacturer, he can elegantly dispose of the remains in hot soapy water (made in the WELLA factory in Madrid). Scary! Barbara Bouchet (born in 1943 in the Sudetenland) is great as always! Her striptease on the hood is worth a viewing alone. Her fantastic pants suit has already been appreciated. The wonderful actress Barbara Bouchet can wear anything, but also play anything. The film's big flaw is Robert Mitchum's son Christopher in the lead role. He just seems too limp and too soft to be convincing in his role. Luc Merenda or Antonio Sabato would certainly have been too old for the role, but Marc Porel or Ray Lovelock would have fit the film much better.

In any case, this film, which is also extensively acknowledged in the "EuroCrime" documentary (2012), is a true exploitation classic among Italian gangster films. But beware! Some scenes could be extremely shocking!

The camera opens onto a greasy, overheated apartment where the light barely cuts through the cigarette smoke, immediately immersing the viewer in a palpable atmosphere of decay and simmering rage. You can almost feel the oppressive humidity clinging to the cheap leather upholstery, hearing the frantic click of heels on tiled floors, a soundtrack to the pervasive corruption gripping this urban landscape. Rico, or Un tipo con una faccia strana ti cerca per ucciderti, certainly delivers on its promise of gritty, unvarnished exploitation cinema from the Italian production pipeline of the era, offering a distinct kind of ugly beauty to those who appreciate the style.

Christopher Mitchum, portraying the reluctant avenger Rico Aversi, anchors the film with a necessary, if sometimes wooden, stoicism. While his performance is restrained, it provides a quiet counterpoint to the operatic hysteria surrounding him. Arthur Kennedy's Don Vito, conversely, is a captivating portrait of pure, sadistic evil, committing to the role with a memorable, chilling intensity. The film's striking visuals are less about traditional beauty and more about unsettling commitment to the grotesque, particularly in the unforgettable, stomach-churning sequence where a body is disposed of in a manner that becomes instantly, shockingly iconic. Director Gianfranco Demicheli consistently blends sex and violence with a shocking frankness, ensuring that certain scenes, such as Don Vito's cruel and unusual punishment of his distracted henchmen, linger long after the final shot.

Regarding the pacing and writing, the film moves with a propulsive, if sometimes uneven, energy characteristic of the poliziotteschi and giallo genres it borders. The narrative tension is undeniably high; you are constantly waiting for the next outrage or act of retaliation. Dialogue authenticity takes a backseat to delivering hardboiled, pulp-fiction exchanges, giving the film a clipped, tough-guy feel that fits the material's cynical worldview. However, the script occasionally struggles to logically justify the Don's inability to definitively deal with Rico earlier, introducing moments of convenient incompetence that slightly deflate the overall sense of menace. This narrative weakness requires some acceptance from the viewer.

The craft analysis reveals a preference for immediate, raw visual texture. Cinematography employs stark, high-contrast lighting that emphasizes shadows and sweat, perfectly capturing the moral squalor of the setting. The score, a hallmark of 70s Italian crime films, features driving, funky percussion and ominous orchestral stabs, underscoring the relentless forward momentum of the violence. This production design and soundscape effectively establish a world where life is cheap and morality is an abandoned luxury. Two specific beats that truly resonated after the credits were the transformation of Scilla into a self-possessed agent of chaos, resigning herself to and eventually embracing the darkness, and the sheer, uncompromising nihilism of the ending which leaves no one truly redeemed or victorious.

In its commitment to extreme subject matter, this film feels like a spiritual cousin to the transgressive narratives of 1970s filmmaking, sharing the kind of gleefully nasty edge found in early Italian horror, perhaps rubbing shoulders with the visceral intensity of a Last House on the Left or certain Euro-crime outings. Viewers who deeply appreciate exploitation cinema, the poliziotteschi genre, and films that make no effort to be palatable or contain a heroic center will likely connect with Rico's uncompromising energy and visceral shock value. Conversely, those seeking polished narrative coherence, character redemption, or films that avoid graphic sexual violence and extreme gore might find the experience challenging. Its relentless cynicism and brutal lack of restraint are its defining features, polarizing its audience between the appreciative cinephile and the genuinely disturbed spectator.

Christopher Mitchum is woefully miscast as son of dead mafioso out of jail and out for revenge. He's pitched against evil soap factory owner/drug smuggle Arthur Kennedy, who dissolves his enemies in sodium hydroxide and turns them into soap. On the way we get a particularly graphic murder, an amusing face dissolving in an alkali vat special effect and plenty of people getting double crossed and/or shot. The plot is thin and at times stupid, the acting pretty dreadful, Barbara Bouchet is useless as ever as the love interest. But it has strengths - great urban and countryside visuals, a fair amount of sleaze, decent pacing. Most of all - it's clear that all involved seem to have had a fairly good understanding of quite how ludicrous the entire enterprise is and don't hold back from hamming it up where necessary. Most of all, despite the flaws, the whole thing barrels along sufficiently fast and efficiently to avoid boredom ever setting in. At the very least a fun watch if you're into this sort of thing.

"Ricco", better known as "Ricco, the Mean Machine" is an outlier among Poliziotteschi for quite a few reasons. This sub-genre of Italian film was clearly inspired by American productions such as "Dirty Harry", "The French Connection", and perhaps most notably, "The Godfather".

Some have noted the difference in portrayal of the mafia in Italian flicks as opposed to American ones, ie. The portrayals being far less flattering in the country of la cosa nostra's birth. Italians had actually had run-ins with the real mafia, it was speculated, or perhaps they grew up hearing tales. They knew, better than anyone, that there was no honour among thieves.

So in its portrayal of this forever-famous, vaunted criminal organisation, how is "Ricco" different from other Italian flicks from the same time, about the same subject? For one thing, the movie lacks the relentlessly grim and self-serious tone that pretty much every other Italian mafia flick has. It's also not concerned with realism: in fact, it feels more like a Bond flick than a serious crime movie.

Christopher Mitchum is miscast as a guy who just got out of jail and is now on the warpath for some mafia boss - unoriginally named Don Vito - who he thinks killed his father. Though, of course, Christopher Mitchum is miscast as anything other than a surfer bum and the talentless son of a movie star. He inherited his dad's indifference to the craft of acting, but not much else.

Adding to the Bond villain comparison is the villain owning a factory with a pool full of acid he feeds people to. He, along with all the characters, seem like broad archetypes, ie. Good guy, bad guy, love interest, henchmen. None of this suits a mafia flick where shades of morality are absolutely necessary, especially when the "good guy" is a criminal too.

The biggest point of contrast between "Ricco" and other Poliziotteschi, though, and the only thing it seems to be remembered for, is its heavy violence. It's not the most violent Italian crime flick of this time - leave it to the gore-met, Lucio Fulci, to give us that with "Contraband". But the focus is on violence more than anything else. Look out for a shot where two guys have their heads smashed into the wall, and the camera zooms in so that we can see their distorted bloody faces at the moment of impact. The camera substitutes for the wall so it's like they're being bashed against its lens.

Probably the only scene that anybody will remember the movie for, though, is an unconvincing, though still garish, castration scene, which is followed by a more-graphic acid bath.

You know, I didn't know who was getting castrated, or who was getting burned. Does that surprise you? I mostly didn't follow the smaller details of this movie's silly story. Christopher Mitchum is definitely not one to watch when you want to go deep into a film, since his commitment to the role is barely more than Matt Hannon's in "Samurai Cop".

I still enjoyed "Ricco", though. It wasn't nearly as boring as most Poliziotteschi - there's yet another difference for you.