Death Rage

When you think of Yul Brynner nine times out of ten it's his roles in either The Ten Commandments, Magnificent Seven or the King & I. Lucky for him that his mailed-in performances at the end of his career are so forgetful that they do little to mar his reputation. Death Rage is one of these movies.

Yul Brynner plays former mob hit-man Peter Marciani that has flashbacks of the murder of his brother. The so-called "Death Rage" appears as an epileptic red montage of his brother's death superimposed over Peter's face whenever something reminds him of that fateful day. At one point in the movie it is proposed that Peter suffers from glaucoma as evidenced by his "eye medicine" however he is then told by an optometrist that nothing is wrong with his eyes and that perhaps the problem is mental. Whether this was deemed necessary to flesh out the story remains a mystery to me because it never factors into the movie. Obviously his sight is fine due to the fact that he's an amazingly accurate shot and the flashbacks do not in any way alter his demeanor. You might as well have named the movie Serious Bald Hit-man and been done with it.

The cast also includes Massimo Ranieri as Angelo, Peter's eager beaver apprentice who tries very hard to impress him. One of Angelo's gifts to Peter is the introduction to Amy played by the gorgeous Barbara Bouchet. She instantly falls head over-heels in love with Peter and provides the few scenes worth viewing as she is topless in a strip club and fully nude in a following hotel scene. This, it appears to me, is the only reason this movie was given an R rating as the violence is the soft side. Martin Balsam rounds out the cast as, guess this, an Italian commissario! I'm sure Mr. Balsam cashed all of his checks thinking to himself if at some point he would still get paid for playing the same character.

The reason I think so lowly of Death Rage is because it is boring and forgettable. Two sins that supersede production value, sound editing, or poor acting that plagued many seventies flicks. To top it all off, Dino DeLaurentis released basically the same movie three years before this called Frank & Tony starring Lee Van Cleef of spaghetti western fame as Mean Frank and his entertaining sidekick wannabe Tony LoBianco as Crazy Tony. Watch that one instead.

Yul Brynner's last film before giving up cinema for the stage, and it's a Naples based crime film directed by Antonio Margheretti. I wonder if that's what put him off.

In New York, Yul is informed by a local mob boss that the guy who killed his brother is now located in Naples, where an American mobster has just been gunned down by the same guy. Yul heads off there for revenge, and recruits a small time crooks called Angelo (who really wants to be in the big leagues) as his eyes and ears. Angelo also introduces Yul to stripper Barbara Bouchet, who immediately falls in love with the fifty-six year old guy who looks like a peanut.

Yul's character also has a reputation of being a hard-ass contract killer, and his running about in broad daylight wasting mobsters draws the attention of cop Martin Balsam, who intends to either use him to destroy the local mob, or at least get Yul killed so he gets some sort of result. I wasn't quite sure to be honest.

Yul also has this strange affliction where, under stress, his vision goes all red and he flashes back to his brother being killed. It's never really explained but I guess it does have something to do with the plot so we'll just let it slide for now.

The main storyline focuses more on Yul's relationship with Bouchet, and his mentoring of Angelo as a contract killer. Will Barbara change Yul's mind about being a cold-blooded killer, or will Yul's cold blooded killing put Angelo off a life of crime? You'll have to sit through a lot of cold-blooded killing to find out!

The De Angelis brother supply a very funky but melancholy soundtrack that adds to the general bitter atmosphere that'll stick with you. For years this was one of the easier Eurocrime films to find as it was in the public domain. I've now watched the complete version and if you track down the shortened free version you don't miss out on much anyway. Good stuff.

Peter Marciani's brother was killed by the mafia. Now Marciani is traveling to Italy to kill his brother's murderer and he is going to take out his mob one man at a time. Low-budget revenge flick similar to The Punisher movies as far as plot. Slow paced, but peppered with some nice shoot-outs and car chases. I thought it was a fun little movie. Yul Brenner playing Marciani really makes the movie. Martin Balsam was good as the police inspector. The only problem was that their wasn't much characterization on the female lead Anny. Worth a look at if you like movies like The Punisher, other people might want to stay away. ** out of ****

One of Yul Brynner's least known films and the last film he made. Death Rage has Brynner as Peter Marciani, retired hit man that is force out of retirement to avenge the death of his murdered brother. Marciani (Brynner) goes to Naples and after the man he learn killed his brother, mafia kingpin Gennaro Gallo.

The film is fine generally speaking: not great but it is not horrible but it is the storyline that that seems to be lacking something to me and I'm not sure what - maybe a little bit more action scenes and a little less talking at times? My point being: the film needed some "spice" that it lacked to make this film stand out better. Really the only thing to make this film stand out is Yul Brynner himself - and that's it.

If you like 1970s crime-action films you might like this one but just remember this film could use a wee bit more action... also if you are a fan of Yul Brynner's then I would recommend the film to you.

5/10

Another selection from the 200 Drive in cult classics from those fine people over at Mill Creek.

Basic euro revenge mafia movie. Yul Brynner's last film. He play a hitman retired from the business but brought back in to kill the man who killed his brother. Decent enough movie nothing really stands out but very watchable. Worth a watch just for Mr. Brynner alone.