Violent Naples

Highly efficient, high octave stuff from director Lenzi and I'm not really sure why I'm not rating it higher. Thing is, I think, there maybe is not quite enough sex and violence! Actually there is violence a plenty, all through the film actually, but is is mainly guns and fists and the really outrageous and gory kills are shown so briefly that their impact is somewhat muted. Good job too, some may say, but this is a Lenzi pic and I was rather surprised. Nevertheless, this is violent action all the way and mostly out on the crowded, Naples streets. Colourful location shooting and some amazingly well shot street chases, on foot by car and motorbike. Very good action movie.

Untarnished Euro-crime favourite, 'Violent Naples' aka 'Napoli Violenta' (1976) is yet another thrillingly bellicose, fruitful cinematic coupling betwixt the mightily short-fused, Maurizio Merli & steely powerhouse Poliziottesco director, Umberto 'Cannibal Ferox'. Lenzi. This time out the irrepressible, routinely roundhousing rage of Commissioner, Berti (Maurizio Merli) angrily finds gory grist to his ever-more violent mill by unearthing the criminal machinations of rapacious drug overlord, Francesco Capuano (John Saxon).

Needless to say with thrill-master general, Umberto Lenzi behind the wildly-spinning wheels of this rampaging Poliziotteschi juggernaut, Lenzi's brutal fistful of molars, 'Violent Naples' excitingly escalates to a fever pitch of tumultuously unexpurgated thug trashing, Berretta blasting mayhem! The stolid performances of craggy-looking, Barry Sullivan, and devilishly handsome Euro-cult hero, Silvano Tranquilli offer a temporary reprieve from the hyper-masculinity of, John Saxon and Maurizio Merli! The musical icing on this spectacularly Moorish Euro-crime treat is capably provided by maestro, Franco Micalizzi, his electrifying crime-funk score robustly complements the wrathful modus operandi of commissioner Berti, going pell-mell after the scum and villainy like some incandescently vengeful, PCP-crazed, Dirtier-than-Harry cop! Berti's histrionic approach to justice evokes the catastrophic tableau of a blood-mad bull run amok within the genteel environs of a Fortnum & Mason tearoom!

Ever been to Naples? It's like a sprawling metropolitan city, only someone's decided to condense that sprawling city into a very small space, then add loads of markets and alleyways, then add loads of mopeds and cars, then add loads of people screaming in each other's faces at top volume. Naples is total bedlam from the moment you emerge from the train station. It really does chew you up and spit you out. I love the place, and would return there in a second, but will not argue with the opinion that it is, to be honest, an absolute hole.

Take it from me: I relished any time I spent there, but it does have an overcrowded, hyperactive atmosphere to the place. This seems to have infected the makers of Violent Naples, because nary have I seen such a Euro-crime movie that has so many story lines, or a pace that moves at 100mph....

Maurizio Merli is Inspector Berti - who has arrived from Rome on an assignment to another Italian city (he was hoping for something more exotic, but Naples is Italy's whipping boy so he regrets going there), and before you know it, he's getting death threats and is already on the case of some jewel thieves, and some rapists, and, to be honest, a trail leading to the boss of all bosses, Mr something or other (the film is so fast paced I didn't have time to catch his name - The Commandante - That's it!) Merli bothers himself at first with the rapists, the protection racket, and the jewel thief, plus an armed robber who manages to establish an alibi in sequences that had even my jaded wife's jaw dropping in awe at the actual lack of safety towards the actors or indeed the public...

Merli works himself up the line, exposing undercover police agents (none of whom receive a happy ending), wasting the rapists (one gets impaled on a fence, right through the jaw), and generally hassling John Saxon, a sleazy businessman who seems to have made a general series of mistakes leading to his heading into hiding...

Most folks, I'd guess, are introduced to Umerbto Lenzi through either his cannibal films (Cannibal Ferox, Eaten Alive), or his zombie efforts (Nightmare City) or for his late-eighties crap-fests (House of Lost Souls, Nightmare Beach), but I can say, without a doubt, that this guy was an expert in action film. He does not waste a minute of this film, even injecting a bit of pathos in the end as some sort of statement regarding the youth's arrogance in the face of corruption, or something. Look - If Tarantino were to re-make this classic, it would take him about nine hours.

Violent Naples is well up there in terms of greatness, in a genre the Italians rarely got wrong, and gets my highest recommendation. It's a sheer classic from start to finish.

Actually, I'm gonna mention how violent this film actually is, because at some points I had to say "For feck's sake!" at the TV screen. At first this happened when one of the rapists impaled his face on a fence, but when an armed robber pushes a woman's head out of a window in order for her face to be struck over and over again with a passing tram, my jaw hit the floor. Not to mention the guy used in a bowling alley or the ironic crippling of a kid, and you've got something mental here. It still doesn't manage to be as gory as Contraband, but it's sure up there.

Italian director Umberto Lenzi made films in many of the genres that were popular at different times throughout a career which spanned the golden age of Italian genre cinema. He will probably remain most (in)famous for his key contributions to the cannibal film cycle but, really, the sub-genre best suited to his sensibilities was the Italo-crime film, better known as the poliziottesco. These movies revelled in brutal action and often featured cops who dealt with crime fighting in a decidedly fascistic fashion; which brings us to the brilliantly - and accurately - titled Violent Naples. In this one we have a Dirty Harry style cop who prefers beating criminals up to questioning them; a punch now, ask questions later kind of thing. He arrives into a Naples rife with crime and run by criminals, a place where his brand of no-nonsense violent retribution seems like the obvious answer to combat the hordes of thieves, rapists and Mafia types bringing the place down.

Needless to say, Violent Naples is severely politically incorrect, which of course, only serves to elevate its entertainment and cult value even higher. Lenzi's sledgehammer directorial style is a pretty significant factor in this. The pacing is fast due to his typically rapid choppy edits that propel us from scene to scene with no messing around. And his approach to violence could never exactly be described as reticent. There are loads of punch-ups and gun fights but also some moments of creative violence such as where a rapist dies by way of facial impalement via fence post and another occasion where a policeman is murdered by way of death by bowling ball. On the action front there is a pulse-pounding race across town on a motorcycle and a well-staged gun battle on a train carriage that includes a poor woman having her coupon obliterated when an unreasonable gangster shoves her head out a window into the path of an oncoming train. Lenzi even makes time to show his sensitive side too with scenes involving a young boy that introduces some pathos into all this mayhem, although these particular scenes are cheesy to the point of hilarity and only ultimately serve as a springboard for our tough cop hero to return to his day-to-day business of physically assaulting petty criminals in the name of good old 70's Italian law and order.

From Director Umberto Lenzi, VIOLENT NAPLES follows Inspector Betti (Maurizio Merli) as he hunts down a vast assortment of scumbags, thugs, and other ne'er-do-wells. His quest leads him into the darkest depths of the drug-fueled underworld, where he uses a little police brutality to take care of the criminal element.

As crime-thrillers go, this is a great one. As its hero, Merli is tough, brave, and unstoppable on his mission to shut down the mob. The bad guys are quite colorful in a vile sort of way. One classic scene involves two of these psycho crooks who pick the wrong people to rob with tragic / hilarious results! Also, the scenes of motorcycles roaring through the streets of Naples are exhilarating!

Co-stars John Saxon as a seemingly mild-mannered businessman who is actually mixed up with a figure known as 'O' Generale (Barry Sullivan).

Hyper-violent and relentless, this is one of the best movies Lenzi ever made...