Il giorno del Cobra

My review was written in February 1985 after watching the film on Media Home Entertainment video cassette.

"The Day of the Cobra" is a pleasant surprise: an effective Italian action film, shot in 1980 and imported as a video cassette, bypassing U. S. theatrical release.

Picture harks back to a very fine decade-earlier opus, "Detective Belli", with star Franco Nero comfortably essaying another Bogart-styled police detective on a big narcotics case. Both features include solid acting and action sequence plus serviceable storylines.

Working as a private eye in San Francisco, Larry Stanciani (Nero) is summoned by Goldsmith (Wiliam Berger) of the narcotics bureau to go on a mission to his hometown of Genoa in search of drug kingpin Kandinsky. Unofficial assignment holds the promise of getting Stanciani his police job back -he lost it and was sent to jail years back in a frameup engineered by Kandinsky.

Amidst a series of doublecrosses, solid fight scenes and chases, Stanciani has a run-in with glamorous disco deejay Brenda (Sybil Danning) and disco owner Lola, who turns out to be a transvestite in an effective plot twist, the clue for which is that Lola is the tallest thesp in the cast.

Nero is very good in this role, his hard boiled personality balanced by sentimental scenes with his cute young son. Both Nero and Danning so their own English dialog in a generally well-dubbed (articulation is in English) soundtrack. Pic is a welcome change of pace from director Enzo G. Castellari, who has been making numerous imitative fantasy and science fiction films lately.

Both The Shark Hunter and Day of the Cobra feature director Enzo Castellari punching actor Franco Nero in the face. Is this some sort of in-joke?

Nero scruffs up as an Italian private investigator living in San Francisco as some sort off disgraced ex-cop. Down on his luck, he's contacted by Narcotics agent William Berger and given the task of going back to Genoa to track down a sinister figure called Kandisky, whom we see killing a guy who looks like Alan Partridge and stealing a key off him. This Kandisky person seems to be Nero's mortal enemy, and he heads off to Genoa to kick ass.

Once there, he enters a shady world of drug smuggling, imports, and Massimo Vanni wearing dodgy porn moustaches as he tries to track his prey. All is not as it seems, however, as he's followed everywhere, Kandisky starts taunting him by phone, and even glamourous night club ladies might actually be kung-fu expert men in drag.

This one takes a while to get cooking but its plain sailing due to Nero's eccentric Cobra character, who constantly chews gum and leaves it everywhere while bouncing a rubber ball all over the place. There's plenty of action, mostly of the punch up kind at first, but as the story goes on it becomes darker and more violent, with Nero not being able to trust anyone. He does have time to bed Sybil Danning a few times. Or maybe he was checking she wasn't a dude.

I do have a couple of niggles, however. While I'm always up for Nero shooting Massimo Vanni, he'd already shot him in the balls in High Crime, and Nero loses a kid to a speeding vehicle, like he did in the film High Crime. I have a sneaking suspicion that Castellari might have been running out of ideas here, which is why perhaps he moved on to ass-kicking post apocalyptic films.

You can't fault the back up cast here: Big Romano Puppo and Wee Massimo Vanni on hired goon duties, Ennio Girolami, William Berger, even Enzo's daughter Stefania sporting some dodgy looking dreadlocks. It all worked for me.

The Poliziottesco AKA Eurocrime was in last breath period, even so the Italian producers team up Franco Nero and the iconic director Enzo G. Castellari in this weirdo offering entitled Il Giorno del Cobra, unfortunately the screenwriters draw up a far-fetched plot on sugary American oriented when the hero meets his young son at Genoa in Italy playing baseball together in a lovely homecoming with the right to a kiss on the mouth, well the audience has to stand such foolish moment.

The plot broke the boundaries of sanity when a former cop Cobra (Nero) was in jail framed by his superior has to survives as cheap detective in San Francisco, out of the blue the poker face Chief is back offering to Cobra his old position at Police department if Cobra accepts a hard assignment in Italy to struggle with a strong organization of drug dealers and smuggling trying get a double key of safe-box whereby holds the money of the criminals, thus Cobra has to fight with skilled woman-men or whatever they calling it at early eighties, to relief such suffering entering the gorgeous Sybill Danning daintily in sexy outfits on the story, aftermaths it became better.

Certainly Franco Nero wouldn't proud for this weak flick, let's say bearable just for Nero, Danning and Castellari memory at all, the music score is another low point, the outcome is rather beyond of unsatisfying upon any point of view whatsoever.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 1997 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-Youtube / Rating: 6.

At first glance, DAY OF THE COBRA is a spiritual remake of Castellari's genre-defining HIGH CRIME. Both take place in Genoa, both star Franco Nero as a tough-as-nail law enforcement character fighting drug dealers, both feature a kid getting nailed by a car, and a henchman being shot in the groin from below.

Unfortunately this film just doesn't have the same energy going for it. Everything feels markedly smaller and cheaper and the plot goes a bit too far out to be believable with plenty of silly dialog. It also contains some surprisingly poor performances and far too many instances of Enzo alluding to his other, better films. Nero's real life son Carlo acts in the film (as himself basically) but his subplot seems overall unconnected and just strange.

What the film does have are a few exciting foot chase scenes and a silly fistfight between Nero and a transsexual. The main theme song is silly but very hummably infectious and the whole movie moves at a brisk, though casual pace. Sybil Danning provides some welcome if brief nudity, and we learn here that she actually wears high heels in bed. Also worth mentioning is the excellent supporting "dream team" cast of legendary Italian stuntmen such as Rocco Lerro, Massimo Vanni, Angelo Ragusa, and Romano Puppo all allowed to display their respective talents as various henchmen.

Overall though the film is just too pedestrian and mediocre. Probably the least of Castellari/Nero teamings though still a cut above most of the pack of later Eurocrime movies.

Being a Poliziotteschi-buff and a great fan both of director Enzo G. Castellari and leading man Franco Nero, I still only had mediocre expectations for "Il Giorno Del Cobra" aka. "Cobra Day" of 1980. And while "Cobra Day" is certainly no masterpiece of Italian Crime cinema I have to say that my expectations were slightly surpassed, as this is a very entertaining film. Unfortunately, I have not yet had the pleasure to see the two foregoing Poliziotteschi from the director/leading man team Castellari/Nero, "High Crime" (aka. "La Polizia incrimine la legge assolve") of 1973, and the supposedly excellent "Street Law" ("Il Cittadino Si Ribella"/"The Citizen Rebels") of 1974, but I sure intend to. When "Cobra Day" was made in 1980, the heyday of the Italian Poliziottesco was already over, and the film does indeed not bring up anything new. Yet Franco Nero makes up for the lack of originality, and everything is delivered with style, even if some of the 'twists' are more than a bit predictable. Nero plays Larry Stanziani, an Italian private eye in San Francisco, who is sent back to his hometown Genoa by his former employer - the head of the narcotics department. Stanziani, who is nicknamed the 'Cobra', is to detect a homosexual drug dealer and murderer named Kandinski. Not only is Kandinski a ruthless criminal, however, he is also responsible for what earned Stanziani a three-year stay in prison, which makes the whole thing personal... As said before, "Cobra Day" delivers little that is new, but the good old formula is delivered stylishly. Nero fits greatly in his role of the slightly scruffy but tough and super-cool private eye. Sexy Sybil Danning makes a great female lead, and the cast furthermore includes the great late William Berger as the head of the narcotics department. The action sequences and photography are well-done and the film has a very cool and catchy theme song that proclaims: "I don't give a damn I am the Cobra". The teaming of Nero and Castellari sure has brought better films than this one (the awesome Spaghetti Western "Keoma" is just one of them), but this is not to say that "Cobra Day" is not an entertaining film itself. In case the expectations are not too high, this is a worthwhile and entertaining film, which I recommend to my fellow fans of Italian Crime flicks.