Fernando Di Leo Crime Collection

This collection spotlights four signature films of Fernando Di Leo (1932-2003), a director who was—in the estimation of genre-hound Quentin Tarantino—“the master” of the Italian gangster movie. Caliber 9 (1972) stars Gastone Moschin as ex-con Ugo Piazza—newly released from prison after serving three years for armed robbery—who runs into his old employer, a psychopathic mobster named Rocco (Mario Adorf). The story involves a sizable sum of missing cash, the suspicion of Rocco and the cops that Ugo stashed it somewhere, Ugo's proclamations of innocence, and a series of double and triple crosses that precede a bloody showdown. The Italian Connection (1972) brings together the mob worlds of New York and Milan, with American actors Henry Silva and Woody Strode playing Dave and Frank, a pair of hit men from the Big Apple sent to the mother country to get rid of Luca Canali (Adorf, again), who's suspected of ripping off a shipment of heroin. Silva reappears in The Boss (1973), playing assassin Lanzetta, who dispatches an entire underworld family with a grenade launcher, thereby unleashing a savage war between established dons D'Aniello and Corrasco (Claudio Nicastro and Richard Conte). The last film, Rulers of the City (1976), features Jack Palance as “Scarface” Manzari, who floats a bad check to finance his night in a gambling den run by loan shark Luigi (Edmund Purdom), leading one of Luigi's low-level minions (Harry Baer) to seek payback with the help of a few scheming compadres. Despite the mix of American and European actors in the casts, the films are distinctly Italian in attitude and sensibility. Di Leo delivers lean narratives, with the complicated webs of alliances and betrayals laid out cleanly and set in motion with pitiless momentum. Viewers will witness none of the American romanticism of the criminal code as embodied in The Godfather; here, soldiers are sacrificed and the violence spills out over everyone (although the portrayal of carnage is not as explicit or gratuitous as in many American productions of the time). But despite Tarantino's admiration, Di Leo isn't well known or highly regarded outside of cult circles, which means this set will be of interest mainly to serious buffs. Most of these films have been released under alternate titles in inferior English-dubbed versions, but these editions are definitive—uncut, widescreen, with both the original Italian and English language soundtracks. DVD extras include a documentary on Di Leo, three background featurettes, photo galleries, and a booklet. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)