Ray Lovelock is an undercover cop with vengeance in mind in Franco Prosperi’s MEET HIM AND DIE.
storyline, but it does not make the best use of her.
Ray Lovelock toplines Franco
Prosperi’s MEET HIM AND DIE as undercover cop Massimo Torlani, who is placed into prison following a jewel robbery that was staged to provide him with a bogus sentence. On the inside, he earns the trust of mobster Giulianelli (Martin Bal- sam) to the extent of accompa- nying him on a jailbreak. Now a member of Giulianelli’s gang, Torlani joins them in their un- derworld activities, but his real goal is to take down big boss Perrone (Ettore Manni) and his men, who were responsible for crippling the young policeman’s mother.
The story is not very involv- ing and short on logic (Riccardo Cucciolla’s police commissario voices the viewer’s thoughts when he expresses consterna- tion over the number of people being killed either directly or in- directly by Torlani) and Lovelock (dubbed by Ted Rusoff) is no
more convincing as a hard-as- nails policeman here than he was in Ruggero Deodato’s wild LIVE LIKE A COP, DIE LIKE A MAN (1976). Luckily, there is an exciting car chase early on and a genuinely impressive one in the second half, featuring Lovelock on a motorcycle pursuing a sto- len truck (all of the action here was recycled the following year in GANGBUSTER, another Lovelock poliziotesschi). Elke Sommer (revoiced by Pat Starke) and Pe- ter Berling (also one of four screenwriters here) help to meet the casting quota of this Italian/ West German co-production. Both features are presented in Italian or English (both post- synced) with optional English subtitles (language selections must be made through the pop-up menu). Presented at its original 2.35:1 Techniscope dimensions, GANG WAR IN MILAN has a layer of grain-like, digital scanner noise that can be distracting at times, but is an otherwise passable rendering.
MEET HIM AND DIE (1.78:1) displays the same issue to an even great degree and is also afflicted with a heavy dose of digital noise reduction, resulting in rubbery, unnatural looking facial features and an image that sometimes shimmers like a bad PAL conversion. It is highly distracting and takes away significantly from one’s enjoyment of the film. The mu- sic track on MILAN’s English dub is also problematic at times, but the disc’s audio is generally acceptable. Mike Malloy, the director of EURO- CRIME! THE ITALIAN COP AND GANGSTER FILMS THAT RULED THE ’70s (reviewed VW 177:49), provides enlightening video introductions and liner notes for each movie. Alas, the supplied filmography (not writ- ten by Malloy) for the MEET HIM AND DIE booklet contains the common mistake of mixing this Franco Prosperi up with the like- named director of MONDO CANE.
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