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Illustration : Unknown |
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DVD Availability
: Amazon.com
| Amazon.de |
Pronto! |
Franco Prosperi | Italy, West Germany | 1976 |
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A rather undervalued Italo-German Euro-crime thriller, which
despite the presence of four people involved in the screenplay,
delivers a solid ninety minutes of entertainment and one
classic line: “The cops
are gonna turn this city inside out like a dirty sock!”
Director Franco (Francesco) Prosperi (not to be confused with Mondo Cane director and fellow Roman Franco Prosperi), directs this undercover
cop crime caper at a steady and stable pace, carefully icing the cake
with sporadic bloody gunshot violence and some exciting car chases
(which along with some prison footage were shamelessly stolen for the
German release of Alberto Marras’
Gangbuster!). Ray Lovelock gets to show off his
motorcycle skills à la The
Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue, and keep an eye out for Elke Sommer as the kittenish
gangster’s moll who takes no prisoners. Gap-toothed, good-looker Massimo Salvatori (Lovelock), winds up behind bars after a single-handed botched jewellery heist. Quickly establishing himself as a force to be reckoned with within the prisoner hierarchy, it’s revealed that Salvatori is actually incognito policeman Sergeant Torlani — positioned “on the inside” as a plant in order to infiltrate the organisation of incarcerated crime boss Giulianelli (the gravel throated Martin Balsam). Torlani’s motive for volunteering is however personal: revenge on the two men who shot and paralysed his mother. Torlani, Giulianelli and his right-hand man Perrone (Ettore Manni; I Am Sartana Your Angel of Death) break out of the prison in an orchestrated escape, and when Torlani successfully prevents an assassination attempt on Giulianelli’s life by a rival boss, he is taken in as a trusted member. Giulianelli wastes no time in re-establishing his criminal muscle, and Torlani espies the two men he’s been looking for — bodyguards for one of Giulianelli’s associate crime bosses. But before he can exact revenge, he is assigned with driving a truck full of eggs filled with narcotics back from France…
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Risking (to give it
its correct English title) was to be mooted for release in the UK by
the independent VIP label in
November 1983, but this released appears to have been scotched,
although at least one unit was disseminated. Instead, micro label Pizazz (a Lunar Video offshoot) released it a month
later with two variant covers: both framed the same illustration of the
hold-up, one in yellow and the other black. This version —
like the later Renown release
— is missing approximately 7 seconds of footage, with
Perrone’s shooting of the cop at point blank range being reduced.
In the uncut version we see a close up of the officer’s bleeding
head as he falls out of the frame in slow motion. Renown’s 1986 ‘18’ certificated release — which oddly has no entry in the BBFC database — has additional footage excised. Around 90 seconds of lovemaking between Torlani and Perrone's Secretary (Elke Sommer), plus a short 20 second sequence showing a gun toting Torlani forcing the driver of a hijacked truck to stop. Curiously, there is an additional release, identical to the black sleeved Pizazz release in both footage content and design, but with added red ‘18’ BBFC certificates. An alternative release can be found here. aka : Pronto ad uccidere; Risking; Meet Him and Die;
Tote Pflastern seinen Weg
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