FROM CORLEONE TO BROOKLYN- 1979
Maurizio Merli, Van Johnson, Venantino Venantini
A big time crime boss heads to NY after some of his goons assassinate his rival in the streets of Corleone. Lt. Berni finds out his whereabouts and when Beressi (Merola) learns the cops in NY are on to him as well he decides to put a hit on the two people left who can put him away for good- the man who carried out the assassination (Pelligra) and Beressi's girlfriend. Berni just misses saving the girlfriend but captures the hit man and plans to go to NY along with his prisoner to testify. Along the way Beressi's men try and take the two out and once they reach NY the obstacles become bigger. Berni just barely gets his witness to court in time (and alive) with the ending foreshadowing more trouble ahead.
Umberto Lenzi’s final, and surprisingly, most subtle cop thriller. Director Lenzi, who had dabbled in every genre imaginable, will always be, in America at least, most famous for his down and dirty Italian cannibal movies. It's a shame really. Lenzi has worked with John Huston, Henry Fonda, Henry Silva, George Peppard and Jack Palance to name a handful of great actors that have appeared in his movies. Lenzi excelled in the crime and war pictures. He really seemed most comfortable here. That's not to say these movies were any less violent and nasty, as many of them were.
Lenzi apparently was in love with New York during the 70s and 80s as many of his films feature scenes there. Here, a good portion of the movie is shot on the streets of Manhattan and good old Times Square. I believe a marquee for THE WARRIORS can be seen in the background at one point.
CORLEONE however, is Lenzi at his most subdued, opting for suspense and action instead of bloody violence. Famous Maurizio Merli even plays his final cop character much differently than before. Here, he is a law abiding, by-the-book cop as opposed to all his previous DIRTY HARRY modelled characters. Probably Lenzi's most polished cop thriller and one of, if not his best poliziotteschi.