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[IL COMMISSARIO]

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.

[Inspector Tanzi]

Does anybody know of a widescreen release of this, the closest i've ever come is a German tape (in German) which was a compromise of about 1.85:1.

BTW i love the scene in the airport where Merli skids out of the door (it's too hard to explain, you have to see it, First Class!)

[IL COMMISSARIO]

Love this movie. Totally unexpected tonally. Lenzi goes out on a high note. Really dig the storyline. I wonder what kind of movie he could have delivered had he been given a Hollywood style budget and production schedule?

[paperbag]

I've only seen this in Italian without subtitles.. it reminded me of The Gauntlet with Clint Eastwood, you can see Maurizio was starting to lose his hair.. was there is a twist in the ending? It seemed like there was.

[vigilanteforce]

really great film, I love the opening credits scene where that great music theme can be heard! don't think the soundtrack is out on CD is it?

[Fray G]

Checked this out the other night. I think it works well because it has a well defined plot and does'nt deviate much from it. MM's other films tend to jump from one crime to another while this concentrates on the central narrative. It made a nice change of pace.

[IL COMMISSARIO]

I would LOVE for this to get a legit release. This is one of my fave Italo crime flicks. Lenzi and Merli both did the film against their usual style. Love the downer ending, too as you're not sure what's in store for Merli next.

[Inspector Tanzi]

Japanese release

[IL COMMISSARIO]

I got this one from Luminous a long time ago. I'm shocked this one hasn't come out legitimately yet. It sure as hell needs a remastered DVD release.

[MikeMalloy]

To me, the highlight of this film is the scene during which Merli's character fights off that gang of NYC attackers while handcuffed to something (I forget exactly what -- the witness? a fence?).

[IL COMMISSARIO]

Only seen it once. I think it was a fence, though. Great movie.

[Inspector Tanzi]

To me, the highlight of this film is the scene during which Merli's character fights off that gang of NYC attackers while handcuffed to something (I forget exactly what -- the witness? a fence?).

Scroll up ...

there's a pic of the scene on the back of the Japanese sleeve.

[Stephen Grimes]

I used to have the Iver pre-cert of this which was uncut but fullscreen and doublebilled with a cut version(to fit on a 3hr tape) of CONVOY BUSTERS,nice quality as well.
Did you get one of these Tanzi,any chance of a scan of the cover?

http://www.pre-cert.co.uk/cgi-bin/cms/Film/70376

[vigilanteforce]

Now making a fandub of the German widescreen version... Its a pain in the ass to make the audio match but I really want to see a widescreen, English speaking version of the movie! I fucking love that opening music theme!!! 

[Jonny]

Good man Lefteris! Never seen this film so I'll be waiting patiently for your fandub