CUT AND RUN (Italy - 1985; US release 1986) Directed by Ruggero Deodato. Written by Cesare Frugoni and Dardano Sacchetti. Cast: Lisa Blount, Leonard Mann, Willie Aames, Richard Lynch, Richard Bright, Michael Berryman, Karen Black, John Steiner, Valentina Forte, Eriq La Salle, Gabriele Tinti, Barbara Magnolfi, Luca Barbareschi, Penny Brown, Carlos De Carvalho, Edward Farrelly, Ottaviano Dell'Acqua. (Unrated, 91 mins) Often erroneously lumped in with his controversial cannibal films, CUT AND RUN is a fairly straightforward and infrequently tacky '80s Italian jungle actioner from the infamous Ruggero Deodato. Unlike his JUNGLE HOLOCAUST (1977) and the legendary CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1980), CUT AND RUN has absolutely no cannibal gut-munching, so it's surprising that so many people consider it the final chapter of a non-existent Deodato "cannibal trilogy" or some such nonsense. Sure, it takes place in the Amazon and has some savage tribes who engage in shooting poisoned blowdarts, decapitations, and rape, but even it in its uncensored, hard-edged European form that features one poor bastard being split in half up the middle--softer kill scenes and alternate takes were used for the export version handled by New World, which hit US theaters in May 1986--there's nothing here that equals the disturbing savagery seen in any Italian cannibal outing. No flesh-eating. No on-camera animal deaths. It's not a cannibal movie. It's a distant cousin at best.
Deodato nevertheless finds other ways to be tactless, like using actual footage of Jonestown cult leader and Kool-Aid aficionado Jim Jones being interviewed by NBC reporter Don Harris, who would be one of the people ambushed and killed on a Guyana airstrip by Jones' "People's Temple" disciples when he and other members of Congressman Leo Ryan's entourage tried to help people escape from Jonestown in 1978. CUT AND RUN's chief villain is the fictional Col. Brian Horne (Richard Lynch), a disgraced and dishonorably discharged ex-Green Beret purported to be Jones' right-hand man and the mastermind behind the Jonestown massacre. Horne escaped from Jonestown and has secretly built a powerful drug operation in South America with a few Jonestown latecomers and some Amazon tribesmen he uses to eliminate the competition. He's more or less what might happen if APOCALYPSE NOW's Col. Kurtz ran a drug cartel. Horne has been believed dead, but when intrepid Cable Video News reporter Fran Hudson (Lisa Blount) and her cameraman Mark Ludman (Leonard Mann) beat the police to a bloody crime scene and find a recent picture of Horne with runaway Tommy Allo (Willie Aames), the son of their boss Bob (Richard Bright), they head down to the Amazon to find Tommy and get an exclusive interview with Horne. Obviously, mayhem and over-the-top violence ensue.
Shot in Florida and Venezuela, CUT AND RUN began life, oddly enough, as an unmade Wes Craven script titled MARIMBA. Written around 1980, MARIMBA got as far as pre-production when Craven made the acquaintance of Alessandro Fracassi, a wealthy Italian Formula One racing enthusiast looking to break into film production. Craven had scouted locations in South America and went so far as casting Dirk Benedict, Chris Mitchum, and Tim McIntire in starring roles before the project fell apart. Fracassi hung on to Craven's script and it was eventually completely reworked for Deodato by veteran Italian genre screenwriters Cesare Frugoni (MOUNTAIN OF THE CANNIBAL GOD, THE GREAT ALLIGATOR), frequent Lucio Fulci collaborator Dardano Sacchetti (CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, THE NEW YORK RIPPER), and an uncredited Luciano Vincenzoni (THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY). None of Craven's MARIMBA script was used, and he remains uncredited even in a courtesy "Story by" capacity on CUT AND RUN. The closest one gets to any sense of Craven's at-most peripheral involvement in what was eventually made is the presence of THE HILLS HAVE EYES' Michael Berryman as a machete-wielding madman working for Horne. He disembowels a few people and chops off a few heads, but other than that, his primary job is to be Michael Berryman.
1980 Variety ad announcing Wes Craven's never-made MARIMBA
Fracassi managed to corral an impressive cast for Deodato, certainly one with more recognizable names and faces than most junky Italian exploitation movies of the time. The appealing Blount was one of the few stars of AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN who didn't get a career bump from it, possibly because her shallow, scheming Lynette was so unlikable, duping David Keith's Sid, faking a pregnancy, and ultimately driving him to suicide. On Anchor Bay's 2001 DVD release, Deodato praised Blount as "completely professional," but he got the sense that she "didn't really want to be there." The cast also included small roles for a shrieking Karen Black as a Cable Video News exec; John Steiner as a rival cartel boss and recipient of the truly disgusting "split up the middle" death, which was cut from the US release (he just gets put out of his misery by being shot instead); Gabriele Tinti as a drug-running pilot who gets a particularly gushing decapitation courtesy of Steve (David Warbeck lookalike Edward Farrelly), another Horne henchman; and future ER star Eriq La Salle, of all people, turns up as Vargas, a Huggy Bear-like Miami pimp and informant who keeps Fran in the loop about what's going on in the cartel. Of his stars, Deodato had the most trouble with two American actors. Bright (best known as Michael Corleone's chief enforcer Al Neri in the GODFATHER trilogy) was drinking heavily but, according to the director, got his act together after being kicked off the set for a day and set straight by an intervening Karen Black. EIGHT IS ENOUGH's Aames had just started both CHARLES IN CHARGE and a serious cocaine addiction around the time CUT AND RUN was made. By his own admission in his later memoir, Aames was on a massive coke binge during the entire shoot and, as required in such circumstances, destroyed a hotel room. He would eventually get clean and become a born-again Christian, producing and starring in the inspirational kids video series BIBLEMAN. Aames now works as a celebrity cruise director for Oceania Cruises, and other than a pair of EIGHT IS ENOUGH reunion movies in the late '80s, has acted very sparingly, most recently appearing in a couple of Hallmark Channel original movies.
Anchor Bay's uncut and uncensored DVD release was a welcome offering at the time, but it's in serious need of an upgrade. It's a composite assembling of the New World US cut (opening with the company's logo) with a few scattered scenes in Italian with English subtitles, usually whenever there's violent imagery exclusive to the European version. In the first issue of Video Watchdog, Stephen R. Bissette's article "Uncut and Run" details the differences between the European and American versions, with several scenes completely reshot for the softer US version or, in the case of Steiner's death scene, drastically edited to make it appear that he dies a different way (the same with Tinti's decapitation after getting shot with a poisoned dart; the US cut just shows him getting shot with the dart). The decline in quality of some of the footage is noticeable, with Steiner's big scene looking like a subpar bootleg.
There's enough of a minor cult following around CUT AND RUN and a major one around Deodato himself to warrant a Blu-ray upgrade to the acceptable but problematic 15-year-old DVD. CUT AND RUN suffers from some dumb plotting that relies too much on convenience and contrivance (no way the lady with the fake baby is making it through customs), but it's extremely fast-paced, loaded with action and splatter, has a killer score by Goblin's Claudio Simonetti, and has the kind of bizarre cast (Lisa Blount, Willie Aames, and Eriq La Salle in a Ruggero Deodato movie?) that makes it a must-see for followers of strange cinema. Deodato and Fracassi reteamed for the 1986 slasher BODY COUNT, which was never officially released in the US, and Fracassi continued to sporadically work in the Italian and Romanian film industry. Fracassi now makes his living in the financial industry, his last major credit being a co-producer of the 2006 Donald Sutherland-Sissy Spacek horror film AN AMERICAN HAUNTING.
CUT AND RUN and the Dario Argento-produced DEMONS
opening in Toledo, OH on May 30, 1986
Visual proof of a Ruggero Deodato movie opening
at three Toledo malls in the summer of 1986.
THE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN aka SNAPSHOT, aka ONE MORE MINUTE (Australia - 1979)
One of the more egregious examples of misleading advertising from the grindhouse glory days, THE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN was the 1980 US retitling of the 1979 Australian import SNAPSHOT, complete with poster art that didn't make any overt claims, but arguably implied that it was somehow connected to John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN (1978). I'm sure audiences became openly hostile by the 20-minute mark, as it obviously has nothing whatsoever to do with HALLOWEEN or Halloween, but taken on its own terms (or, as SNAPSHOT, which is the actual title on both versions on Scorpion Releasing's new DVD--more on that in a bit), it's a compellingly odd character piece that's light on thrills and chills, but does a good job of establishing a palpable sense of unease throughout. It also has a believable performance by Sigrid Thornton (THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER) as young, naive hairdresser Angela. Stuck in a dead-end job with a domineering mother (Julia Blake), a bratty little sister (Jacqui Gordon), and ex-boyfriend Daryl (Vincent Gil) who follows her around in an ice cream truck, Angela is whisked away from her dreary life by bitch-on-wheels cover girl Madeline (Chantal Contouri), who gets her a modeling job. Now with money and independence, Angela is meeting all sorts of new people and finding her way through a new world. And that ice cream truck is still following her.
YouTube fan montage featuring the film's theme song "Angela," by Sherbet!
Co-written by Australia-based American expat Everett De Roche (LONG WEEKEND, PATRICK, ROAD GAMES) and directed by Simon Wincer (later to helm projects as varied as LONESOME DOVE, QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER, HARLEY DAVIDSON AND THE MARLBORO MAN, and FREE WILLY), SNAPSHOT is a strange little film that drops its heroine in an unrelentingly cruel world where she's used, abused, and manipulated by everyone (even her mother drops by her new place and steals some money out of her dresser drawer), and yet, she's curiously unfazed by a lot of it (she finds a pig's head in her bed at one point, and goes on about her day, assuming Daryl put it there). This film is often lumped in with the Ozploitation scene (primarily because of producer Antony I. Ginnane), but there's not much here in the way of exploitative elements. In fact, I'm not entirely sure what Wincer and the writers really wanted to accomplish here, but it's consistently engrossing and you're never quite certain where it's headed. Coupled with an ending that might leave more questions than answers, the only thing one can say with 100% certainty is that whatever title it's going by, it's not a slasher film. Scorpion's DVD is really a thing of beauty: the 2.35 anamorphic presentation of the 92-minute US cut is quite impressive and a major improvement on the blurry, washed-out print that aired on Turner Classic Movies a couple of years ago. I think that faded print is the transfer used for the second version on the DVD: the 101-minute Australian cut that's presented in a vastly inferior 1.78 anamorphic transfer, and most of the additional footage seems to consist of Angela having a much longer confrontation with her mother, a scene of her roommates watching the Ginnane-produced PATRICK on TV, Madeline and Angela walking in on a couple having sex, and more screen time for a shamelessly mugging nightclub performer who should've been cut altogether. It's this longer version that has a commentary track with Ginnane and Scorpion horror hostess Katarina Leigh Waters. Ginnane is personable enough, and covers most of the bases, but Waters really doesn't do a great job of keeping the discussion going (though to her credit, she is improving on her earlier commentary moderation efforts), usually chiming with an "Mmm hmm," to keep Ginnane talking, which I suppose is fine. It's not the best commentary you'll ever hear (and it takes a full hour for either of them to inevitably mention that Quentin Tarantino is a fan of the film), but Ozploitation devotees will find it interesting. The nine extra minutes are superfluous and the film not only looks better in its shorter version, but it's paced better as well. Also of note for trash fans: nearly every female cast member except for Controuri spent time on the Australian women-in-prison cult TV series PRISONER: CELL BLOCK H. (R, 92 mins/101 mins)
WAVES OF LUST (Italy - 1975)
Raro USA brings us the first official US home video release of this early erotic thriller from future CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST director Ruggero Deodato. Ostensibly inspired by Roman Polanski's 1962 breakthrough KNIFE IN THE WATER, WAVES OF LUST is one of Deodato's dullest films, and despite the director's claims that it's a thriller above all, there's not much in the way of suspense or drama. If you didn't think it was possible that constant sex and nudity could be boring as hell, then let WAVES OF LUST show you how it's done. Irem (Al Cliver) and Barbara (Silvio Dionisio, Deodato's wife at the time) meet George (John Steiner) and Silvia (Elizabeth Turner), and are invited for a cruise on George's yacht. They do this despite thinking George may have murdered a business associate with whom they'd earlier seen him arguing. Of course, it doesn't take long for George to reveal himself as a psychotic, controlling, alcoholic douchebag who routinely physically and psychologically abuses Silvia. This prompts her to seek sexual solace with both Irem and Barbara, while Barbara finds herself turned on by George, who does little aside from ruin everyone's vacation, smack Silvia around, and brag about how rich and powerful he is. Only in the last 15 minutes does Deodato decide to make this a "thriller," and it's as unsatisfying as the plentiful but profoundly unerotic sex scenes, the nadir of which has Cliver doing a head stand (a recurring motif that, like the rest of the film, goes nowhere) while the almost constantly nude Turner stands and passionately kisses his ankle and calf, as Deodato provides us with some gratuitous Al Cliver back acne. Joe D'Amato probably could've done wonders with this, but Deodato's made much better films, starting with his next, 1976's awesome LIVE LIKE A COP, DIE LIKE A MAN. Written by Gianlorenzo Battaglia and Lamberto Bava. Deodato, Bava, and Cliver appear in a 17-minute documentary on the DVD, and there's also some deleted scenes that show some additional shots in a few of the sex scenes. Raro's DVD offers both Italian-language and English-dubbed audio, and is 1.85 anamorphic and looks generally acceptable. WAVES OF LUST is worth a watch for Deodato fans and Italian exploitation obsessives, but even they won't get much out of this catatonic, sleep-inducing softcore porn travelogue. (Unrated, 88 mins)
Directed by Roger Deodato (Ruggero Deodato). Written by Ernesto Gastaldi and Renzo Genta. Cast: James Franciscus, Mimsy Farmer, Van Johnson, Joseph Cotten, Mario Maranzana, Venantino Venantini, Mag Fleming (Fiamma Maglione), Edmund Purdom, Francisco Charles, Ottaviano dell'Acqua, Renzo Marignano, Robert Kerman, Robert Spafford, Goffredo Unger, John P. Dulaney, John Stacy, Michael Gaunt, Jake Teague, Dakar, Marie Claude Joseph. (Unrated, 96 mins)
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Italian ripoffs of American blockbusters were big business at US drive-ins and in grindhouses and provided constant employment for American actors ranging from leading men and women whose stars were fading to aging Hollywood vets from the golden era, or some who simply wanted a paid vacation and figured nobody outside of Europe would ever see it. Wade through enough Eurocult exploitation swill and you'll be amazed at what you find. Henry Fonda appearing in the 1977 Italian JAWS ripoff TENTACLES or Kirk Douglas starring in the 1978 Italian OMEN ripoff HOLOCAUST 2000 are merely scratching the surface. Wait until you get to Richard Harris taking third billing in Bruno Mattei's 1988 RAMBO ripoff STRIKE COMMANDO 2, the standard by which all "WTF is (fill in actor's name) doing in this?!" Eurotrash paycheck gigs are judged.
Universal's AIRPORT franchise, along with blockbusters like THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972) and THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974) were the building blocks of the '70s disaster film cycle, so, as had happened in the same decade with a flood of GODFATHER and EXORCIST clones, it was inevitable that the Italians would have to make their own version of a disaster movie. And, in true exploitation fashion, Ruggero Deodato's CONCORDE AFFAIR was rushed through production quickly and cheaply and beat its big-budget counterpart (THE CONCORDE: AIRPORT '79, the final film in the franchise) to European screens by several months. Despite featuring more American stars than was typical for such fare, CONCORDE AFFAIR never made it into American theaters, though it was acquired in 1983 (four years after its release everywhere else and several years after the disaster craze had died down and been so brilliantly parodied by AIRPLANE! in 1980), by none other than the Weinstein brothers in the early days of Miramax. But they shelved it and it's really only been seen on bootleg VHS and unauthorized DVDs over the years. And now, possibly as part of its deal with Miramax, this little-seen B-movie is now streaming on Netflix.
As far as cheap Italian ripoffs go, it's pretty entertaining, though much of the amusement comes from just how little of the plot and the primary action take place on an airplane. A Concorde test flight experiences technical problems and crashes near the Antilles, and it's actually sabotage set in motion by evil rival airline CEO Milland (CITIZEN KANE's Joseph Cotten) who wants to put the Concorde out of business. Milland doesn't count on the test flight's one attendant, Jean Beneyton (Mimsy Farmer), surviving the crash. He dispatches his henchmen, led by the ruthless Forsythe (Venantino Venantini), to kill Jean, but instead, they hold her captive and try to blackmail Milland, who's easily one of cinema's most recklessly hubristic businessmen. Meanwhile, hack NYC reporter Moses Brody (BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES' James Franciscus) has an ex-wife (Fiamma Maglione) on Martinique, and she gives him a tip to get down there because she knows something about the Concorde crash. The ex is mysteriously dead by the time Brody arrives, and after doing some investigating, he discovers the sunken Concorde. By the time he convinces the American consulate to look into the matter, Milland has had the plane destroyed. Brody rescues Jean, with Forsythe and his goons in hot pursuit, and in the meantime, a second Concorde, piloted by Capt. Scott (THE CAINE MUTINY's Van Johnson), is taking off from NYC to London, and Milland has dispatched new saboteurs to ensure this flight will suffer the same consequences.
It seems like there's about four different movies going on here. The bulk of the film deals with Brody's investigation in the Antilles, with a lot of underwater sequences and even a brief shark attack, as if Deodato was giving Franciscus a taste of what he'd encounter a couple of years later in Enzo G. Castellari's GREAT WHITE. There's periodic cutaways to an irate Cotten, sitting in his office and grumbling to yes-man Danker (Edmund Purdom). Johnson doesn't even appear until nearly an hour into the film, and even then, he's never seen out of the pilot's seat. I'd bet Hollywood legends Cotten and Johnson, by now old hands at vacillating between quick-buck appearances in Italian trash and enjoying the relative prestige of LOVE BOAT and FANTASY ISLAND guest spots, didn't spend more than two, maybe three days working on this.
James Franciscus and Mimsy Farmer
Franciscus is fine in the lead, bringing an appropriate Charlton Heston-esque gravitas to the proceedings. A well-known movie and TV actor, Franciscus still never quite made it to Hollywood's A-list, which probably made it a certainty that he'd end up in movies like this, Antonio Margheriti's KILLER FISH (also 1979) and Castellari's GREAT WHITE (1982), while tackling supporting roles in American films like Irwin Allen's WHEN TIME RAN OUT (1980). Franciscus was a believable and good-looking actor who deserved a better career. He didn't act after 1985 and was only 57 when he died of complications from emphysema in 1991. You'd think he'd end up being the hero in CONCORDE AFFAIR, but he's pretty much relegated to the sideline for the last 20 or so minutes, though he does get to give Farmer an inspirational pep talk when she's on the phone with Heathrow air traffic controllers. I love that the British air traffic guys are all played by dubbed-with-Brit-accents NYC porn actors Robert Kerman (aka R. Bolla), Michael Gaunt, and Jake Teague, all of whom made periodic appearances in Italian exploitation.
Deodato, largely a journeyman at this point in his career, follows the disaster formula and keeps things pretty restrained in CONCORDE AFFAIR, a surprise considering his next two films were his masterpiece/albatross CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST and the scuzzy HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK (both 1980). Deodato had dabbled in over-the-top exploitation before, with 1975's sexploitation WAVES OF LUST, 1976's insane poliziotteschi LIVE LIKE A COP, DIE LIKE A MAN, and 1977's gorefest THE LAST CANNIBAL WORLD (aka JUNGLE HOLOCAUST, THE LAST SURVIVOR). There's an F-bomb early on and one gory shot of a guy getting shot in the face, but other than that, CONCORDE AFFAIR is tame by Deodato standards, displaying none of the stomach-turning imagery and disturbing violence so prevalent in many of his other films.
Featuring a large cast of name actors and Eurocult mainstays (including a rare on-camera appearance by gravelly-voiced dubbing vet Robert Spafford), and all the familiar dubbing voices, plus hilarious miniatures and a Concorde model surrounded by toy cars in the climax, as well as a Stelvio Cipriani score that features the composer at his most harpsichordy, CONCORDE AFFAIR is mindless entertainment that should please Eurotrash completists. The relative rarity of it, at least for US viewers, is enough to make it a curio title, especially since Netflix streaming has granted it the easiest accessibility it's ever had in America. Their print looks like a 1.33 VHS transfer, cropped down from its original 2.35--not ideal, but given the circumstances, it's better than nothing.
Trailer for French release, titled S.O.S. CONCORDE
THE RAIDERS OF ATLANTIS
aka THE ATLANTIS INTERCEPTORS, ATLANTIS INFERNO
(Italy - 1983) Directed by Roger Franklin (Ruggero Deodato). Written by Vincent Mannino (Vincenzo Mannino) and Robert Gold (Tito Carpi). Cast: Christopher Connelly, Marie Fields (Gioia Scola), George Hilton, Tony King, Ivan Rassimov, Mike Miller, Bruce Baron, John Blade (Giancarlo Prati), Mike Monty, Michele Soavi. 90 mins. Unrated
Considering all the Eurotrash cult movies I discovered while combing the video stores in the 1980s all the way through to the present day, it still surprises me that I never got around to seeing Ruggero Deodato's delirious, insane 1983 action extravaganza THE RAIDERS OF ATLANTIS until now. That Prism Entertainment VHS tape (this went straight to video in the US in 1986) was in every video store in the US back in the 1980s and 1990s, but for whatever reason, I never saw it. When the Eurocult explosion hit DVD about a decade or so ago, RAIDERS was--and is--one of the few big ones that never turned up on the digital format in Region 1/North America (well, it is on a crappy public domain "Grindhouse Collection" set, but it's the VHS transfer). Now that someone was kind enough to put a subpar VHS transfer up on YouTube, under the alternate title ATLANTIS INFERNO, though the title on the print is yet another alternate title, THE ATLANTIS INTERCEPTORS (and it was the cut 90-minute version that's missing the gorier bits), I was finally able to see what's long been called a classic of Italian B-movie trash. And it didn't disappoint.
In a futuristic, 1994 Miami, mercenaries Mike (Christopher Connelly) and Washington (Tony King), team up with Professor Sanders (George Hilton) and his assistant Cathy (Gioia Scola, billed as "Marie Fields") when radiation from a Russian sub carrying nuclear warheads causes a domed Atlantis to rise to the surface of the coast of south Florida. This also brings out The Interceptors, a renegade band of post-nuke-looking bad guys on motorcycles, led by the evil Crystal Skull (Bruce Baron). The Interceptors pursue the heroes and eventually kidnap Cathy, and tons of gunplay, explosions, decapitations, explosions, awkward one-liners, explosions, and general incoherence ensue. Also, explosions.
The script, by Vincenzo Mannino and Tito Carpi (like most of the crew, hiding under pseudonyms to make the film seem American; Deodato is credited as "Roger Franklin"), rips off tons of popular American films from the era. The middle section of the film, where the heroes barricade themselves in a church while the Interceptors try to get in, is total classic John Carpenter, which means it's RIO BRAVO. The Interceptors are clearly just leftover bikes, costumes, and props from any number of Italian postnukes. Deodato, best known for the controversial CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, does a very good job in staging some terrific ROAD WARRIOR-inspired action sequences that are often jaw-droppingly daring. Connelly does most of his own stunts, whether he's scaling the outside of a two-story house, standing under a dangerously low chopper and hanging on to the landing skids, or, most impressively, climbing out of a window of a speeding bus and onto the roof during a chase scene. These shots are staged to show that Connelly is doing much of his own stunt work. Connelly, a busy TV actor in the '60s and '70s, found himself a very in-demand presence in Italian B-movies throughout most of the 1980s in such beloved cult classics as Enzo G. Castellari's 1990: THE BRONX WARRIORS and Bruno Mattei's STRIKE COMMANDO, but THE RAIDERS OF ATLANTIS might be his best role from this period of his career. He's having a blast, kicking ass, and he gets to be the hero, which didn't happen to him very often. Unfortunately, this was the latter period of his career, as he died of cancer in 1988 at just 47 years of age.
And the dialogue in THE RAIDERS OF ATLANTIS is often pricelessly nonsensical, whether King is telling someone "Your damn thoughts don't go north of your neck anyway!" or Connelly talks about taking Scola out for a spinach dinner. Or, King's instantly immortal "Can't move! We're immobilized!" This is a colossally stupid, bizarre film that seems made up as it goes along, but it's so fast-paced and action-packed that you don't even care. And the score by "Oliver Onions," specifically the title song "Black Inferno," is just awesome. Definitely one of the crown jewels of 1980s Italian trash cinema, and long overdue for DVD/Blu-ray representation in the US.
