The Bloody Hands of the Law (1973)

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Copyright 1973 by Difnei Cinematografica. Released in the U.K. through Eagle, June 1975. No Australian release. U.K. length: 8,978 feet. 100 minutes. U.K. release title: The BLOODY HANDS OF THE LAW.SYNOPSIS: A police inspector is forced to use violent methods to smash an international crime ring.VIEWER'S GUIDE: Strictly adults.COMMENT: A thick-ear, gratuitously violent crime melodrama, directed in a rather disorientingly incompetent TV style, this film is worth noting only for the presence of Klaus Kinski. Actually, despite his high billing, Kinski's role is small. What's more he doesn't utter a single word on camera. Kinski plays a vicious thug, conveying menace entirely with his eyes and the set of his lips. He's not dumb. The script is contrived so that he doesn't have to open his mouth while the cameras are turning. Perhaps he was chafing at not being allowed to do his own dubbing in previous Italian movies. Certainly the on-screen silent technique used here is a unique way of getting around the whole dubbing problem. For instance the dubber for Cyril Cusack completely misses that actor's distinctively smarmy voice. For cinemagoers who enjoy exploitive violence, the pace is fast and production values expansive. Aside from the jerky direction and assembly-line dubbing, credits are able enough.

The Bloody Hands of the Law is a rarely seen Italian crime film. It stars the reliable Klaus Kinski in a role as a professional killer. He goes through the entire movie without even saying one line of dialogue, I'm sure not having to learn any lines suited Kinski just fine. Anyway, the film still benefits a lot by having his considerable presence at its disposal. He isn't the lead actor though, that would be Philip Leroy who had an important role in another much better poliziotteschi, Milano Calibro 9. He has more of a starring role in this one and he does give it his all. He looks like a bad ass and he clearly seems to be doing his own stunt work as well. With these two on board it's a bit of a pity to acknowledge that the movie itself doesn't match up to its lead actors. The story is fairly uninteresting and has no real dynamism and it isn't even always easy to follow what's going on. The crime network that underpins the story isn't very well explained and we never really know what they're all about.The story, such as it is, begins with a professional assassination of a crime boss. Witnesses to the crime are bumped off and then others involved in the investigation also meet violent ends. A policeman frustrated with the ineffectiveness of the law demands that the gloves are removed and a more heavy–handed approach is taken in bringing these gangsters to justice.Like all Italian crime films it's pretty violent in places, with a particularly memorable scene where a would-be rapist has his crown jewels obliterated with a blowtorch which seemed rather appropriate. But otherwise the violence is less original and consists mostly of men administering beatings to one-and-other. As I said, the story is messy, so it's hard getting very involved in this one, which is a shame because there is good things about it. I particularly liked the downbeat and moody ending that at least rounded things off on an interesting note. This one also stars the very dark and dusky beauty Silvia Monti, who also featured in Lucio Fulci's classic giallo A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, in a support role as Leroy's lover.

Finding Mario Gariazzo's landmark Giallo/Erotic Thriller crossover Play Motel to be an enjoyable, pretty sleazy movie,I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I actually had another Gariazzo film in my "must watch" pile of DVDs/Video's,which would give me the thrilling chance of seeing Gariazzo take on the Italian Crime genre.The plot:Learning that the head of a much larger,rival gang group is currently in hospital for an operation,a bunch of low down gangsters decide to team up and perform a special stealth "operation" on the hospital.Checking to see that no one else is around,the gangsters quietly sneak in and quickly kill the mob boss and a near by nurse.Leaving the scene of the crime feeling that they are now on the up and up,the joy of the gangsters is short lived,when they relies that a number of people witnessed them leaving the mob boss's room.Fearing that the witnesses could speak at any time,the gangsters start searching round in the hope of killing all of the witnesses,whilst Commissario Gianni De Carmine attempts to find the witnesses before the gangsters kill every bit of proof connected to the assassination.View on the film:Despite the DVD print from Alfa Digital attempting to make nothing shine out in the movie,(with a 5 minute car chase scene becoming a bit tough to watch, due to Alfa making the screen go to near black!) Klaus Kinski is still able to give a very good performance as lead rival gangster Vito Quattroni,who thanks to not having a single line of dialogue in the film,helps Kinski to make Quattroni a menacing villain,who can start shooting from out of nowhere.Going in a slightly classier direction than he did with Play Motel, (such as featuring no "bedroom" scenes,and only having a beautiful woman appear topless!) director Mario Gariazzo cover his wafer thin screenplay, (which does contain,a terrific,down beat Noirish ending) by making the set pieces short,but very fun and gritty,with two of the main highlights being a man's crotch v a blowing torch and a pre-Resivar Dogs twisting of an ear.

THE BLOOD HANDS OF THE LAW (Italy, 1973) aka La Mano Spietata della Legge). Viewed via UK DVD from Alfa Digital released a couple years ago, English dubbed (poorly) and fairly murky print. Fairly pointless and generally incomprehensible crime thriller which begins unraveled and never gets any closer to lucidity as it goes along, finally ending on a note of intriguing despondency but without any firm resolution to its story. Klaus Kinski plays a silent paid assassin whose connection with the other assassins and the increasingly connected network of Organized Crime who people the film is never made clear. The film is mildly violent (despite its 1970's era reputation for being wildly violent) – there are lots of beatings, stabbings, two fisted interrogations, pointless nudity, and "the ever-popular crotch blowtorching scene" wherein a rapist gets his, if you will forgive the term, comeuppance. In many ways the film hearkens to the DIRTY HARRY style, with Philip LeRoy very good as the cop seeking to use any methods possibly to track down the killers, whose victims increase as potential witnesses to their original crime, and then witnesses to those crimes, etc etc, are sequentially knocked off. Nice 1970s Italo-pop score by Stelvio Cipriani is never really used to stylish advantage. Film plods along and begs for an interesting directorial style that, like the film itself, never really delivers.