Street People (1976)

Why so much hype?

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

When a cross from a Sicilian church is shipped into San Francisco with a million dollars worth of heroin hidden inside, mafia don Salvatore Francesco dispatches his nephew Ulysses (Moore) to find the three thugs responsible. Ulysses then teams up with his race-car driving buddy Charlie (Keach). Charlie checks out all the seedy haunts and dives of San Francisco while Ulysses goes to Sicily for answers. When back together in SF, all hell breaks loose, as a series of double crosses and emotional flashbacks reveal the horrible truth.Maybe it's the presence of its two major stars, but this mafia yarn is pretty restrained. It's not nearly as sleazy/violent as it could have been or should have been. It seems that in the wake of The French Connection (1971) and The Godfather (1972), among others, all the many writers and directors involved in this project (one of which was Ernest Tidyman of Shaft (1971) and French Connection fame) tried to mash it all up and hoped Roger Moore would be the glue that held it all together. Sadly, that plan was as half-baked as the movie itself.Not to say that "Street People" is all that bad. There are some funny stereotypes, an enjoyable 70's atmosphere, nice San Francisco locations, Roger Moore is charming as the half British, half Sicilian cousin, and Stacy Keach looks like he's having fun. Keach gets off some great dialogue, not the least of which is: "I'm gonna spread the word that you're a turkey deluxe!" Keach pretty much steals the show, with his relaxed, fun-loving performance. The highlight of the movie, the "car test-drive" scene, succeeds mainly because of him. There's an impressive car chase towards the end, and some slow-motion emotional flashbacks with Bacalov's score at the climax of the film, and presumably the director(s) were, at the last minute, aiming for a Sergio Leone-like experience. It would have been better if it was all more cohesive.Released by American International Pictures (the original AIP) in the U.S., and released on video here on Vestron, "Street People" may be worth seeing for the chemistry of Moore and Keach, or for people that have seen a lot of 70's drive-in mafia flicks and want to see something else, but for casual viewers, it does leave something to be desired.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

This strangely colorless film blends elements from several different genres -- Mafia pictures, drug deal features, your basic shoot 'em up actionfest, and a standard car chase romp, all tied together with a mismatched buddy crime-fighting duo -- into a bland mishmash that crucially fails to develop a flavorful distinction which could have allowed all the disparate bits and pieces to jell into a pleasingly coherent and enjoyable whole. Moreover, the unmistakably British Roger Moore is horribly miscast as a partly Italian lawyer who's assigned by a powerful mob capo to nail the three brutal thugs who smuggled a million dollars worth of smack into the country by hiding the dope inside a large wooden cross. Moore, assisted by jocular grand prix professional race car driver Stacy Keach (who gives a solid, lively performance that's much better than the insipid material deserves), pounds the pavement for the dirtbags and uncovers a series of double and triple crosses which lead to a shocking revelation of a grim secret stemming from Moore's shadowy past. Maurizio Lucidi's merely adequate direction remains resolutely workmanlike from start to finish, putting too much emphasis on dull chitchat during the opening and middle of the movie. In addition, the poky, erratic pace and a curious sense of unfortunate restraint prevents this picture from acquiring both the baroque style and trashy vitality it needs to seriously cook. However, things do finally come to life in the reasonably sound and exciting last half hour, with a rousing car chase and a few bloody shoot-outs enlivening the general tedium. Still, the humdrum script that was co-written by noted screenwriter Ernest Tidyman (who also penned "Shaft" and "The French Connection") and future "Grease" director Randal Kleiser, sticks too closely to run-of-the-mill predictable and unsurprising crime thriller conventions, thereby making this mediocre outing a strictly middling and passable time-killer at best.

This film is one of the hardest Roger Moore films to track down, other than the almost forgotten Sunday Lovers. The version I saw was entitled The Executors and ran for 100 minutes, and as far as I'm aware it is the most complete edition of the film in circulation. Other editions include Sicilian Cross, Gli Esecutori and Street People. Under any title it is not a good film..... in fact, it is one of the worst examples of Italian profiteering movie making.The film is similar to The French Connection. It deals with drug peddlars in San Francisco. In order to smuggle their latest consignment in the US, they have used a wooden crucifix sent as a gift to the Californian fishermen from the island of Sicily. This enrages the local godfather, who sends his nephew Moore to catch the culprits. Moore enlists the aid of his hard-driving buddy Stacy Keach and eventually tracks down the villains, but the truth affects him more personally and emotively than he could have foreseen.The film is full of under developed moments. There's a great opportunity for a classic car chase, but the sequence is badly editted and makes little sense. The final showdown could have packed a real wallop, but it fizzles out without generating anything of note. The best scene involves Keach wrecking a car, but even then it isn't a great scene... merely a mediocre scene in a movie full of bad scenes.Moore gives an OK performance and Keach is pretty good in his usual casual way. The foreign actors are embarrassingly dubbed and look foolish as a result. All in all, this film is for Roger Moore completists only,as anybody else will certainly find it a hard slog.

Disjointed gangster film that specializes in pointless "destruction of property" scenes. Roger Moore is badly miscast; he clearly looks uncomfortable to be in an Italian crime movie, and he shows none of his usual flair. Don't go out of your way to see this one. (*1/2)