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Violent Streets - The Umberto Lenzi / Tomas Milian Collection (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review

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  • Violent Streets - The Umberto Lenzi / Tomas Milian Collection (Severin Films) Blu-ray

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    Released by: Severin Films
    Released on: March 28th, 2023.
    Director: Umberto Lenzi
    Cast: Tomas Milian, Henry Silva, Ray Lovelock, Joseph Cotten, Claudio Cassinelli, Nicoletta Machiavelli, Maurizio Merli, John Saxon, Pino Colizzi
    Year: 1974/1975/1976/1977/1978
    Purchase From Amazon

    Violent Streets - The Umberto Lenzi / Tomas Milian Collection – Movie Review:

    Severin Films brings together five of the crime films that director Umberto Lenzi made with the ridiculously charismatic Tomas Milian in an aptly titled special edition Blu-ray boxed set dubbed Violent Streets - The Umberto Lenzi / Tomas Milian Collection.

    Here’s what the set contains…

    Almost Human:

    Umberto Lenzi's 1974 police thriller begins with a bank robbery. The bandits get out of the car, masked, and enter the bank while the getaway car driver, mask-less, gets harassed by a cop for parking in a no parking zone. When the cop asks to see his licenses, the getaway car driver shoots the cop in cold blood forcing the thieves to have to high tail it out of there pronto before the heat really comes down on them. This is our introduction to Giulio Sacchi (Tomas Milian of A Cop In Blue Jeans and The Big Gundown), the getaway car driver and an all-around low life thug with no regard for human life at all, save for his own.

    The bank robbers don't want Giulio in their midst anymore so, unwillingly, he goes back to live off of his girlfriend, Iona (pretty blonde Anita Strindberg of Who Saw Her Die? and Lizard In A Woman's Skin). When Giulio accosts Iona the next day at work, he spies a pretty girl playing tennis. Giulio asks Iona about her and finds that her name is Mary Lou (the lovely Laura Belli of Execution Squad), a girl who comes from a very rich family. Sacchi and his two cronies come up with a plan to kidnap Mary Lou seeing as her father is the local wealthy businessman (who just so happens to run the company with which Iona is employed), and hold her hostage for the massive ransom of half a billion lira. If the rich man doesn't pay up, his daughter gets it and the gang goes into hiding.

    Giulio and his two companions figure their plan is pretty much a surefire winner but what they don't gamble on is the interference of a tough cop by the name of Inspector Walter Grandi (Henry Silva - a god among men!). Grandi is hot on their tale and is a smart cop, smart enough to know what they're up to and smart enough to be able to do something about it. When the three hoods start killing people along the way to their hideout (in one grisly scene Giulio forces a man to fellate him at gun point while the two women he's with are tied up and forced to watch) the cops put on the pressure and Grandi starts to take a more personal interest in capturing Sacchi and his crew.

    Almost Human is one of those definitive Eurocrime films that embodies what the genre is all about. Milian is perfect in the role of the sleaze ball crook who will stop at nothing to get rich quick even if means killing a child in cold blood or sending his own girlfriend to her watery grave. His two cohorts (one of whom is played by Ray Lovelock of Squadra Volante and Last House On The Beach and the other by Gino Santercole) are almost as bad and function as enablers for Sacchi's dysfunction. Silva, in a rather restrained performance (at least until the final reel), nails the part of the cop who is hot on the trail of these thugs and his chiseled mug lends the part an almost inhuman look that works well in the context of the film.

    The film also has one of Ennio Morricone's most recognizable poliziotteschi scores and outside of his western pieces, one of the best scores he's ever composed. Collaborations with Leone aside, Almost Human stands out as one of his best (alongside Revolver from which this score borrows quite liberally) and its evocative notes heighten the tension and suite the film perfectly. If you're not careful you're apt to wind up with opening number stuck in your head long after the film has ended.

    So if you like your police action films with loads of sleaze, smart-ass crooks, slick cops, and no shortage of violent action (realism be damned!) then Almost Human should be right up your alley. Lenzi's direction is tight and slick and demonstrative of what a great eye for detail he used to have when he was at the top of his game. He makes the sets and the action larger than life and keeps the film moving at a solid pace from start to finish.

    Syndicate Sadists:

    Directed by Umberto Lezni, 1975's Syndicate Sadists opens with a scene where a scruffy bearded man in a leather jacket and a red hat rides his motorcycle into town. This man is Rambo (Tomas Milian), and he's arrived to visit his old pal. After saying hi to the buddy's wife and kids, it's time to get down to business. Rambo's friend currently works for a police force tasked with taking down the local mobsters. Rambo's offered a job on the force but he turns it down. He's not the policing type, you can just tell - even if he is a crack shot with his pistol.

    Soon after, said friend is dead at the side of the road, having had his head based against a rock by a thug named Philip Duvale (Antonio Casale). When Rambo gets word of what happened, he makes it his own personal mission to seek revenge - but there's more to this than that. See, there's more than one mob to deal with in this town. One of the organizations is run by Paternò (Joseph Cotton), an older man who won't leave his estate who lets his son Ciccio (Adolfo Lastretti) do all the dirty work. The second is run by Conti (Luciano Catenacci), a beefy bald guy with a taste for hookers. When an innocent young boy gets kidnapped in the ensuing conflicts, our hero puts into motion a plan to play each side against the other - but it won't be easy, and he just might lose his foxy girlfriend Flora (Femi Benussi) along the way.

    “Life's a hole. We are born from a hole, eat from a hole, shit from a hole, and end up in a hole”

    You've got to love dialogue like that, and there's a fair amount of it in Syndicate Sadists (which is fairly violent but not really as sadistic as the title might lead you to believe). Milian is in fine form here, embodying the cool counter culture of the era with his scruffy beard and strange choice in hats. He does good work, playing Rambo (yes, the name was lifted from the novel First Blood but this film was made a few years prior to Stallone making the name iconic!). He's calm, he's crafty, he's clever - even witty sometimes. He suits the part and the part suits him. The rest of the cast are alright too. Cotten is well past his prime here, one of many American actors whose star was starting to fade to wind up in Italian crime films like this. He isn't asked to do all that much, dramatically speaking, but he's fine when he's on screen. Adolfo Lastretti as his soon makes a bigger impression, but that's less to do with his acting ability than it is his penchant for sticking what looks like an inhaler up his nose every few minutes. Pretty Femi Benussi, with her curly red hair (and who pops up in Strip Nude For Your Killer, Hatchet For The Honeymoon and a few other Italian cult titles) looks great strutting about as Rambo's main squeeze, while Luciano Catenacci as Cotten's whoring rival mobster is a blast to watch. Really, this is a pretty well cast picture.

    The film also delivers some pretty solid action sequences. Like a lot of similar movies, Syndicate Sadists offers up plenty of motorcycle and car chases (Milian did not do any of the stunt work here, which explains why his character's face is often covered by goggles or a scarf during these scenes!), most of which end in some sort of collision of explosion. The big shoot out that takes place during the film's finale is a stand out sequence, it's well shot, well cut and quite tense.

    Free Hand For A Tough Cop:

    Directed and released in 1976, this one starts Milian as Sergio Marazzi 'Monnezza' (or, Garbage Can in the English dubbed track!), a prisoner who, when we first meet him, is watching a western with his follow inmates inside the slammer. His play time is interrupted when Commissioner Antonio Sarti (Claudio Cassinelli) shows up, punches him in the face, and hauls him out of the big house. Why? Because a group of gangsters are kidnapping people left, right and center and he wants Monnezza’s help putting a stop to it.

    While the cops do a pretty good job of, after a car chase, busting up the racket’s latest attempt, a young girl named Camilla (Susanna Melandri) is still being held captive. She’s got some health issues and if she isn’t brought to a doctor soon, she’ll die. This means that her ultra-rich father has been pressuring the man in the charge of the Ministry Of The Interior to pressure the cops to do whatever it takes to get her back, hence Sarti’s rather unusual plan of using Monnezza to help get this sorted. See, Monnezza knows the man behind all of this, a Frenchman named Brescianelli (Henry Silva), but Brescianelli has a trick up his sleeve in that he’s recently had plastic surgery and no longer looks like he used to.

    As Sarti and Monnezza form an uneasy alliance and start making their way through the underworld to try and save Camilla’s life, they, of course, run into complications and realize every early on that, even with a whole lot of police backing, this won’t be an easy case to crack.

    Set to a great score from Bruno Canfora, Free Hand For A Tough Cop is an odd but effective mix of humor, drama, intrigue and action. With Milian sporting thick eyeliner and a very bouffant afro wig, he’s pretty unforgettable here but his acting chops are completely up to snuff and he turns Monnezza into an interesting anti-hero character. His charisma goes a long way towards making this movie as entertaining as it is, and Lenzi seems pretty comfortable just letting him run with it. Milian and Cassinelli make for a pretty good team here, they’ve got an interesting and sometimes believably uncomfortable chemistry that is just fun to watch. Throw in an underused, scene stealing Henry Silva as the main bad guy and what is there not to like?

    Lenzi, as is typical of his work in this genre and from this period, keeps the action moving pretty quickly. There are some solid chase scenes, quite a few shoot-outs, plenty of bitch slapping and back handing and plenty of nefarious supporting characters seemingly always up to no good. This makes it hard to know who you can and cannot trust in the movie, which adds to the suspense in the film’s final half.

    The Cynic, The Rat And The Fist:

    Made shortly the success of Rome Armed To The Teeth, Umberto Lenzi's The Cynic, The Rat And The Fist once again catches up with super cop Inspector Leonardo Tanzi (Mauricio Merli). He's recently put a notorious criminal named Luigi 'Chinaman' Maietto (Tomas Milian) behind bars and is attempting to live a calmer, quieter life. One night he comes home to find a calling card of sorts and before you know it, POW, he's been shot and left for dead.

    But he's not dead, because he's the toughest, handsomest sonofabitch around. The top cops decide to let the public believe he's been murdered, however, and then send him out of town for a while to lay low. Tanzi's not having any of it, however. He figures if his would be killer figures he really is six feet under then all the better to exact his revenge and take down the mobsters that are running rampant across the streets of Rome. Through Chinaman's connections to DiMaggio (John Saxon), Tanzi is able to start chasing him down and taking out a lot of their businesses along the way, including a dirty movie shoot complete with spotlights and naked ladies!

    Reportedly, Merli and Milian didn't get along so well on the set of this film and there are times where you have to wonder if that tension is seeping into what we see on the screen. Given that they are foes in the film, however, it works - you really get the impression that Tanzi and 'Chinaman' want to tear each other's throats out! It's also interesting to note that while Merli does reprise his role as Tanzi from the earlier Rome Armed To The Teeth, Milian plays a completely different character this time around. Throw John Saxon into the mix and it's hard to complain about the casting in the picture. Merli is in fine form, punching and shooting and bitch slapping his way around Italy without ever ruffling up his perfectly coiffed moustache. Milian gets to go over the top a bit here and chew a little bit of scenery, something he was always good at, while still playing the part with enough weight to make his character both interesting and intimidating. Saxon is just plain suave, also sporting a moustache, and about as cool as they come. If tough guys are your thing, this one should be just what the doctor ordered.

    The movie also serves as a great example of how good Lenzi was at directing action and crime films. The story by Sauro Scavolini and the screenplay from Ernesto Gastaldi give Lenzi ample opportunity to flex his directorial muscles and as such, the picture is tightly paced and consistently exciting. There's enough character development here to matter but those expecting heavy drama best look elsewhere. Car chases (right from the start, a genre cliché for sure but still awesome!), shoot outs, fisticuffs galore, exploding cop cars, occasionally naked damsels in distress - it's all here. Throw in plenty of great location photography that shows off the streets of Italy quite nicely. On top of that the film mixes in some surprisingly effective humor and utilizes a great score courtesy of Franco Micalizzi.

    Brothers Till We Die:

    The final film in the collection, from 1978, stars Milian in a dual role as brothers Vincenzo Marazzi, also known as Il Gobbo (The Hunchback) and once again as Monnezza. A follow up of sorts to both The Tough Ones and Free Hand For A Tough Cop, it tells the story of Vincenzo's plan to pull off the daring robbery of an armored police truck. The job goes off with a few complications but once it's over with, his own gang tries to murder him and run off with the money. Needing a place to hide, Vincenzo heads underground into the city's sewer system.

    Meanwhile, the cops have had a nice talk with Monnezza, wanting to know what he knows about Vincenzo's activities and whereabouts. Eventually, Vincenzo comes to Monnezza for help and then sets about getting revenge against the former gang members he once worked with who have since screwed him over. As all of this plays out, tensions rise between various parties as the two brothers kinda-sorta work together to put an end to all of this.

    Set to a killer score and once again standing as a showcase for Lenzi’s abilities to direct really tense and exciting scenes of action and violence, Brothers Till We Die really sees Milian aiming for the fences. He chews a lot of scenery here and is concerned not one iota with subtlety or even realism, but he sure is entertaining to watch, acting beside himself in a few cleverly shot scenes where he’s on camera as both characters at the same time. Wearing plenty of eyeliner as both characters and once again sporting a ridiculous wig as Monnezza, he really goes all in as both characters and you won’t soon forget his work in the picture.

    The film mixes weird comedic elements into its narrative pretty effectively, most of which stems from Milian’s portrayal of the two very different brothers and their individual quirks and misadventures. Lenzi paces the movie well and if, tonally, it’s fairly odd compared to the other movies in this set, it still fits alongside them quite nicely and proves to be a very entertaining watch.

    Violent Streets - The Umberto Lenzi / Tomas Milian Collection – Blu-ray Review:

    All five films collected in the Violent Streets - The Umberto Lenzi / Tomas Milian Collection are presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition and framed at 2.35.1 widescreen. Almost Human and Free Hand For A Tough Cop are Region A locked, the other three movies are Region Free. For the most part, the transfers look very strong. There is what appears to be some mild DNR on Free Hand For A Tough Cop but it isn’t a complete wax job and otherwise, there’s very little to complain about here. Colors look really solid across the board in each of the five films, and there are no issues with any visible compression artifacts. There’s barely any print damage here at all, and we get accurate looking skin tones and strong black levels. Detail is generally very nice and there’s solid depth and texture evident in each of the movies.

    Each film is offered up in both an Italian language and an English language DTS-HD 2.0 Mono track with optional English subtitles provided for the Italian track and English closed captioning provided for the English track. Typically, the Italian tracks have a bit more depth to them with the English dubbed tracks sounding a bit thin in comparison, but everything is properly balanced throughout. The subtitles are clean, clear and easy to read and the audio is free of any notable hiss or distortion.

    Extras are spread out across the set as follows:

    Almost Human:

    First up is an audio commentary with screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi, where he talks about what Italy was like in 1974 and how social unrest and political confusion led to problems for the country and how a lot of this was worked into the script for Almost Human. He also talks about how and why he was approached to write this movie in the first place, thoughts on the different characters in the movie and why he wrote them this way, thoughts on the performances in the film including Milian's tendency to overact, memories of specific scenes being shot, working with Lenzi, the film's budget and how it affected things, the relationship between Silva's character and Eastwood's Harry Callahan and lots more.

    A second commentary features Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth and they go over the film's marketing and release history as well as the different alternate titles it has been known under over the years, the quality of Morricone's score for the movie, thoughts on the different performances in the movie and how Milian's method acting led to him experimenting with various substances during the making of the movie, Silva's work in the picture and what he brings to the role, how the movie compares to other Italian cop films made around the same time and why these movies were as popular as they were in the Italy of the 1970's and plenty of other details.

    Violent Milan is a twenty-nine minute interview with director Umberto Lenzi that sees him go into quite a bit of detail about his project came to be, how and why he and Milian started working together and his thoughts on what it was like to collaborate with the storied actor, where some of the story ideas came from and how then current events in Italy helped shape the script and the final version of the film.

    Milian Unleashed! is a great half hour interview/documentary carried over from the 2005 No Shame Films DVD with Giulio Sacchi in which Milian discusses his life and times within the Italian exploitation boom of the seventies and eighties and how he came to take roles such as this, how he enjoyed working with Umberto Lenzi, and what he thinks about his career looking back on some of the projects he was involved with thirty years ago. Clad in a funky bohemian beanie and sporting a white beard, Milian still looks like Milian and it's a blast tripping down memory lane with him through this segment - he's still got plenty of attitude and he's still got that Milian charm.

    A History Of Violence is a thirty-eight minute interview with Ernesto Gastaldi that covers a bit of the same ground as this commentary track. It goes over where and why he took inspiration from the headlines and some of the social unrest that was causing problems in Italy during this period, and how he incorporated some of this into the movie.

    Italian American Gangster is a six minute interview with actor Henry Silva where he talks about the time he spent making films in Italy, why he chose to make films there instead of in the United States, and some of the directors he worked with, including Lenzi.

    A trailer for the feature is also included on the disc, alongside menus and chapter selection options.

    Also included alongside the Blu-ray inside the case for Almost Human is the film’s entire soundtrack, courtesy of Ennio Morricone, on a CD that is also packaged with a nice postcard sized insert with some poster art on one side and the track listing on the reverse.

    Syndicate Sadists:

    Extras on the second disc start off with First Blood, an interview with Umberto Lenzi running eight minutes and covering working with Luciano Martino, how impressed he was with the script, how Ray Lovelock came to be in the movie thanks to his friendship with Milian, Milian's tendency to cause a lot of problems during the making of the movie, the influence of First Blood, working with Joseph Cotten, shooting some of the stunts and why Morricone didn't score the film.

    Family Affair is a seventeen minute interview with actress Ida Galli who talks about how she wound up in the film after previously working with Lenzi, what her relationship with the director was like, working with her son on the movie, thoughts on her character in the movie, how Milian was frequently very unlikeable on set, thoughts on how the movie turned out and its box office success, finding inspiration for her character in thinking about her son and memories of working with the other cast members.

    Actor Alessandro Cocco is up next in Kidnapped, a twenty-seven minute interview where he talks about how he got into acting in the first place, the influence of his mother's career on his own, how he got the part in the movie, how he liked the adventurous tone of the movie and all the acting scenes, having very fond memories of working with Lenzi, memories of shooting specific scenes including his kidnapping scene, what it was like working with Milian as a ten year old and being disappointed when he learned that the actor used a stunt double for certain scenes, memories of working with Cotten and with his own mother on the shoot.

    The fourth and final featurette on the disc is Interview With The Fascist, which gets actor Bruno Di Luia in front of the camera for twenty-four minutes. He talks about how he got his start in acting in Cleopatra where he was an extra, working his way up the ladder, going to the gym to learn boxing and befriend various industry stuntmen and acrobats, memories of meeting Lenzi and working with him, doing stints in jail in his younger days and why this happened to him, working with the different cast members and stuntmen in Syndicate Sadists, thoughts on the fascist elements of the movie and some of his own, rather odd and extreme, political views in this regard.

    Finishing up the extras on the disc is a trailer for the feature, menus and chapter selection options.

    Inside the case for this movie is another CD, this time containing the soundtracks for Syndicate Sadists as well as Brothers Till We Die. Again, Severin provides a postcard-sized insert with poster art on one side and the track listing on the reverse, which is a nice touch.

    Free Hand For A Tough Cop:

    In The Asphalt Jungle is another interview with Lenzi, this one running a quick four minutes. He talks about working with the producer, getting Milian back for the movie, how he came to direct the picture, his thoughts on how the critics received his police films at the time and how a real robbery case influenced the movie.

    Tough Guy Corrado is a featurette that explores the career of Corrado Solari running thirty-nine minutes. Here, Solari is interviewed and speaks about getting into acting and some of his early roles, making connections along the way, working at Cincitta, what it was like working with Gian Maria Volonté and how knowing him saved his fiancé’s life, how politics of the late sixties and into the seventies in Italy affected so many movies including this one, working with other storied actors and directors over the years, getting to know Lenzi and what he was like to work with, working with both Maurizio Merli and Tomas Milian and memories and reflections of shooting Free Hand For A Tough Cop.

    The Father Of Monnezza is an interview with screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti The Father Of Monnezza is an interview with screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti clocking in at thirty-four minutes. This piece goes over how he came to work with Lenzi and what their partnership was like, how there was a family atmosphere to their collaborations, how the success of his work on The Tough Ones brought him more attention in this genre, how Lenzi was responsible for coming up with the title and how he was very good at doing that, how much fun he had writing this particular screenplay, how Milian changed his character around a bit and really made him his own, how he feels 48 Hours borrows very heavily from Free Hand For A Tough Cop, why he remains fond of the movie to this day, what he thinks makes a good actor and quite a bit more.

    Hand-Held Camera For A Tough Cinematographer interviews cinematographer Nino Celeste for sixteen minutes. He talks about meeting Milian in 1969 and how they came to work together quite often during this period, what Milian was like to work with and how he was often very complimentary of Celeste's work, running into problems when shooting on old film stock leftover from a Leone movie, how Lenzi was very professional but could sometimes be difficult to understand, how doing some of the handheld and shaky cam shots came to be and specific memories of shooting key scenes in the film.

    Producer Ugo Tucci is interviewed in Making Movies. Here, over twelve minutes, he talks about how he came to know and work with Lenzi, why all Italian films made during this period were dubbed regardless of what market they were for, how he got his start in the business as a production assistant, wanting to cash in on the popularity of crime films in Italy at the time, exploiting the new idea of teaming up a good guy with a bad guy and how having Silva in the movie was almost an obligation due to his popularity in the genre.

    The disc also includes the three minute extended bank robbery scene, taken from the original negative, a trailer for the feature, menus and chapter selection options.

    The Cynic, The Rat And The Fist:

    The first of the extras on this disc is Merli vs. Milian, an interview with Umberto Lenzi running four minutes. He talks about casting the two actors in The Tough Ones nad working with them again in this film. He also talks about how they didn't necessarily get along on the set of that movie, how he changed the original title to make it sound like a Leone movie, filming the two actors separately and what they were like to work with.

    A Man Of Action is a second interview with Lenzi that runs ten minutes. He speaks here about how his appreciation of contemporary history has helped his career, his appreciation of American films going back to his childhood, his thoughts on Quentin Tarantino's work and noting Lenzi as an influence, his thoughts on critical reception to his movies over the years, doing the best he could on a limited budget and using creative filmmaking to overcome modest financing.

    Me, Milian And Merli is a third interview with Umberto Lenzi on His Iconic Characters. This twenty minute piece sees him speak about where some of the ideas for the movie came from, how the crime films he made in the seventies reflected the time in which they were made, casting the three leads in the movie and what it was like working with and directing them, keeping the foreign market in mind when making the film, memories of shooting some of the more difficult scenes, what Saxon was able to bring to the picture, working comedic elements into the story, the popularity of Milian's Monnezza character, Merli's proficiency for doing stunts and action scenes and what eventually brought about the downfall of genre cinema in Italy.

    Screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti is up next in The Writer, The Director And The Actor where he spends thirty-two minutes talking about how he owes Lenzi a debt of gratitude for helping to launch his career, where some of the ideas for the movie came from, thoughts on the characters that populate the movie and the actors who brought them to life, learning to write action and violence, the influence of American cinema on his work, needing to create a strong contrast between the main characters in the movie, how seriously Milian took his acting compared to almost everyone else, how Merli was a rather calm family man off set, the ups and downs of working with agents and producers and differences between the American and Italian film industries.

    The last of the interviews on the disc is Here Comes The Fist, where actor John Saxon speaks for nine minutes about his time in Italy, how hard a lot of Italian directors like Lenzi worked to get their movies made, seeing some of these movies for the first time twenty years after making them, memories of working with Milian, some of the problems Italy was having with crime during this period, how hot headed Lenzi could be on set, Merli's status as a big star when the movie was made and how he would speak about himself in the third person when the cameras weren't rolling and how he enjoyed this period in his life and career.

    A trailer for the feature closes out the extras on the disc, which also includes menus and chapter selection. Severin has also provided a CD including all eighteen tracks from the movie's soundtrack, and a postcard insert with poster art on one side and the track listing on the reverse.

    Brothers Till We Die:

    Lenzi shows up again in a featurette called Tomas And Tomas. This twelve minute segment sees Lenzi talking about having a hand in almost every script that he ever made, writing the script for Brothers Till We Die on his own, Milian doing a lot of his own dialogue on the movie, the influence of forties and fifties American crime films, directing Milian in a double role in the movie and how the scenes where Milian appears twice in the same frame were shot, his experiences working with American actors and how that differed from working with Italian actors and how he feels about the movie overall.

    He Called Me 'The Tamer' is an interview with editor Eugenio Alabiso running nineteen minutes. With cigar in hand, he speaks about some of the different directors he worked with over the years with an emphasis on his work with Lenzi. He talks about how they met on 1967's Desert Commandos, the relationship they formed, how the director found success in genre films, how Lenzi anticipated editing while shooting films, why he called Alabiso 'The Tamer,' his thoughts on Milian's work in the movie and his acting in general, the importance of the film's score, and how happy he is that these films are being re-appreciated in the modern era decades after they were made and sometimes heavily criticized.

    Composer Franco Micalizzi is up next in Music And Bullets. he speaks for twenty minutes about how he got into the film industry in the first place, what he tried to bring to his work in the film industry, what Lenzi was like to work with and how they formed a friendship as they started working together, his thoughts on the dubbing and voice actors that worked on the film, the importance of Milian's presence in the movie, how the politics of the day affected the movie, the different instruments that were used in creating the score, some of the session musicians he worked with and Venditti's work on the film.

    The last featurette on the disc is Heart Of Rome, an interview with composer Antonello Venditti running nineteen minutes. This interview discusses how he came to create the song used in the movie (Sora Rosa), some of the themes and ideas he tried to work into the music, what makes his work unique in the history of Roman songwriters, how Sora Rosa is meant to represent justice, how he and Milian were fans of each other’s' work and his thoughts on Milian's performance and personality, the dubbing featured in the movie and more.

    The disc also includes a trailer for the feature, menus and chapter selection options.

    All five discs have their own individual cover sleeve art and fit inside a sturdy, top-loading hard box with some pretty cool spot-varnished tire tracks running across every panel except for the bottom. It’s a pretty cool package!

    Violent Streets - The Umberto Lenzi / Tomas Milian Collection - The Final Word:

    Severin Films’s Violent Streets - The Umberto Lenzi / Tomas Milian Collection Blu-ray boxed set is a winner, offering up five really entertaining action movies each highlighted by Milian’s wild charisma and backed up by Lenzi’s legitimate action movie directing chops. The presentations for each film are solid and the set is loaded with some really impressive extra features, including sound fantastic soundtrack CDs. All in all, there’s a whole lot to love here and this set can’t come anything less than highly recommended.



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