Death Rage (1976)

When a mobster is assassinated in Naples by the gangsters of Gennaro Gallo (Giancarlo Sbragia), the retired hit-man Peter Marciani (Yul Brynner) learns that Gallo was the responsible for the murder of his brother. He travels from New York to Italy to revenge his brother and he hires the smalltime crook Angelo (Massimo Ranieri) to work for him. Angelo introduces Peter to the dancer Anny (Barbara Bouchet) and they have a love affair. Meanwhile the Italian police inspector (Martin Balsam) unsuccessfully tries to anticipate Peter's move. "Con la rabbia agli occhi", a.k.a. "Death Rage", is a deceptive thriller with Yul Brynner. The unoriginal story uses clichés most of the time with a poor development of characters. The shameful Brazilian DVD released by the Cult Classic distributor has worn out image and is awfully dubbed in English. My vote is four.Title (Brazil): "Na Trilha da Morte" ("On the Trail of the Death")

Death Rage is a poliziotteschi about a retired hit-man (Yul Brynner) who decides to take one last job to avenge the murder of his brother by a mafia gang; he is assisted by an eager young would-be mobster. This is a fairly routine plot-line with no surprises. Yul Brynner plays the role well enough but his character isn't especially interesting. He does suffer from debilitating flash-backs of the killing of his brother; this is shown on screen by an odd red graphic. It's maybe the most interesting idea in the film but it doesn't really ultimately go anywhere, similarly the bad eye-condition that Brynner suffers isn't developed in any way, and feels just like padding. The movie does have an extended car chase and quite a bit of gun-play, so it does at least attempt to keep the action flowing. The problem is more in that the story isn't very dynamic and the villain doesn't seem to do very much or pose too much of a threat, so it's hard to get very involved. The film does also star Martin Balsam in a pretty clichéd role as a police commissario. Much more interesting is the inclusion of Barbara Bouchet as a stripper. This cult Euro actress is a great asset to any film that I have seen her in, and this film is no exception. But, despite being naked quite a lot, she isn't really utilized very well. Overall, this is not a film that comes especially recommended but as a basic crime-thriller it's passably entertaining.

Before surrendering himself completely to touring with The King And I as completely as Bela Lugosi surrendered to being Dracula or James O'Neill surrendered to being The Count of Monte Cristo, Yul Brynner made this final farewell screen appearance in this very mediocre gangster thriller.Along for the ride on this wild turkey is Barbara Bouchet as Brynner's gangster girl friend, Martin Balsam as the Italian police inspector in Naples and Italian pop star Massimo Ranieri as Brynner's apprentice hit-man.Brynner is a retired hit-man that gets brought back into the active Mafia by news that a top Naples crime boss ordered and carried out a hit on Brynner's brother. Brynner leaves New York and plots his revenge.All that distinguishes Death Rage is some nice location cinematography of Naples in the mid seventies. All those seventies fashions are there as well, I can hardly believe I wore some of that. The Americans look bored and just walk through the roles, the Italian players are poorly dubbed in English.Death Rage is for die-hard fans of Yul Brynner only.

Just in case you didn't know it yet, Yul Brynner isn't the type of guy you want to mess with! This charismatic tough bastard starred in a whole lot of western & war movie classics and wasted the lives of approximately a thousand bad guys on screen. Being a big fan of his macho style, I loved to see him star in a typically violent crime-thriller, particularly because this an Italian crime-thriller and those guys always add more of the red stuff and sleaze! The plot of "Death Rage" is unimportant and routing Mafia & Revenge guff, but the car chase sequences are exhilarating and the wild shootouts are truly blood-soaked (at least in the uncut version...). The events are set in Italy – mainly on the horse racecourse – where the American hit-man Peter Marciana has come out of retirement especially to kill the gangster boss who was responsible for the death of his beloved brother. Peter gets entangled in the local mafia network, falls in love with a ravishing strip bar dancer (Barbara Bouchet!) and makes a young and spirited thug his hit-man-acolyte. This last sub plot is stolen directly from the Charles Bronson flick "The Mechanic", but who cares, as every fan knows that Italian cinema loves to borrow ideas from popular American blockbusters. Yul Brynner is still the total definition of coolness, even though he clearly didn't put too much passion into his performance of the ageing assassin. His bald head, his eyes (that appear to malfunction) and his sneaky smile are enough to make his character convincing! Martin Balsam is another veteran actor whose character isn't really important, but it's still very nice to have him around. Antonio Margheriti is – in my humble opinion – Italy's most underrated cult director and "Death Rage" is another amiable effort in his repertoire.