“…a competently, impersonally handled thriller fantasy… mere competence can do little to unify this kind of mongrel co-production, or to pump much life into its derivative synthetics".
Monthly Film Bulletin
Back in the day they called these films “Euro-puddings”
with the negative connotations such a sloppy mix might suggest yet, was this
particular Anglo-Italian film really as derivatively synthetic as suggested
above? There’s certainly no lack of budget as the film was shot in Safa
Palatino in Rome and on location in London, Beirut and Baalbek, and there’s
some fab interiors including an ultra modern high class escort service with a
video art installation off-setting the inherent sleaze of the oldest
profession.
Any film with this many titles has to cause concern though: the Italian title, Si può essere più bastardi dell'ispettore Cliff? - 'Can anyone be more of a bastard than Inspector Cliff?' – is without doubt the most descriptive whilst it was also known as Super Bitch (look, is it Cliff’s fault or not?!), Blue Movie Blackmail in the UK and in the U.S. as Mafia Junction. There is indeed some blue-movie blackmail but I don’t get the Mafia travel hub connection?
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| Ivan Rassimov |
Directed by Massimo Dallamano, the film is certainly Italian giallo/poliziottesco in style but the contribution of Stephanie Beacham as Joann, an escort with a heart and, especially, Patricia Hayes as the improbable mafia matriarch Mamma the Turk, oh yes!, does ground the film in the London locations. Lovely Verna Harvey, previously in The Nightcallers with Beacham, as a psychotic young teen, plays a slightly older and less murderous teen as Eva, Mama’s daughter.
In the version I saw, the Italian cast are dubbed and this always presents difficulties even if you can’t lip-read. Ivan Rassimov as the titular “bastard” Inspector Cliff Hoyst, is handsome and roguish in a Clint Eastwood’s evil half-brother sort of way and we’re not quite sure whose side he’s really on throughout. There’s a Giallo looseness that doesn’t quite fit with the more disciplined narratives of British films of this style but it’s not entirely without merit.
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| Stephanie Beacham and Giacomo Rossi-Stuart |
Cliff has been causing trouble in Italy, interfering with
the planned expansion of Big Mamma and he follows her to London where she intends
to broaden distribution for her drug empire. He rocks up at a high-class escort
service run by Marco (the instantly recognisable Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) whose
right-hand woman is Joann, who has history with Cliff or and is inevitably keen
on reconnecting.
But there is work to do and the operation is soon shown entertaining an American Ambassador (Cec Linder) with Joann – he’s dressed as a rabbit, eating carrots from her hand, and then a naked young man enters immediately drawing his attention away from her; clearly, they knew their man. All of this is caught on camera and the unfortunate envoy has no option but to do as he is told and purchase an overpriced antique at auction that contains drugs… At this point we’re searching for sympathetic characters and you have to feel sorry for the guy. Cliff may well be working for some higher agency but his day-to-day activities are steeped in sleaze. Will there be honour among thieves, blackmailers and those living off immoral earnings, even if they do have interesting video sculptures?
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| A nasty surprise for Mamma's boys... |
Things turn ultra-violent once Mama despatches her main
man, Gamble (Luciano Catenacci) to mess up Marco’s action and open the London
market for her. Gamble’s men take over the office and look too mean to be true
until Cliff completely out manoeuvres them at their country hide-out on a
bloody scale that has to be seen to be believed. This is par for the course for
this genre but still almost cartoonishly violent.
Talking of cartoon, there are lavish sex scenes involving Beacham especially… this film is a primal feast on so many levels – and clearly the actress was not as “shy” as Michael Winner had felt on The Nightcomers. The overall affect is to leave the viewer slightly punch drunk especially with the amount of double-crossing Cliff undertakes.
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| Mamma's singing gang of merry murderers |
And then we have a singing bad guy, a member of Mamma’s
gand who serenades the crew as they whizz around London seeking vengeance and
the deal that’s due. I would guess that I’m missing the humour in translation,
but when they kick one of Marco’s male escorts to bits down a side street it’s
hardly time for Cat Stevens less talented cousin especially when they run over
the unconscious man just to make sure. Violence and a twist of humour, it’s
hardly A Clockwork Orange.
Mama kidnaps Joann and in calculated retaliation, Cliff takes her daughter Eva (Hervey) who is soon minus some clothes herself as Cliff uses her as a bargaining chip… all that remains to be seen is how much of a bastard Cliff actually is and the closing segment is a breathless combination of all that has gone before.
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| Verna Harvey |
Dusty Verdict: Whatever you call it, this film is entertaining in a way that doesn’t demand too much attention even though the plot is complicated it’s also almost superfluous in terms of the main characters. It’s got a fab score from Riz Ortolani and gets the job done even as it leaves you feeling slightly empty; one for the heart and not the head, but ultimately rather immoral. As Alfred Hitchcock said during the silent era, he wanted to make voyeurs of us all and the cinema of voyeurism has always flourished.
Filmed in the Lebanon, London and New York, the film features good action scenes and moves along at a furious pace delivering its amoral mayhem; it’s well shot and directed by Dallamano who is noted for the giallo classic What Have You Done to Solange? and the swinging sexploitational Venus in Furs (not the Jess Franco one and otherwise known as Devil in the Flesh) (1969) which I believe may make the sex scenes in this film look a little tame. He was also cinematographer on For a Few Dollars and many more… an undeniably interesting filmmaker.
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| Stephanie offers Cec Linder a carrot. |
Stephanie Beacham is excellent as usual, she always makes the watcher aware of their interest with characterisations always full of nuanced realities even in the midst of outlandish plots. As for Ivan Rassimov he’s just too good as the anti-hero; entirely believable but I bet he liked animals and supported donkey sanctuaries in real life.
There’s a neat cameo from Gareth Thomas as a trenchcoated
detective sent to track Cliff who easily spots him… and there we have perhaps
the film’s most sympathetic character; someone who simply isn’t bad or
competent enough to fit into anyone’s schemes. He walks away unscathed after
Cliff’s warning and feels very much like a member of the audience being set
straight on the film’s content; don’t watch if you’re squeamish about rabbit
fetishists, inappropriate carrot eating, shootings, and nudity-with-rough-handling.
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