Death Rage (1976)

Pretty Good

Fresh and Exciting

Absolutely the worst movie.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

If you want to see again the New York's twin towers, you have the opportunity here at the beginning and in the last frame of this film. Otherwise, you do not have much to see. Many gunshots, too many, exaggerated, unjustified, in a story that is hard to accept. Well, it's just a movie! But, not one of the best, unfortunately. It's the last film of the great Yul, in a role not exactly in proportion to his great actor's value. A very beautiful Barbara Bouchet, who is not ashamed to show us all, absolutely everything which has beautiful any woman... A Martin Balsam, in the typical role of an Italian policeman, as seen in other Italian mafia films. And a Massimo Ranieri trying to convince us that he is an actor too, not just a singer. The musical theme that is repeatedly used, is "inspired" by Henry Mancini's Peter Gunn theme.

One of Yul Brynner's least known films and the last film he made. Death Rage has Brynner as Peter Marciani, retired hit man that is force out of retirement to avenge the death of his murdered brother. Marciani (Brynner) goes to Naples and after the man he learn killed his brother, mafia kingpin Gennaro Gallo.The film is fine generally speaking: not great but it is not horrible but it is the storyline that that seems to be lacking something to me and I'm not sure what - maybe a little bit more action scenes and a little less talking at times? My point being: the film needed some "spice" that it lacked to make this film stand out better. Really the only thing to make this film stand out is Yul Brynner himself - and that's it.If you like 1970s crime-action films you might like this one but just remember this film could use a wee bit more action... also if you are a fan of Yul Brynner's then I would recommend the film to you.5/10

This is Yul Brynner's final film, though he lived another decade after completing this Italian film. Not surprisingly, it's been dubbed into English and the two American stars in the film, Brynner and Martin Balsam, provide their own voices in the English language version. How much the two versions differ, I have no idea. But this one downloaded from archive.org is the English one and, oddly, the sound and video are about 4 seconds off!The film is about revenge. Years before, Peter Marciani (Brynner) was shocked when his brother was murdered--and now a mob boss has told him who was responsible because they want the guy killed. So, like a crazed but cool character (a bit like Lee Van Cleef in his Italian films), he works to bring down the murderer's mob...and he has the help of two people. One is a beautiful woman who inexplicably falls for Marciani and LOVES to take off her clothes (making this a very explicit film) and a young guy who wants to be a hit-man just like Marciani.The film is short on plot and her high on action, death and nudity. Mindlessly enjoyable...making it far from a must-see but decent entertainment.

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.