Ricco (1974)

Too many fans seem to be blown away

From my favorite movies..

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I saw this one as a pretty good example of a "B" version of the early '70s Italian crime films. On those terms, it's pretty good. I'm not really sure you can take it seriously enough to rate against the "A" grade, but I think it pretty much announces that. One of the taglines from a poster at the time was "No swords, no guns, no knives, no weapons. Just a burning pool of acid!". No weapons? No knives? Tons of those. And...just a minor point...soap is made from an alkaline solution, things like sodium hydroxide. That's the opposite of acid. So the only thing in the tagline accurate is "no swords". Like I'd expect that of a '70s Italian crime film.So, you can't get too deep with this one. As an over the top take on the sub genre I think it works. As much "early '70s" as it is "Italian crime film", it doesn't spare any mod visuals. Worth a go, I say.

Christopher Mitchum is Ricco, a pretty boy with a blonde fringe fresh out of prison who sets out to avenge the death of his father, who was murdered 2 years ago in by his competitor in the Italian mafia underworld, Don Vito. As if that wasn't enough, slick Don Vito even stole his girl-friend. Well you'd think Ricco has plenty of reasons to be really angry. I'm talking Charles Bronson angry. Instead Ricco has this "I have nothing better to do this afternoon, so I might as well take on the mob" attitude that makes you wonder if anyone on the set told Mitchum exactly why he's supposed to be taking revenge. Mitchum might not be able to emote for the life of him, but at least he has two modes: smirk and stare blank. He also kisses like a fish, rolls on the ground with his sister and her boyfriend because they're too happy to see him out of prison, feigns laughter when he nearly evades car accidents, blinks in close-up when he recognizes his mother and sister's dead bodies (that's emotion for you), heck he even karate chops people in a flashback to impress his father. His karate moves are a hoot and the movie is worth the price of admission for that scene alone. Don Vito is a slick Italian mafia boss type with a mustache. He owns a soap factory, says stuff like "don't you know by now I hate soap... and men that sweat" and turns his own men into it when they fail him. If you sleep with his sultry girl-friend you get castrated in graphic detail, fed your own penis then you're thrown in a tank full of acid (that's how he turns people into soap). You don't wanna go around messing with this guy. Now for the sleaze. It comes in the form of the drop dead gorgeous Euro babes Barbara Bouchet (regular in 70's gialli) and Malisa Longo. We get get close ups of Bouchet's ass and breasts while she walks, she has a striptease scene on the hood of a car, she's lucky enough to bed Ricco and is her all around cute self. Longo in the role of Don Vito's girlfriend spends most of the movie scantily clad and seduces Don Vito's underling in a very sexy scene. Refer to the previous paragraph for what happens when you have a sex scene with her. The first half of the movie is so delightfully cheesy that I kept wondering where's Joe Bob Briggs when you need him. The second one is more gritty and sadistic with a graphic castration scene and lots of gunplay. The sleaze has a steady presence throughout and so does the silly dialogue. The score reminded me of The Godfather. That about sums it up I think. Ricco is by no means a profound crime drama but it's entertaining and schlocky enough to warrant a viewing or two. Fans of 70's Italian crime b-movies will lap it up and ask for more.

That sure was fun! Ricco (or The Mean Machine or whatever you want to call it) may not be the best, most dramatic, or grittiest Euro-crime film I've run across, but it is one of the most entertaining I've ever seen. Ricco (Christopher Mitchum) is a young man out for revenge. He's just finished serving a two year prison sentence for attacking the man he holds responsible for killing his father and assuming control of his criminal organization. And now that he's been released, Ricco discovers that Don Vito (Arthur Kennedy) has also taken his girl. Let's get this out of the way up-front – Ricco has its fair share of obvious weaknesses and problems. Chief among them is Mitchum. He may look a lot like his father, but that's where the comparison ends. I'm guessing he was going for introspective and brooding, but unfortunately Mitchum comes off as vacant and robotic. His fight scenes are often hysterical. Watching him go through his kung-fu moves, I can just imagine the director off-screen giving him step-by-step instructions. I've never seen someone move so unnaturally.But I've always said that I rate movies based on entertainment value and Ricco provides a good test of that statement. Looking past Mitchum's shortcomings, Ricco is wildly entertaining. It's a trashy good time. The movie has a feel to it that I found unique for this kind of movie. It never seems to be taking itself too seriously. I may be way off on this one, but to me it's as if the director, Tulio Demicheli, realized how absurd some of the situations were and just let everyone have fun with it. The plot is actually little more than the standard revenge theme, but it held my interest throughout. There's hardly ever a dull moment. Ricco has the violence I've come to expect from this kind of movie – including one particularly nasty scene that makes something like the cut-off ear in Django look like child's play. The supporting cast is top notch. Arthur Kennedy makes for a wonderfully slimy villain, complete with a ridiculous looking mustache. Ricco's old flame is played by the insanely gorgeous Malisa Longo. And genre favorite Barbara Bouchet's surreal stripper routine in the middle of the road is another of the film's highlights. What more could you ask for?

Whoo-hoo, what a film! This film is lots of fun. Of course not in the masterpiece kind of way. Tulio Demicheli's "The Mean Machine" is a pretty bad flick indeedy. But it's such a perfect example of Euro-Trash, that I felt someone had to mention it. First off, it has Christopher Mitchum (where else can an a major actor's son find work? In Italy of course!) giving such a wooden performance, that my roomate mearly rolled his eyes, snickered, and walked out of the room shaking his head (c'mon Tony, you know you did). Christopher with his Dad's droopy eyes just stares off with that same blank expression through out the entire film. Of course he must have known it was a pretty bad script, so I won't fault him too much (I haven't seen his other artistic efforts). But it really cracked me up that on the video box there was this drawing of him looking handsome and muscular, which he definately is not. He was pretty wimpy looking, and evertime he tried to give a macho pose, or flex his authority, I nearly laughed myself silly. Though I excuse all of this, because the real reason I rented this flick was because of the wonderful and beautiful Barbara Bouchet! And this film delivers! She does this great little strip dance in front of these gangsters in a car, right before Chris (Rico the "Mean Machine") throws them into a lake! It's so funny, that Italy will take any oppertunity they can to show off Barbara's attributes. Of course it gratuitous, but it's just too much fun! And of course even after the big ambush, Chris looks to Barbara and she's still has no clothes on. She's having a good time tackling gangsters in the nude! Well, at least Barbara looks to be having fun. Another Euro-babe favourite Malisa Longo (as Chris' ex-girlfriend)also likes to spend her time flirting with Bodygaurds and sitting around in the buff. But unfortunately she meets with a very grizzly end, and becomes the film's sacrificial lamb (what else was gonna come of her character? Chris Mitchum was now with Barbara Bouchet.) in a tub of Acid! This film contains all the unnecessary violence (gory stuff as well), nudity (lots of it), macho posturing (Chris' Ricco is not opposed to giving a lady a smack if she's not behaving), and crummy acting that 70's Italian cinema is so famous for. Would I recommend it? Hardly! Did I laugh my fool head off? Yep! After this review, I'll let the reader make their own call. Barbara Bouchet is amazing!