Quel pomeriggio maledetto (1977)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Mario Siciliano

Writers:

Santiago Moncada (writer)
Marta Siciliano (writer)

Release Date:

30 November 1977 (Italy)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot Keywords:

Homosexuality | Dead Woman On Floor | Attempted Rape | Sniper | Hitman

Cast

Lee Van Cleef	...	Harry Chapman
Carmen G. Cervera	...	Krista (as Tita Barker)
John Ireland	...	Jack
Alberto Dell'Acqua	...	Luc (as Robert Widmark)
Karin Well
Fernando Sancho
Aldo Bufi Landi
Diana Polakov
Paolo de Manincor
Fabián López Tapia
Jean-Pierre Clarain

Also Known As:

Objetivo: matar (Spain)
The Perfect Killer (USA)
The Satanic Mechanic

Runtime:

USA:85 min

Country:

Italy | Spain

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

France:-12 | Spain:18 | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Trashy crime/action nonsense

Perfect Killer is an odd and rather stupid crime film made in Italy in 1977, although most of the comments that I've read on it seem to be unduly harsh as while the film is silly and trashy, it is at least watchable. The film takes organised crime as its main theme and mixes it with plenty of action. The main selling point is undoubtedly the presence of the great Lee Van Cleef who stars as a hired killer. He's found himself in jail but takes an opportunity to escape after given one by a mysterious 'organisation'. He's then given a job as a killer for the organisation, but decides to leave when he is asked to kill a friend. However, it turns out that there was no 'get out' clause in the contract and the organisation sends out a killer after him. The plot of the film is good in that it moves very quickly, and everything that I've described (and a bit more) happens in the first half hour. After that, however, the film really begins to slide downhill as the action becomes less interesting and things don't flow as well, which is a bit of a shame. The film is mostly satisfying in terms of violence, as there's plenty, and there's a fair bit of sex too. There's also a few silly scenes which manage to amuse; a sequence that sees Van Cleef's nemesis fighting a trio of transvestites is memorable though not necessarily for the right reasons! Overall, I can't recommend anyone going out of their way to see this film; but it's really not all that bad and is decent enough for an hour and a half's entertainment.