Blood on the Streets (1974)

Marseille. Heaps of flowers and funeral wreaths... "A man who no longer defends his colors is no longer a man."

Director:

Jacques Deray

Writer:

Pascal Jardin (scenario)

Stars:

Alain Delon, Riccardo Cucciolla, Daniel Ivernel

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Alain Delon	...	Roch Siffredi
Riccardo Cucciolla	...	Volpone
Daniel Ivernel	...	Inspector Fanti
Reinhard Kolldehoff	...	Sam (as René Kolldehoff)
André Falcon	...	Inspector Cazenave
Lionel Vitrant	...	Fernand
Adolfo Lastretti	...	Luciano
Greg Germain	...	Le 'Nègre'
Pierre Koulak	...	Spada
Marius Laurey	...	Teissere
Serge Davri	...	Charlie
Günter Meisner	...	Le médecin
Jacques Debary	...	Le préfet
Djéloul Beghoura	...	Lucien (as Djelloul Beghoura)
Anton Diffring

Storyline

It's the early 1930s. Working their way up the ladder largely on chutzpah, Roch Sifreddi and François Capella, who became best friends in their unlikely partnership, have risen to the top of the organized crime world in Marseilles. Shortly after reaching the top, Capella is murdered. Sifreddi eventually learns that the murder was orchestrated by international businessman Giovanni Volpone, new to Marseilles from Italy, he whose ultimate goal is to take control of the city in all aspects, legal and illegal. While Sifreddi sees Volpone's action as the start of a gangland war, Volpone has other thoughts in sending a longer lasting message to Sifreddi and others who may want to fill his shoes. Volpone has specific reasons for wanting Marseilles, it a war he will want to wage in most of the western world to reach his end goal. Standing by Sifreddi in this war is Lola, a former prostitute friend to both Sifreddi and Capella, she who was Capella's girlfriend at the time of his death, and ...

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Plot Keywords:

gangster | street shootout | title ends with period | punctuation in title | period in title | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Action

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Goofs

A newspaper announces : "Déchéance de de Monsieur Roch Siffredi". In French it should be "Déchéance de Monsieur Roch Siffredi".

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Quotes

[last lines in the English subtitled version]
[Sifreddi and Fernand are standing on an outside deck of an ocean liner as they sail to America]
Fernand: No regrets?
Roch Siffredi: I never regret anything.
Fernand: America's big. We don't know anyone there.
Roch Siffredi: I do.
Fernand: Oh.
[Sifreddi and Fernand, walking into one of the lounges where dance music is playing, sit down at the bar]
Bartender: Monsieur?
Roch Siffredi: Champagne.
[...]

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Connections

Features Borsalino & Co: les retrouvailles (2014)

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Soundtracks

Rose Night
Written and Performed by Claude Bolling

User Reviews

Better than the First One

First of all, I admit that I will watch anything with Alain Delon in it. Even that insufferably pretentious 1960s snooze-fest, The Eclipse. That drop-dead gorgeous man will continue to accelerate my pulse until I'm 90 (if I get that far). Nature's most perfect production and never repeated.

Having made that clear, I'm surprised at the negative reviews. I find this second installment far superior to the first Borsalino. In the first place, it's daubed in English (American English) and that is a lot better than the first one, which was daubed by French people speaking English (and you can tell). In the second place, then fight scenes are much more realistic than in the first film, where you could see very clearly that the blows didn't even reach the recipient. IMO, the first Borsalino was more of a comedy caper, while B & Co. is more sober, more of a real gangster film. Perhaps a bit slow, but that's how they did things in those days. Personally, I prefer them to the crash, bang, thank you, ma'am 'action' films of today.

Maybe I'm biased because I grew up watching European films of that era and I still love most of the French flic and gangster films made in those days.

My advice to young people is if you cannot watch old films with an open mind (e.i. without automatically comparing them unfavorably to the new ones, or without making the necessary concessions) just pass them by. Stick to The Godfather and Good Fellas (the last one atrocious, in my opinion, but that's just me).

All in all, B & Co. is not a bad film. Give it a chance.

Details

Country:

France Italy West Germany

Language:

French

Release Date:

23 October 1974 (France)

Also Known As:

Blood on the Streets

Company Credits

Production Co:

Adel Productions, Comacico, Medusa Distribuzione

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1