[REVIEW-CAST #1] COME CANI ARRABBIATI (LIKE RABID DOGS, 1976)

[NOTE: This is the first in a new series of capsule reviews that will focus on genres related to the Krimi and Giallo; for more info, read this post.]

[GENRE]: Eurocrime
[VERSION WATCHED]: Camera Obscura Blu-ray

Listening to the audio commentary from Marcus Stiglegger and Christian Keßler (featured on the fab Camera Obscura Blu-ray) draws an interesting parallel between the development of the Eurocrime and Giallo genres. They make the point that before the key decade in the Eurocrime genre (1970-1980), Italian crime films often followed what they call a “cause and effect” pattern, where a crime's committed for some sort of logical reason (want for money, desire for revenge) and that the system of law and order upset by the crime is usually restored by the successful investigation of the detective. And the detective’s investigation *is* successful because of his application of logic to a crime that could still be solved by that model.

But, with the Piazza Fontana bombing of 1969, terrorism (and terroristic violence) “took on a life of its own,” encouraging criminal acts that were increasingly driven by irrationality, by unfathomable, illogical motives and urges, whose extreme realization in reality didn’t fit into a recognizable system of law and order, cause and effect.

(They do trace examples of this sort of irrational crime, killing for killing’s sake, extreme violence as nothing but power trip, all the way back to the movie adaptations of the Leopold and Loeb killings [ROPE, COMPULSION], but point out the exponential uptick of Eurocrime films in this vein post-1969. They also talk about the movies as perverted, adolescent wish-fulfillment; as Euro versions of the DIRTY HARRY phenomenon.)

What occurred to me while listening to this description was the almost identical shift in the Giallo. Generally, the pre-1970 (pre-BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE) Gialli are, regardless of their psychokiller stylings, explainable—down to greed for inheritances, murders by jealous lovers, etc. Even something like Bava’s genre-defining BLOOD & BLACK LACE, with its iconic imagery and uber-violent set-piece murders, is ultimately nothing more than an inheritance scheme spun out of control. (Other examples: SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH’s seemingly reality-bending murder mystery is nothing but window-dressing for a group of people trying to cash in on Jean Sorel’s will.)

With Argento’s BIRD, though, the motives go from the rational to irrational, from crime and greed to urges and compulsions that, when not repressed, take the form of violent, tortuous, logically unexplainable murders (in BIRD, why would Monica Ranieri , when she sees the painting of her past attack, not only be triggered to commit new murders, but triggered to identify not with herself in the painting, but with the murderer? That the film is based on a detective novel from 1958 suggests how far ahead of its time the source material was.)

As for this film, it wasn’t as sleazy as I expected (not only because it has the reputation of being one of the more exploitative examples of the Eurocrime, but also because Camera Obscura has a bit of a track record for releasing *the* sleaziest Italian genre pictures). It spends a fair amount of time not wallowing in the gutter (though it does do that), but building the characters. The stopped-up police inspector (who looks a bit like a cross between a young Herbert Lom and Tomas Milian) is much more restrained than the Merli-model we often get, and he turns out to be equal parts  crusader and real dirty dog (he not only sleeps with another police officer, after he convinces her to go undercover as a prostitute, he then sleeps with one of the three members of the gang indiscriminately killing and stealing their way across the city).

The gang itself follows the mold you find in films like ROME, THE OTHER FACE OF VIOLENCE, where  the disaffected rich children of Italy’s leading industrialists use their privileged positions and social connections to get away with the worst possible crimes.

There’s also more filmmaking going on than I expected. Even the movie’s grit aesthetic is done with standout style. One memorable example of this comes when a hostage kidnapped by the gang wakes up in a house, apparently alone, and attempts to sneak out before the gang returns. The unsettling isolation of her situation is amplified by the fact that the house is strangely unfurnished, emptied, and what little hope we as viewer have for her escape is quickly dismissed by the camera showing hints of the gang shadowing her through the house.

Add in the funky score and an ending that, surprisingly, echoes the one used to wrap up STUNT SQUAD, and it’s an upper-level example of the Eurocrime.

Cracks my Top 25 Eurocrime: http://letterboxd.com/ipcress/list/its-a-eurocrime-top-25-plus-all-ive-seen/

Leonard Jacobs

February, 2015

[LINKS OF NOTE]

• Screencaps from the Camera Obscura Blu: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.727051853997064.1073741830.113532752015647&type=1 
• Mondo Digital review of the movie and disc: http://www.mondo-digital.com/cani.html
• Diabolik DVD has the Blu-ray: http://www.diabolikdvd.com/category/Euro-Trash/Come-Cani-Arrabbiati-%28Camera-Obscura%29-%28Blu~Ray-Region-B%29.html