Milano odia: la polizia non può sparare

Plot synopsis:
A bunch of thieves kidnap a boy in a red hoodie from his mother's arms. This is followed by an action-packed car chase full of breaking boxes, defacing cars, and slim getaways. The chase ends when the kidnappers are saved by an oncoming train, which cuts off the police from their trail. They find this a perfect opportunity to dump the kid and make their getaway. The boy is returned to his family but the kidnappers' gang beat them up for their failure. Following a castration threat, the kidnapper/thief goes home to rape his girlfriend. Following this, he robs a cigarette dispenser and stabs the beat cop who catches him. This leads to a detective to start asking questions. The following day, while the thief is picking up his aforementioned girlfriend from her office, he notices the young brown-haired daughter of his girlfriend's boss, and decides to kidnap her. After a love-making session with his girlfriend in her apartment, the kidnapper leaves to find his friend and convinces him to join his plan. We are shown how tough a cop the detective is through a cut scene. The protagonist (kidnapper) and his gang start stalking the girl while she's playing tennis with her father and his friends. Using his girlfriend's stolen red car, the thieves go buy guns from an old confidant ("Papa") of theirs. The guns are worth a 100 thousand per piece, so if they kill someone, their confidant keeps their deposit. Not wanting to pay their confidant the deposit, they murder Papa and his staff, and make their escape.
They then catch up with their target while she is discussing her future with the boy she wants to marry in his car in the middle of the forest. Her boyfriend shows his reluctance to marry her unless she refuses her inheritance on the basis of principle. The girl refuses and starts making out with her boyfriend against his will. The kidnappers then attack and kidnap her during her lovemaking & murder her boyfriend. But the girls escapes into the forest until she reaches a bungalow, where she is taken in, and the family agree to protect her, but the bad guys break in, murder an old man, humiliate the rest, and run off with the girl (who they stash in an abandoned ship yard). After returning his girlfriend's car to her, he murders her by drowning and disposes of her car.
During all this, the inspector gets a lead when three bad guys make a ransom call and ask for "No Police interference". While posting a ransom letter that they had forced the girl to write, one of the thieves realizes the cops have discovered the murder of the daughter of his girlfriend's boss. The cops conclude all the murders and thefts were done by the same gang. Deducing the kidnappers knew the girlfriend, the cops decide to visit her apartment. The protagonist notices this and follows them back to his own apartment and sees them discover his connection to the whole mess. Scared, he calls his acquaintance (the guy who had beat him up) and asks for a deal. He then goes to the police and acts innocent to throw off suspicion from himself. When he and the detective visit the acquaintance, he covers for his "friend", and then threatens the kidnapper with castration again.
After the cops start closing in on him, the protagonist goes insane and murders the hostage (the girl), a shoot-out ensues, and only the protagonist survives. He runs off to hide, but the detective finds him the next day and shoots him in the head.

Tags: violence, cult, neo noir, murder, romantic

Review:
Although Lenzi's own VIOLENT NAPLES is also a well-made, highly effective genre entry, this one comes close to beating out that one when it comes to sheer brutality and an almost unbelievable barrage of nasty violence.A rarity in most Italian crime thrillers, this film benefits enormously from an intriguing and woefully ambivalent central character, played with tremendous vigour by Tomas Milian, who plays Guillio Sacchi, a violent low life scumbag with no regard for human life at all and with a real penchant for torture and rape.
The other side of the law is represented by stone-faced Henry Silva, who switches to playing a cop this time, instead of his usual turn as the calculating crime kingpin.
An intriguing story, Tomas Milian in a great role and Ennio Morricone contributes another impressive soundtrack what must be one of his most recognizable scores this side from Sergio Leone.
For this one, he focuses mainly on the exploits of Guilio (Tomas Milian), a psychopath out for that one big score, who struggles to keep his insanity in check.Julio's just botched a bank job by getting a bit paranoid and killing a traffic cop, and after receiving a well-deserved kicking from some gangsters, he heads off to his girlfriend's house to mooch some cash.
I recommend this and all the other Lenzi crime movies I've seen: Violent Naples, The Rat, the Cynic, The Fist, and Syndicated Sadists.
Umberto Lenzi's Almost Human is a film that takes in all the best elements of seventies Italian cinema and blends it all into one deliriously entertaining thriller!
The film follows a career criminal known as Giulio Sacci who realises that he's not making a lot of money out of small time crime and so hatches a plot to kidnap a wealthy man's daughter and hold her for ransom.
There are support roles for the likes of Anita Strindberg and Ray Lovelock, and just to top things off; Almost Human is scored by the great Ennio Morricone!
Lenzi does a good job of presenting a dirty and gritty atmosphere for the film, and ensures that the film feels like a police thriller with several car chases and shootouts.
Possibly Umberto Lenzi's best film, Almost Human is a violent and mean-spirited Italian crime-thriller from that golden age of the 70's.
It is clearly a CRIME film, one that focuses first on the malefactors (led by a crazed, sociopathic Tomas Milian) and only second on the pursuing detective (one mightily p****d-off Henry Silva).
Milian's character, a small-time hood named Sacchi who is determined to make it big by kidnapping a rich guy's daughter, is on a hell-bent mission.
A claustrophobic brilliant movie, I think it's more about an italian social class disorder than milian being a criminal,his the regular working class guy pissed of about being poor, and in Milan more than any other region in Italy, the social class is very important, and very very present, when milian kills all those people, you feel bad for them, but on the other hand you can see his mission, and you feel for him, in the end when he pulls it off, you almost feel relieved, anyway this movie is a real movie just like "il Boss/wipeout" and it deserves to be watched, the only problem with this movie and "il boss/wipeout" is that after you see these movies every other movie will seriously bore you, and you'll find no depth in them.
Giulio Sacchi is a violent criminal scumbag who kills several cops in the course of some petty crimes.After being kicked out of his gang for murdering a police officer,Sacchi is forced to scrape out a living by robbing cigarette machines.He decides to kidnap Mary Lou,the daughter of a wealthy businessman.Enlisting the help of two of his friends,the trio not only kidnaps the girl but also massacres a house full of rich people in an unflinchingly brutal scene.It's time for Inspector Walter Grandi to catch this vicious criminal...Violent and sadistic Italian polizioteschi flick with memorable central performances of Henry Silva and Tomas Milian.The pace is relatively slow,but there is enough sleaze and brutal violence to keep fans of Eurocult entertained.9 out of 10..
In "Milano Odia" you can view Tomas Milian at his best and director Umberto Lenzi saw "the light" in this ultra-violent movie.
This is a deadly dull Italian crime film which was billed in the USA as a horror movie.
Played only in one drive-in in Seattle with a small ad, "Almost Human" is a boring kidnapping film that has a sleazy thug (Thomas Milian, who seems to lost his leading man good guys roles in the late 70's) and his two henchmans (one of them played by Ray Lovelock, who looks bored) kidnapping a girl and held her for ransom.
Kind of miss the guy playing the good guy role, but seeing this film, I kind of wish he and Silva did another Umberto Lenzi film instead.
Almost Human (1974) *** (out of 4)Exciting crime picture has psychopath Giulio (Tomas Milian) growing more and more dangerous as he kidnaps the daughter of a rich man and holds her for ransom.
A police inspector (Henry Silva) is following some murders and believes that it is the work of the kidnapper so he sets out to find him.Umberto Lenzi's ALMOST HUMAN is an extremely entertaining mix of EuroCrime as well as something like DIRTY HARRY.
What this film succeeds at is telling a very good story and showing what a psychopath one can be.Lenzi's direction certainly deserves a lot of credit and especially with the flow and style of the picture.
I really liked the character structure of the killer and thought it worked perfectly well against the cop who knows what he's dealing with and wants to handle it himself.Of course, Milian and Silva are both wonderful in their roles and they bring a lot of entertainment value.
Then you've got a terrific score by Ennio Morricone as well as some very good cinematography.ALMOST HUMAN is certainly one of the better crime pictures out there.
I like a good poliziotteschi (Massimo Dallamano's 'What Have You Done To Solange' and 'What Have They Done To Your Daughters' being two of the finest examples of Italian 70s cinema I can think of) and I'm also not adverse to some of Umberto Lenzi's grindhousey campfests either ('Eaten Alive' being a personal fave), but for some reason 'Almost Human' was a bit of a struggle to get through.It's not without its moments of tension and typical giallo style nastiness, but nothing could disguise the strictly amateur hour feel of the whole thing, which smacked of both trying too hard and yet somehow not trying hard enough to engage the viewer.
After having enjoyed Lucio Fulcis entertaining,though slightly muddled Italian Crime film Contraband,I was extremely interested in seeing an Italian Crime film from Umberto Lenzi,who introduced me to the brilliant "Giallo" genre with his very under rated film Spasmo.After having put the DVD on,I realised that I needed to hold on tight,because I was in for an amazing ride...The plot:Having spent most of his life grabbing spare change,petty criminal Giulito Sacchi decides that he should at last fill his deepest desire of becoming one of the most feared,and most wealthiest criminals in the country.When Sacchi goes to pick up his new girlfriend from work,he discovers that his girlfriend works for a very powerful and wealthy man of the city.After finding this out,Giulito starts talking to his friends about the "opertunity" that he sees right in front of their faces that could make them all very rich.The only problem for Giulito is that none of his friends are able to think of an idea that they could use to get a big chunk of cash from the man.Suddenly Sacchi has a brainstorm,when his girlfriend tells him that she has been working with the mans daughter.Although it does take Giulito some time to convince the gang that it is worth taking the risk,the others eventually agree that they should take the risk and kidnap the daughter for a big ransom,which they could live off for the rest of their lives.Just before the kidnapping takes place,Sacchi kills his girlfriend to make sure that no word gets out about the plans.When the gang grab the girl (and kill her boyfriend!)everything seems to be going to plan,and when they find out that her dad is desperate to pay them as much money as they want to get his daughter back,they all start to relax,with the knowledge that this kidnapping is going to be a very smooth and easy operation.Although as they get closer to getting their hands on the cash,the fear of it falling apart starts to get deep inside the minds of some of the kidnappers,whilst the deep and dangerous greed of Giulito Sacchi starts to make all of the gang fear that his desire for money and power might be about to destroy their chance of getting a piece of the ramson money...View on the film: Whilst Lenzi has toned down his excellent scatter-shot jump-cutting that make his brilliant Giallos so distinctive,he has impressively put all of his relentless energy into making Emesto Gastaldis great screenplay move at an unbelievable pace.With the beginning of the film starting with a very intense looking car chase.Along with Tomas Milian entertaining slime-ball performance of Giulito Sacchi,Umberto does an excellent job at making Sacchi a great lead character,which includes turning Giulito into a proto- (Pacino) Scarface character,who instead of being at the bottom of the pile,wants to be the man that has the world,and everything in it.For the violence in the film,Lenzi cleverly has the extremeness of the violence increase,as Sacchi gets more insane (although scenes of Giulito and his gang invading a villa,where the daughter is hiding, at around the 30 minute mark show that Giulito Sacchi has already jumped over the edge,in his mad lust for money and power.When watching the last half an hour of the film,I was very surprise to see Umberto give the film an amazing Film Noir look,with part of the films ending taking place around a river,which allows Lenzi to make the plot fill a lot more intense,by giving the scenes a very stark murky look with Sacchi trying to get away from the foggy area,even though Lenzi shows that even Sacchi,must now be questioning if he has any chance to succeed at all?
Sensational Poliziotteschi from Umberto Lenzi, set in Milan(Italy) stars Tomas Milian, in a terrific(..and terrifying) performance as a sadistic homicidal thug who is the mastermind behind the kidnapping of a politician's daughter for a major ransom.
It is therefore no surprise, that one of the most ultra-violent and tough-minded highlights of Italian Crime cinema, namely "Almost Human" comes from Lenzi.
"Almost Human" of 1973 is a brutal and brilliant Poliziottesco, one of the most uncompromising films of its genre, coming along with an ingenious score by none other than Ennio Morricone.
Apart from the brilliant score, the brutal, uncompromising violence, the raw atmosphere and gripping story it is furthermore two of the greatest stars in Italian 70s cinema that make "Milano Odia" an absolute must-see for lovers of cult cinema.One of my personal all-time favorite actors, Tomas Milian, stars in his most sadistic and despicable role of Giulio Sacchi, a ruthless small-time crook who has no scruples to rape, torture and brutally murder Innocent victims for his own benefit.
His opponent is played by another true great of Italian crime cinema: Henry Silva plays super-tough Inspector Grandi, a man who hates criminals as he hates crime, and who is not afraid to take the law into his own hands once the legal ways have failed to bring a delinquent to justice...
Milian and Silva alone are capable of making a film great, and "Milano Odia" has so much more to offer.
The supporting performances are also great, Laura Belli, Guido Alberti, Luciano Catenacci, who plays a crime boss, and the wonderful Anita Strindberg are especially worth mentioning.Brutal, tough-minded and tantalizing from the beginning, "Almost Human" is definitely not for the sensitive when it comes to violence, but an absolute must-see for every fan of Italian Crime cinema.
Whether it was horror, westerns or  as in this case  crime thriller, the Italians always surpassed the standards of any other major film-producing country and delivered politically incorrect but hugely entertaining & genre defining movies.
Tomas Milian gives a formidable one man show as a small time crook who desperately wants to climb up Milan's crime-ladder and therefore commits the vilest and most atrocious crimes, like relentlessly shooting people for the spare change in their pockets and buy cigarettes.
The other characters are well played by Henry Silva (the cop who shoots the bad guy at the end of the movie even if he was judged not guilty), Ray Lovelock (the bad guy who falls in love with the kidnapped girl) and Laura Belli (the rich man's daughter).A great movie.P.S.: don't let the children watch this movie: there is too much violence!.
After reliably cranking out Westerns, adventures, and Second World War flicks during the Sixties, Lenzi coasted into the two most popular film genres of 1970s Italy: the giallo, a crime story that forces audiences to watch unseemly behavior from the felon's point of view, and the poliziottescho, Italy's reaction to a justice system that limited police officers while criminals happily roamed free.In competition with directors like Enzo G.
'Almost Human' may certainly rank as Exhibit A in his poliziotteschi output of at least six titles from 1973 to 1979, including 'Rome: armed to the teeth' and 'Violent Naples.' Originally released as 'Milano odia: la polizia non può sparare' (roughly, Odious Milan: the police can't shoot), 'Almost Human' is a true standard of Italian crime, mixing defined characters with a riveting plot and well-crafted action.
The 1974 shocker was also a landmark 'B' performance for actor Tomas Milian, who still regards Giulio Sacchi as one of the best efforts in his lengthy career.Modeled after box office hits like 'Dirty Harry,' 'The French Connection,' and 'Death Wish,' 'Milano odia' is a crime film injected with 1970s Italian truculence.
Giulio is roughed up and fired by the syndicate boss, leaving him without a meal ticket.Cash-desperate Sacchi arranges to kidnap Mary Lou Perrino (Laura Belli), the 20-year-old daughter of a local businessman, and hold her for ransom at 500 million lira with the help of his friends Vittorio (Gino Santercole) and Carmine (Ray Lovelock).
The dead bodies start piling up and police inspector Walter Grandi (Henry Silva) begins to work against the clock, assured that Mary Lou will die next unless law enforcement goes to extremes.Umberto Lenzi is known for his gialli, including 'Orgasmo,' 'A Quiet Place to Kill,' 'Oasis of Fear,' and 'Seven Blood-Stained Orchids,' probably his best effort in the genre.
Technically speaking, editor Eugenio Alabiso keeps things moving at a nice clip, especially in the opening chase scene, and Ennio Morricone's pounding score is very hard to forget.'Milano odia' has been released on DVD by NoShame Films and will satisfy fans of Eurocrime.
The interviews explain how the lead cast of 'Milano odia' came together, including Henry Silva's employment after the death of actor Richard Conte (much to Lenzi's annoyance).
Umberto Lenzi, best known (at least among horror fans) for the ultra-gory/ultra-campy CANNIBAL FEROX - brings us a straight-faced and violent crime story with ALMOST HUMAN.
Tomas Milian begins his topsy turvy relationship with Umberto Lenzi in perhaps the duo's classiest pairing, taking more than a little inspiration from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE with Milian playing just as morally bankrupt of an anti-hero.ALMOST HUMAN (aka MILANO ODIA) really works and contains enough action, violence, nudity, and sharp-witted dialog to keep most B- movie lovers entertained.
Henry Silva's also on-hand as a hard-nosed inspector not-so- hot on Milian's trail, charming in his own way though not enough to make us really root for him.All in all, it's an interesting film and a little smarter and more plot-driven than you'll usually find in a high octane Italian crime film as the cycle tended to gravitate into the mid-70's.
Mistakenly released in the US as a horror film, THE EXECUTIONER (the European title) is one of Umberto Lenzi's first crime flicks, pairing up two of the biggest names in Italian polizia cinema - Henry Silva and Tomas Milian.
This also happens to be Lenzi's most sadistic crime film of all, miles ahead of even the gruesome violence in VIOLENT NAPLES and the cold brutality of THE CYNIC, THE RAT AND THE FIST.
Lenzi concentrates on his political themes of the poor revenging themselves on the rich as a basis for Milian's character and once again we're "treated" to scenes of the upper class being abused, humiliated, and mercilessly killed by lower-class street thugs.This was Milian's first time playing a really nasty bad guy, a slimy, slightly insane criminal, and it was a role he would revisit throughout his "polizia" films, whether playing a crippled hunchback or a slick greasy gangster boss.
Amongst other activities, Milian kills a security guard for what amounts to a couple of pennies; machine-guns a man in cold-blood; turns a mild-mannered robber into a murderous thug through the use of drugs; enters a house party and rapes then violently massacres the inhabitants; and bumps off loads more people by the time the credits role.This is hardly cheerful entertainment, but Lenzi makes it watchable thanks to assembling a large degree of talent both in front of and behind the camera.
Technically, the film is superior with good camera-work and some excellent scenes of action, including the fine opening car chase (footage from this turned up in later Lenzi flicks) and plenty of shootings and what-not.
The film is pretty bloody and gory in places, earning Lenzi's reputation for violence, and the action is bolstered by a strong Morricone score.The familiar Euro-cult cast includes the beautiful Laura Belli playing the unfortunate kidnap victim; giallo regular Anita Strindberg as Milian's girlfriend, and Ray Lovelock as the young, inexperienced gang member.