Tough Guys

Plot synopsis:
Harry Doyle (Lancaster) and Archie Long (Douglas) are gangsters who've served a 30-year prison sentence for hijacking a Southern Pacific train called The Gold Coast Flyer, ready to collect Social Security.
Their parole officer, Richie Evans (Carvey), who seems to be more of a fan of historically notable criminals than a representative of law enforcement, meets Harry and Archie at the gates and offers them a ride. Meanwhile, Leon B. Little (Eli Wallach), an elderly hit man with bad eyesight who still has an outstanding contract on them, immediately tries to kill them. Harry and Archie manage to get away.
At Richie's office, they are informed of the conditions of their parole. Harry, at age 72, is committed to a retirement community; despite his desire to work, he's past the mandatory retirement age of 70. Archie, still allowed to work at age 67, takes a job at an ice cream parlor and later a restaurant. They are told not to have further contact with each other for at least three years.
Both are in for a shock at how much the world has changed from 1956 to 1986—clothing, sexual lifestyles (their favorite bar is now a gay club for men), lack of respect from the younger generation, and the advance of technology. Archie's young restaurant manager treats him poorly while Harry is denied proper food by a nasty orderly and is given even worse treatment by the retirement home's even nastier manager.
Harry reconnects with an old flame named Belle (Alexis Smith), and reminisces about old times. Archie embraces the contemporary scene, listening to new wave music, asking out a much younger woman, Skye (Darlanne Fluegel), and dressing in faddish clothes. Though both their relationships go well, neither Archie nor Harry seems to fit in society anymore.
Tired of trying to adjust, Harry and Archie go back to their old ways. First they try to rob a bank with members of their old gang, but all are now either crippled, invalids or dead. Then they hijack an armored truck, only to find it empty except for a roll of quarters. When the media mock them for their blunder and mistake them for younger men in masks, Archie decides to hijack the Gold Coast Flyer again as it makes its final southbound run. Harry refuses, but Archie decides to do it anyway with or without his help.
Archie stops the Flyer just as it's leaving the railyard and is soon joined by Harry. The media and dignitaries aboard are surprised, but Harry and Archie gladly answer their questions and pose for pictures. To their surprise, Leon arrives and explains why he's after them: an old enemy of theirs paid him $25,000 and he has waited 30 years for them to get out of jail. Deke Yablonski (Charles Durning), the police officer who first arrested Harry and Archie, soon arrives with a full SWAT team. Richie, disguised as a SWAT officer, boards the train and starts it moving again.
Harry, Archie, Richie and Leon temporarily join forces. They decide to take the train to Mexico, but unfortunately the tracks end a few feet from the border. Harry throws Leon from the cab; the hit man vows to get them even if it takes another 30 years. Archie then takes Richie back to the coaches and uncouples the train, advising Richie to tell the police that he was kidnapped. Harry and Archie drive 4449 at full throttle through a fusillade of bullets from U.S. border police. They crash through, burying the engine partially in the soil of Mexico a few feet across the border. A Mexican border patrol arrives to arrest them. A tough guy till the end, Archie kicks the lead officer in the groin.

Tags: blaxploitation, revenge, murder, violence

Review:
Italian Poliziotti meets Blaxploitation!.
Uomini Duri aka "Three Tough Guys" is an Italian made action film from 1974.
Isaac Hayes stars as Lee, a framed Chicago ex-cop who teams up with Father Charlie played by Lino Ventura.
Together they fight for answers and revenge in a million dollar bank heist.
Fred Williamson in a rare villain role plays Snake.
This is a very entertaining film.
While set in Chicago and the mob playing second fiddle to the plot, the film is very Italian.
It has the feel of an Italian poliziotti film with in your face action and seedy locales.
There are many veterans of Italian action films including Jess Hahn and William Berger.
Lino Ventura is great as Father Charlie, the priest who can fight and does not hesitate in resorting to violence.
Hayes is very underrated as an actor and its a shame he appeared in only one other seventies blaxploitation film (Truck Turner).
The chemistry between Ventura and Hayes is excellent, a joining of American and Italian styles.
Fred Williamson is good as Snake but his role could have been much more.
He appears far too briefly and is pretty much a supporting villain in this film.
Isaac Hayes scored the movie as well and the music does not disappoint!
The theme "Tough Guys", "Joe Bell", and "Run Fay Run" (used in Kill Bill 1) are highlights on the soundtrack.
Lots of shootouts and action are abound in this film but I would have appreciated a great long car chase in this film.
It would have rounded out the action perfectly!
All in all though a terrific film.
-Note, this film is extremely hard to find as it was never released on video or DVD, worth seeking out..
Spaghetti Blaxploitation.
He will forever be known to people my age as the man who wrote and sang "Shaft." To the younger generation, he is "Chef" from "Southpark." He is the man Isaac Hayes, and, in his first film, he is running with one of Europe's best character actors, Lino Ventura, as Father Charlie.Their enemy is the great Fred Williamson (Black Caesar, From Dusk to Dawn), former football star and blaxploitation actor.Add a lot of Italian actors and an Italian director who worked with Sergio Leone in A Fistful of Dollars, and you have the Italian version of a blaxploitation action flick.Nothing to write home about, but some fun entertainment..
Italian's attempt to make a Black actioner.
I was kind of baffled what Lino Venutra was doing in an Issac Hayes/Fred Williamson  film, only to find out this was a Italian film!
Lino toplines as a priest who doesn't want to carry a guy, but he is very two fisted, teams up with Isaac Hayes to solve a mystery that all leads to Williamson.
Wiliamson doesn't play the good guy, so this is not really three guys fighting for good, it's more like two.
Seeing familar character actor Romano Puppo as a thug makes me wonder if all the interior was shot in Rome?
Good music by Hayes as numerous Kung-fu films stole it after this film.
It's not a bad film, but it's no SHAFT.
Check it out if you want to see a standard action film..
Gritty mixture of blaxploitation and "buddy" genres..
Ten-speed-pedaling tough-guy priest (Ventura) and taciturn ex-cop (Hayes) team up to solve a million-dollar bank heist and capture Chicago mobster Joe Snake (Williamson) in Windy City-lensed but Italian-produced action flick.
There isn't much here that you haven't seen before, but the production values are appropriately gritty, the action is fast-paced and bloody, and it's nice to see the image-conscious Hammer cast against type as a bad guy.
Hayes wrote the musical score as well, and released the soundtrack on Enterprise Records..
Brother, can you spare me some LIGHT?
And perhaps an Abacus?.
It's probably due to the cheap and clumsy transfer to the Grindhouse Collection DVD, but the picture quality and lighting of this film are absolutely awful!
I know this is supposed to be some type of "Blaxploitation" movie, but if I'm not mistaken, this term doesn't mean staring at a black screen the whole time!
Several sequences, especially during the first half hour, you have completely no idea what to make of because you only see darkness and vague shadows moving around.
And now that we're pointing out the abnormalities anyway, there's something seriously wrong with the title of "THREE Tough Guys".
Somebody bring on an abacus, because the correct title ought to be TWO tough guys.
At least the soulful theme song got it right.
It's not hard to guess why the producers opted to put the number three in the title, though.
Fred Williamson receives top billing even though he barely has any screen time and he's also referred to as another one of the tough guys in spite of the fact he's not so tough (he beats women and shoots people in the back) and operating on the wrong side of the law.
Williamson's name obviously just served to attract more viewers, as he just scored big Blaxploitation hits with "Black Caesar" and "Hammer", whereas the real tough black dude - Isaac Hayes - would only become a huge star shortly after the release of "Three Tough Guys", namely with his very own testosterone-packed blockbuster "Truck Turner".
Say what you want about these Italian filmmakers, but they are great marketers!
Anyway, onwards with the story, this opens with the cowardly murder of an insurance agent outside a nightclub.
Apparently he was single-handedly investigating a million dollar bank heist and came a little too close to the truth.
His closest friend  a tough ex-veteran turned priest  swears to catch whoever killed him and starts a nightly private investigation via sleazy bars and dark alleys filled with heavily armed thugs on his bike, nonetheless!
Father Charlie soon receives back-up from a former cop who has a score of his own to settle.
It's no real secret that all traces eventually lead to Williamson, the über-villain for a change!
"Three Tough Guys" is a neat hybrid between Italian exploitation and Baadassssssss Cinema, although not highly memorable and badly suffering from the lamentable production values.
There are slightly too many tedious sequences to struggle through, but the on screen chemistry between Isaac Hayes and Lino Ventura feels surprisingly authentic and the script contains several funny parts.
The amount of brutal violence and sleaze is quite a letdown, but Hayes' own soundtrack is very catchy and Duccio Tessari's ("The Bloodstained Butterfly", "Death Occurred Last Night") direction is fairly solid.
So far, the Grindhouse Collection box-set is the only way to get your dirty little hands on this film, but I do hope a fully restored version will appear on DVD in the near future, as it deserves to be slightly more known..
Pretty good for what it is.
A film like this never gets any respect from the industry it bankrolls.
Someone tacked the title "Three Tough Guys" onto the film when it obviously should have been "Two Tough Guys" (as the title sequence song by Isaac Hayes accurately reflects).
But someone wanted to the public to think that the film featured as much of Fred Williamson as it did the actual "two tough guys", when in fact, Williamson is barely involved.
I would be surprised if analysis revealed that he was on-screen for more than 10 or 12 actual minutes.
So if you want to see this film just for Williamson, you probably will be disappointed.
But the film has a lot going for it - at least for a genre exploitation film.
I could listen to Hayes read the phone book and enjoy it.He's not really an actor, but he's relaxed and comfortable on camera and he's fun to watch.
It's a shame that his film career didn't go further.
I've never seen the Italian guy before, but he is pretty convincing here as the world's toughest crime-fighting priest; he has a forceful presence that lets him pull off what is essentially a ridiculous role.
A lot of actors couldn't make this part work (even some pretty good ones), but he mixes piety and punching in a way that carries the movie quite well.There isn't a lot of chemistry between the two leads, but the dialog is spare and unsentimental and it hardly ever seems forced.
The screenwriter (and the Italian film industry) didn't indulge in their normal practice of having everyone talk way too much (especially in the English dub) for once, and the results are pretty good for American sensibilities.
There's lots of punching, lots of gun-play, a bit of actual suspense, and some fairly good characterization (for an Italian exploitation flick) even for the minor parts.
(One exception is the "bishop", who is forced to play the exasperated part usually reserved for the rogue cop's chief in standard cop thrillers.
He sucks on toast, but it's not really his fault - it's the weakest and most contrived role in the movie and there isn't much he can do with it.) The DVD conversion in the "Grindhouse Experience" collection is pretty bad - lots of blurring, some scenes so dark you can hardly tell what's going on, some muffled sound here and there,etc.
But I've seen worse conversions - even in this collection - and for once the English dub is pretty good.
If you can't find this movie, don't fret - you aren't missing all that much.
But as a representative choice for a "Grindhouse Experience", this is actually a very strong entry in the collection, easily in the top 5..
going out of my way.
This is to my knowledge Lino Ventura's only American production (though directed by an Italian director):it's amazing for an European to see him play opposite Isaac Hayes ,but the pair works quite well.Ventura portrays a priest ,an updated version of Leo MCCarey's Father O' Maley ("going my way" ) in the seventies ,who does not content himself with celebrating the mass (the way he finishes his second service is very funny) but keeps a close watch on his flock and plays the occasional detective .His colorful character contrasts with his co-star's restrained performance who also wrote the music as he often did at the time.There's also a supporting part of a finally modern bishop.Good actors ,but a very derivative screenplay however..
International co-production with mixed influences.
THREE TOUGH GUYS is a film with varied influences.
Made with French and Italian funding, shot in America by an Italian crew and produced by Dino De Laurentiis, it's a movie that attempts to cash-in on two big genres of the time: the blaxploitation film and the gangster epic.
Thus we get a buddy-buddy cop story in which a hard-fighting priest and a tough black ex-cop team up to battle some gangster types searching for missing loot.
The guy directing this is Duccio Tessari, a guy who pumped out a few peplum and spaghetti western flicks among others during a long and varied career.Despite – or maybe because of – the diverse influences, this film actually works as a fairly good thriller.
It hasn't got much in it that's not been seen elsewhere, but the story moves along quickly and the various shoot-outs and fist-fights are well handled.
It also boasts some interesting leads.
I don't know who Lino Ventura is, but his hard-bitten priest character is definitely tough.
Isaac Hayes, playing opposite him, is a giant of a man with the softest of voices, and contributes some decent music to the proceedings.
The third of the tough guys is Fred Williamson, appearing as a little-seen villain in this.
It's unusual seeing Williamson cast as a bad guy and I wish he'd been on screen more, but there's no knocking his presence.
Character actors familiar from Italian cinema pop up, like William Berger and Jess Hahn.There are a few car chases thrown in for good measure, along with some antagonistic cops and a fantastic interlude in which one of our heroes is very nearly fed into a furnace.
The set-piece finale takes place at a run-down bowling alley, but not before plenty of people have been shot or beaten up.
It may not win any awards for wit or originality, but THREE TOUGH GUYS is a perfectly serviceable entry in both the blaxploitation and crime genres..
I Really Feel This Should Have Been Good, But It Was Not. The Black Moses, The Hammer, and The Preacher Man. They've got their own kind of mean game.This film is directed by Duccio Tessari, assisted by a staff of other unknown Italians.
A whole lot of things you never saw, including a film called "Sundance Cassidy and Butch the Kid".The opening theme sounds like a take on the "Shaft" theme, which is no surprise as it is sung by Isaac Hayes, who stars alongside Fred Williamson.
Mysteriously, the song is about "two tough guys" (not three, as the title claims) and seems to be the inspiration for Hayes' later song about Beavis and Butt-Head.The picture quality, at least on the Fortune 5 DVD, is incredibly blurry or fuzzy at times, especially when light saturation is involved.
Aside from that, it is pretty standard for the time, and almost good considering the notoriously awful quality Italian productions have.Seems to be set in America, but the priest has a thick accent.
A likable, if rather lightweight 70's blaxploitation romp.
Tough, two-fisted Italian Catholic priest Father Charlie (well played with steely conviction by Lino Ventura) and rugged ex-cop Lee Stevens (a solid and charismatic performance by Isaac Hayes) join forces to find out who's responsible for a recent bank robbery in which one million dollars got stolen.
Naturally, these guys find themselves neck deep in all kinds of trouble.
Director Duccio Tessari relates the fun story at a constant snappy pace, makes fine use out of the gritty urban Chicago locations, adds a few amusingly quirky touches (for example, Father Charlie performs last rites on recently killed criminals!), and sprinkles plenty of rousing shoot-outs and rough'n'ready fisticuffs throughout.
Fred Williamson has a welcome change-of-pace bad guy role as the nasty Joe Snake, plus there are sound supporting turns by Paula Kelly as scared hooker Fay, Vittorio Sanipoli as smooth businessman Mike Petralia, William Berger as the hard-nosed Captain Ryan, and Luciano Salce as a disapproving bishop.
Hayes' funky, throbbing, soul-deep score hits the groovy spot.
Aldo Tonti's slick cinematography likewise does the trick.
While this movie is pretty tame and inoffensive compared to most 70's blaxploitation grindhouse fare (there's no nudity, only mild profanity, and the violence isn't that graphic), the breezy tone and engaging chemistry between the well-matched leads make this picture an enjoyable enough diversion.