Has anybody seen Gary Hamilton (Kinski) the screenplay asks repetitively as Peter Carsten's besieged character pleads to know the whereabouts of his long locked-up former partner who he very ungraciously sold up the river ten years earlier. Gary is understandably upset at the betrayal and seeking a unique brand of maximum vengeance that only a character played by Klaus Kinski can inflict.
Carsten is predictably anxious by the haunting return of his former friend, a day he long expected, whilst Kinski plays his part of the cold-blooded avenger with control, lurking mostly in the shadows stalking his victims with relentless and bloody efficiency. Antonio Cantafora plays Carsten's son who discovers the unpleasant truth about his father's dealings with Hamilton, and veterans Alan Collins' (aka Luciano Pigozzi) and 'Lee Burton' (Gina Lollobrigida's brother Guido) appear amongst Carsten's gang.
As is customary in the genre, there's plenty of dining scenes which will either spontaneously cause you hunger, or simply bloating you if you are already full, and whilst Margheriti's film is atmospheric and technically well photographed, it doesn't overcome the fact that unlike its well-fed cast, the plot is thoroughly emaciated. Unfortunately not even a calm, calculated killing machine like Kinski (nor a soaring pop lyric by US crooner Don Powell) can save this picture from the gallows.
Carsten is predictably anxious by the haunting return of his former friend, a day he long expected, whilst Kinski plays his part of the cold-blooded avenger with control, lurking mostly in the shadows stalking his victims with relentless and bloody efficiency. Antonio Cantafora plays Carsten's son who discovers the unpleasant truth about his father's dealings with Hamilton, and veterans Alan Collins' (aka Luciano Pigozzi) and 'Lee Burton' (Gina Lollobrigida's brother Guido) appear amongst Carsten's gang.
As is customary in the genre, there's plenty of dining scenes which will either spontaneously cause you hunger, or simply bloating you if you are already full, and whilst Margheriti's film is atmospheric and technically well photographed, it doesn't overcome the fact that unlike its well-fed cast, the plot is thoroughly emaciated. Unfortunately not even a calm, calculated killing machine like Kinski (nor a soaring pop lyric by US crooner Don Powell) can save this picture from the gallows.