Gli esecutori (1976)

User Rating:

4.6/10   

Directors:

Maurizio Lucidi
Guglielmo Garroni

Writers:

Roberto Leoni (story) and
Franco Bucceri (story) ...

Release Date:

17 September 1976 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama

Tagline:

The Hunting Season Has Opened In The Naked City

Plot:

A Mafia boss is enraged when he is suspected of smuggling a heroin shipment into San Francisco. He dispatches his nephew...

Plot Keywords:

Mafia | Heroin | Smuggling | Poliziottesco | Murder

Cast

Roger Moore	...	Ulysses
Stacy Keach	...	Charlie Hanson
Ivo Garrani	...	Salvatore Francesco
Fausto Tozzi	...	Nicoletta
Ennio Balbo	...	Continenza
Loretta Persichetti	...	Hannah
Pietro Martellanza	...	Pano
Luigi Casellato	...	Pete
Romano Puppo	...	Fortunate
Rosemarie Lindt	...	Salvatore's girlfriend
Aldo Rendine
Emilio Vale
Salvatore Torrisi
Franco Fantasia	...	Priest
Ettore Manni	...	Bishop Lopetri

Also Known As:

La croce siciliana (Italy)
Street People (USA)
The Executioner
The Executors (UK) (video title)
The Sicilian Cross (UK)
Uomo del'organizzazione (Italy)

Runtime:

Sweden:105 min | USA:92 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 (re-rating) | Norway:16 (original rating) | Sweden:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Aetos Produzioni Cinematografiche

Movie Connections:

References Jaws (1975)

For Roger Moore completists only

This film is one of the hardest Roger Moore films to track down, other than the almost forgotten Sunday Lovers. The version I saw was entitled The Executors and ran for 100 minutes, and as far as I'm aware it is the most complete edition of the film in circulation. Other editions include Sicilian Cross, Gli Esecutori and Street People. Under any title it is not a good film..... in fact, it is one of the worst examples of Italian profiteering movie making.

The film is similar to The French Connection. It deals with drug peddlars in San Francisco. In order to smuggle their latest consignment in the US, they have used a wooden crucifix sent as a gift to the Californian fishermen from the island of Sicily. This enrages the local godfather, who sends his nephew Moore to catch the culprits. Moore enlists the aid of his hard-driving buddy Stacy Keach and eventually tracks down the villains, but the truth affects him more personally and emotively than he could have foreseen.

The film is full of under developed moments. There's a great opportunity for a classic car chase, but the sequence is badly editted and makes little sense. The final showdown could have packed a real wallop, but it fizzles out without generating anything of note. The best scene involves Keach wrecking a car, but even then it isn't a great scene... merely a mediocre scene in a movie full of bad scenes.

Moore gives an OK performance and Keach is pretty good in his usual casual way. The foreign actors are embarrassingly dubbed and look foolish as a result. All in all, this film is for Roger Moore completists only,as anybody else will certainly find it a hard slog.