Vai Gorilla (1976)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Tonino Valerii

Writers:

Massimo De Rita (writer)
Arduino Maiuri (writer)

Genre:

Crime

Plot Keywords:

Poliziottesco

Cast

Fabio Testi	...	Marco Sartori
Renzo Palmer	...	Gaetano Sampioni
Claudia Marsani	...	Vera Sampioni
Saverio Marconi	...	Piero Sartori - Marco's brother
Adriano Amidei Migliano	...	Police Commissioner Vannuzzi
Antonio Marsina	...	Berto
Luciano Catenacci	...	The Manager of the Shooting Range
Giuliana Calandra	...	Sampioni's Wife
Maria D'Incoronato	...	Elisa Sartori - Marco's sister
Al Lettieri	...	Ciro Musante

Also Known As:

Go Gorilla Go (International: English title)
The Hired Gun (USA)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

English | Italian

Color:

Color

Certification:

Norway:16 (1977) | Italy:VM18

Odd but entertaining Italian crime flick

Go Gorilla Go is probably most notable for its strange title, and this carries over into the film; as while it takes obvious inspiration from some big genre classics; the film features some strange plotting and a storyline that is a bit unusual on genre terms. Director Tonino Valerii previously directed the excellent but complicated Giallo My Dear Killer and clearly has a talent for delivering convoluted story lines as Go Gorilla Go features one too! The film focuses on Marco; an undercover police officer who is also working as a body guard for a shady underworld figure. He's also got a brother who is not exactly squeaky clean and has contacts with a few other 'Gorillas' who are in the same line as he is. It's not long before our hero gets involved in a kidnap plot along with his brother and his underworld boss and this plot is ran parallel with a load of others and the whole thing gets rather complicated.

Luckily, however, it's all spun together with a whole load of action scenes; many of which are really well done. We've got the usual compliment of car chases and fist fights, but the main standout is a sequence that sees the lead character trapped in an elevator with the bottom taken out. The final car chase, which involves a train a la The French Connection, is also very well executed. The lead role is taken by Fabio Testi and the actor looks the part and plays it well. The rest of the cast is filled out mostly by lesser known Italian actors, but they get on well as an ensemble and bad dubbing aside, the film is above average in the acting department. The way that the story flows does get a bit too confusing at times as we constantly switch from one thing to another, but at least the proceedings are kept entertaining for most of the duration, before exploding in the final third. This film is not very well known and as such has become rather hard to come by. In the grand spectrum of Italian police films; this one is not one of the more important ones or one of the best, but for anyone that considers themselves a fan of this genre; Go Gorilla Go is certainly worth a look and comes recommended.