My review was written in March 1983 after a screening at Lyric theater on Manhattan's 42nd St.
Underneath its misleading U. S. release title, "Syndicate Sadists", is a 1975 Italian crime picture originally named (in translation) "Rambo Takes on the City". Film is typical of the scores of routine Italo actioners ground out in the 1970s, many of which grind away in domestic action houses and drive-ins with little fanfare, subbing for the nearly extinct U. S.-made B-level action film.
Tomas Milian toplines as an unkempt (clad throughout in black leather jacket and red and black outfit) sort of local hero named Rambo who returns to Milan to visit a buddy who works for the local Mondialpol (a private police force). When the pal is killed, Rambo goes seeking vengeance, foiling kidnappers and cleaning up rival gangs which are operating while (as they seem to say in every Italian action pic) the police stand by "powerless".
With his motorcycle goggles adding to his comic strip figure appearance, Milian is presented as a subject of hero worship for the kids in the film, though his amoral, undefined personality and appeal is likely to mystify U. S. audiences. As a blind gang leader specializing in gambling, Joseph Cotten has little to do here, though his self-dubbing in English is far superior to the low-quality voicing afforded the rest of the cast.
Prolific director Umberto Lenzi demonstrates his ability to stage a chase and keeps things moving, but the picture's minor-league story climaxes at about the halfway point when Rambo seemingly outwits the kidnappers, and in the barest of switches has to retreat in order for 40 minutes more padding to occur.
Underneath its misleading U. S. release title, "Syndicate Sadists", is a 1975 Italian crime picture originally named (in translation) "Rambo Takes on the City". Film is typical of the scores of routine Italo actioners ground out in the 1970s, many of which grind away in domestic action houses and drive-ins with little fanfare, subbing for the nearly extinct U. S.-made B-level action film.
Tomas Milian toplines as an unkempt (clad throughout in black leather jacket and red and black outfit) sort of local hero named Rambo who returns to Milan to visit a buddy who works for the local Mondialpol (a private police force). When the pal is killed, Rambo goes seeking vengeance, foiling kidnappers and cleaning up rival gangs which are operating while (as they seem to say in every Italian action pic) the police stand by "powerless".
With his motorcycle goggles adding to his comic strip figure appearance, Milian is presented as a subject of hero worship for the kids in the film, though his amoral, undefined personality and appeal is likely to mystify U. S. audiences. As a blind gang leader specializing in gambling, Joseph Cotten has little to do here, though his self-dubbing in English is far superior to the low-quality voicing afforded the rest of the cast.
Prolific director Umberto Lenzi demonstrates his ability to stage a chase and keeps things moving, but the picture's minor-league story climaxes at about the halfway point when Rambo seemingly outwits the kidnappers, and in the barest of switches has to retreat in order for 40 minutes more padding to occur.