Henry Silva made a career out of playing heavies and gangsters over many decades. Alongside Jack Palance, their distinctive features didn’t necessarily make them the matinee idol hero leading man type. In the world of American actors working in Italy throughout the 1960s and 1970s, however, they could be tough guy main characters, the leading man. The third of a ‘underworld’ trilogy by director Fernando Di Leo (I’ve only seen the first, Milano Calibro 9), The Boss (1973; Il Boss) gives Silva a hell of an opening where, as Lanzetta, a mafia hitman, he sneaks into a building to target a bunch of rival mafia heads in a cinema watching a porno. His weapon of choice? A missile launcher. From that explosive opening, the film follows Silva as the muscle between warring factions; Silva’s boss (Claudio Nicastro) gets his daughter (Antonia Santilli) kidnapped by a rival gang (led by Pier Paolo Capponi) and the boss of Silva’s boss (Richard Conte) wants things resolved with no compromises or weakness shown. A subplot focuses on the corruption across the Italian police with a weary captain (Vittorio Caprioli) forever angry at his star subordinate who’s on the take (Gianni Garko, Sartana himself). As allegiances are made and people are double-crossed, Silva cuts through as a cool drink of water wearing a black skivvy and a leather jacket; he gives an intense performance as this determined and ruthless character. Classic sequences ensue that are worthy of the Poliziotteschi genre with rampant sex and bloody violence soundtracked by an excellent prog rock score by Luis Bacalov. There are no codes of honour here and no real sympathetic characters – if you’re not out for yourself, you’re done. Scuzzy, sleazy and satisfying as an urban crime movie about the Italian underworld, I really dug it. A copy in Italian is available on Amazon Prime but the subtitles are out of synch; I had to watch a better copy on YouTube. Recommended
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