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Welcome to the Projection Booth. I'm your host, Mike White, join me once again as mister Jenedi airs inform. Also back in the book this mister Ryan Luis Rodriguez, we continue a month of Patreon request with one from Pat Radkey.
Blood and Diamonds written and directed by Fernando de Leo, the film stars Claudio Cassanielli as Guido Mari, who, after being arrested and sent to prison for five years, gets out and swears vengeance against those he thinks wronged him, carving a bloody path through those he once considered to be his friends and allies. We will be spoiling this film as we go along, so if you don't want anything ruined, please turn off the podcast and come back
after you've seen that. We will still be here. So, Jenediah, when was the first time you saw Blood and Diamonds and what did you think?
I saw it twenty eighteen. According to my Letterbucks at Cow. It was a couple of years after I first saw any Police Stachy movies, and specifically Fernando de Leo films, and I think it was the the great old streaming service film Struck had, I think a Fernando de Lio selection, and I really loved those, and this was not part of that collection, apparently because it wasn't until a couple of years later.
I saw this.
But by the time I saw it, it was not my favorite.
De Leo.
I think the impact of the first ones I saw, especially Milan Caliber nine, really really blew me away. And I liked Blood and Diamonds right away, but it wasn't particularly special to me. But I gotta say revisiting it for this podcast, it's become one of my favorites. I really enjoy it for probably a lot of the same reasons you guys do that I'll wait to get into.
And Ryan, how about yourself.
Similar to Jedediah, I've been aware of de Leo for years. A Criterion Channel in twenty twenty three had a big selection of his just like I mean, the former owners of Film Strung. They had Caliber nine, The Italian Connection, The Boss, and Shoot First, Die Later, and I had heard of Blood and Diamonds, but it was not part
of that collection. So the first time I actually watched it was two days ago, and I only picked it because when you were soliciting guests for this season, it was one of the ones that had an empty box next to it, so I was like, oh, yeah, I'll just put my money in there, and then I realized, after maybe an hour later, like, oh, that's a Delayo film that'll fill a hole in my knowledge, and now I have it, so thank you for doing that.
Well.
I appreciate that you are willing to take a shot on a movie that you don't even know what it is, so not everybody's like that.
It couldn't be worse than Red Lights.
This was also a pretty new film for me. I have a massive blind spot when it comes to a lot of Italian films, especially these Pelicio Tetsi films. I remember speaking with Mike Molloy, euro crime documentary director Mike Malloy back long time ago. We talked about The Italian Connection, which I think is also a Delo film, And yeah, I just haven't seen that many of these movies. I have seen a lot more Spaghetti Westerns than I've seen
these kinds of movies. And I think I've seen more French Policiers or French noirs than I have any of these things. So it's a very brave new world for me. And then when I was trying to listen to the commentary, and I think we'll talk about the commentary a little bit later, I mean, pretty much the whole commentary is just these two yahoos just dropping names of other films the entire time, so it's like, oh, and then this is like this, and this is like this, and this
is like this. I'm like, could you maybe talk about the movie that you're actually supposed to be talking about. But anyway, made a big list of all these other movies and I tried watching some of those. I didn't have the most successful time. But it sounds like this movie is in conversation with earlier delio, which is Milan Caliber nine or Caliber nine. And they almost call this Rome caliber nine, so almost like a follow up movie. But it sounds like this movie starts almost the exact
same way that the other one ends. So I did watch a little bit of Caliber nine, but I cannot say, oh, yeah, this is a natural bookend for the other film.
Yeah, I didn't make that connection whatsoever. But I also want to add that Eurocrime is an outstanding documentary if you want to know more about this sub genre. It's always streaming somewhere. I don't know where it is at the moment, but I've seen it at least twice on
completely different streaming services. So if you're listening to this and you're interested, first of all, go to two B and watch Blood and Diamonds, where it is streaming for free, then look up Eurocrime on Real Good and you will have a good double feature there.
I'd like to echo that sentiment. I love that documentary. I've seen it a few times, and in fact, I just watched it yesterday or the day before, and I think it was on two B that it's streaming. I hadn't made the Milan Caliber nine connection until listening to the commentary track and they mentioned it, and then suddenly things really clicked for me, and I said, oh, yeah,
this is really kind of the same situation. You know, a guy gets out of prison after and when he gets out of prison, everybody thinks he's got, you know, a score to settle with his former boss, and he's pressured by the gangsters who were his former friends and by the police to you know, come clean and get protection because he's vulnerable, because everybody's just waiting for this
guy to get rubbed out. The difference, though, is that the situations end up being kind of like mirror opposites as far as what the truth of the situation is. And it is fun to have Barbara Bouchet in both movies playing pretty similar, ultimately pretty similar roles. I do think they make a nice a nice conversation. They start
the same. It's not Caliber nine ends where Blood and Diamonds begins, But Blood and Diamonds just has the little precursor, the little setup of you see him before he goes to prison, and then the opening credits happen and he's getting out of prison, whereas Caliber nine just starts with him getting out of prison. So good double feature. Caliber nine is my favorite, both the Leo film and of
the policiateeschies I've seen. I know a lot of folks like the Italian Connection more I do like the Italian Connection, and it's perhaps more in the spirit and.
Of a lot of the the Police Attachi movies.
It's it's bigger action and broader lead performances and things like that. But I really do like the kind of more somber noir ish overtones of Caliber nine and Blood and Diamonds.
And when he gets out of prison, it's literally it's a five year time cut that happens over the course of like a minute. The narrative of this movie is not fucking around, like it immediately sets off and like he gets he gets nabbed. In the first two minutes. You see the prison, this gothic brutalist compound, you see him come out, and then immediately that's when the revenge starts. It's literally there's no wasted time getting to the plot.
Yeah, I thought maybe Caliber nine ended with that shot of the phone and the JNB, but it ends with that shot of the cigarette still burning instead. That's why I was kind of hoping like it was literally like the two shots matched up or something. But no, it's it's definitely not that case.
I see, I am misunderstood.
I see where you're coming from, and I see why my words would say that. But I was really hoping that there would be more of a connection there and it'd be like the same shot opening or something. But the main character, Guido, he thinks that he's been set up, and he was set up, but he thinks he was set up by basically his boss, by Rizzo, who's played by Martin Balsom, But he was not set up by Rizzo. So like, this whole movie is him trying to get
revenge on Rizzo, and it's completely wrong headed. As soon as he gets out of prison, he takes a bus with his wife slash girlfriend. I can't I'm not sure what their relationship is. But Olga kar lotas playing Maria and gets out of prison and these two bandits show up and they try to rob the b that he and all these other people are on, and he says to himself out loud, Rizo must have sent these two goons to kill me, And that's his whole thing after he thinks that he has been set up to be
killed coming out of prison. I don't know why they wouldn't have killed him in prison, but coming out of prison, that becomes his whole thing, and he's wrong. He's wrong through the whole movie, so you're just like, okay, But it's an interesting thing as far as when we find out that he's wrong versus when he finds out and then just how that changes everything when he finds out that he is wrong and who the actual person that
set him up was. And I kept thinking the whole time, through so much of this that it was actually I think his friend's name is Marco. I kept thinking that it was Marco maybe that set him up, because Marco. It feels like Marco is kind of a It feels
like that this movie really influenced A Better Tomorrow. This whole thing Marco who escaped from this stuff, but he was lame, so he's going around, you know, with a limp and everything, and he works at this autobody shop, and so I just kept thinking of like the t lung character who runs that taxi stand for ex criminals and then you know Mark who got the bullet and his knee, and that he's just kind of limping around afterwards.
But yeah, I thought that maybe Wu had seen this and had picked up on some of those things for Better Tomorrow, because there are some elements of these gangster films that play really well with the Hong Kong films later on.
And it's important to add that the guys who try to rob the bus kill his lady love, which I think only intensifies that desire for revenge. And Martin Balsom amazing to say, it's in really well with the rest
of the Italian cast. A lot of times when they cast American actors in these roles, they look like Americans hanging out with Italian people, but this guy really blends in, and probably because Balstam was such a good actor, but even with the dubbed voice, he fits in perfectly, absolutely well.
It's him dubbing himself though right it is, well, I didn't know. I think it is, at least in the version I saw, because.
It sounds a little different watching these films that most of them, or at least several of them, and several of the first ones I saw, are available either dubbed in English or in Italian, and I do think it makes a difference how you first see them. I think the first time I saw Caliber nine it was in Italian with subtitles, and watching it later dubbed in English,
it does give it a different a different feel. I love both versions, but yeah, the whole dubbing and versus subtitle I mean that would be dubbed two because it didn't shoot with live sound, but reading subtitles and and hearing a dubbed actor, it really does make for a different experience. I think with the films and Blood and Diamonds and Milan, Caliber nine, specifically with their sort of more sober tone than you know a lot of the
really gonzo action ones in the genre. The gonzo action ones, I think that that dubbed quality kind of adds to the frenetic energy of the things. But these these more somber ones, I think if you watch them dubbed, I think you come away with a different feeling thing you do if if you watch them subtitled soap.
Yeah, this one's definitely more contemplative than the rest of the of the bunch. I don't. I tried to clock if there was a if anything could count as a car chase, and I don't think there is one, which there is in all the other ones. Yet somber is the right word. I think it's It's definitely it's a more morose prime picture as opposed to the excess is the fun excesses of the other ones.
I made the mistake of watching this English dubbed with English subtitles on it, So the English subtitles were for the Italian version, so it pointed out all of the times that the subtitler was deciding. And I'm taking it that the subtitler was only subtitling things that we hear on screen, So sometimes there are lines that were put in in the English version that we didn't hear in
the Italian version. It was very strange, especially if there's somebody on screen and their mouth is hidden, the subtitles might have an extra line in there. As opposed to the English version, where you weren't hearing them say something, so like, you know, a phrase or something would pop up on screen. I'm like, nobody's talking right now, but apparently in the Italian version they were, so Yeah. It was a very strange experience for me trying to make
my way through that. And like, I can't imagine watching Caliber nine without Lionel Stander's voice because that is such a part of him as a as a person and as an actor. That kind of like Martin Balsom, I was just like, yeah, I can't imagine watching this without his voice.
Watching it dubbed and subtitled at the same time is like that episode of News Radio where Jimmy James had his autobiography translated into Japanese and then back into English.
Soon No One, super Karate Monkey Death Car where.
Park in MySpace and then you have super Monkey Death Car and just stuff that makes absolutely no sense.
Caliber nine was has a slight advantage too, because it's got Mario Ador there, who is fucking amazing. But this movie has Pierre Paolo Caponi. I believe it's how you pronounced the gentleman's name as Tony who basically is that same role from Caliber nine. But oh my god, and I wish people could see what you look like right now, Jedediah with the major fat tie that's tied around your neck and not around the collar, because.
Not around the collar collars opened yet.
Because Tony has this weird fashion sense where he's wearing it looks like multiple ties hanging around his neck or maybe an incredibly long cravat. I don't know what's going on.
It's so delightfully garish.
He's great, he's great, and every time he shows up, he's just like a mad dog and he just keeps yelling conform, conform, And I'm like, okay, you gotta.
Stop that moment when Tony's talking to you, go for mah conf Now, as I was saying that line is is great, And I wonder if it was the Italian you know what the Italian word was that they were, you know, because on that Eurocrime doc they spent some time talking with voice actors who did who did the the dubbing, and you know, they talked about how well first the actors talked about how there was a lot of improvising going on, you know, just like get the
essence of that scene from Dirty Harry or you know, from Bullets say it kind of kind of the same, you know, make it your own. And then and then the dubbers are watching the lip movement and trying to find words that fit the lip.
Movement, and so.
That he's saying conform is is kind of funny and kind of you know, you think it means one thing.
But then at the end, and you know.
After he's killed Marco and he's confronting Guido about how, you know, he's widow's got all his friends killed basically, and but he's confessing that he didn't like killing Marco because Marco, you know, was a stand up guy and really went out like a man.
He said he.
Conformed, he could, you know, he conformed all the way.
Just been quite.
I thought that meant one thing, and you're saying, yeah, the the usage, I'm not really sure what the intent was and what the actual word they're transcribing is, but it's it's a it's a hell of a hell of a character catchphrase.
Come firm.
Aha.
And to piggyback on the euro crime thing, the one thing missing in all Delayo movies is pissed torture.
I haven't seen all the Delayo movies, but i've seen all the all the policiatteschi ones and and adjacent you know, crime and action ones. There's a few of the erotic, dry and sex comedies I don't think I've been able to find. But I will say he's my favorite of the Bletiatshi directors that that I'm aware of. I've probably seen twenty or thirty Gleitziatshi films total, you know, out of hundreds and hundreds, so not a great sampling, but I think it's I think he's considered one of the
more important contributors. And even with him, there's a fairly whyde gap between his best examples in the genre and his lesser examples. So you know, i'd say there's four or five of his that I like quite a bit, and I've seen a few that I really don't care for. I don't feel like I know him as a person having watched what I've watched, I feel like, you know, there's some directors that I feel I understand something about their personality, and I don't know that I've got that connection.
I wish I knew more about him I've read just a couple of fairly brief things, biographical things, and Mike, you sent that documentary about him that seemed to be people reading his poetry for.
Wherever eventually it changes. That opening was brutal, though, especially because they make you read it on screen, and then they go to the guy and then he reads it again. You're just like, oh my god. So about five minutes in it actually becomes like a real documentary.
Well, yeah, I mean I watched the whole thing, but I maybe I was a little lulled by all the poetry. If you guys know about him, I would love to hear your thoughts on who he was and what does film say about him, but of the policiatashi stuff specifically, Even in that small number of films he made, there's a pretty wide app between his best and his lesser efforts.
Yeah. I don't seem to get a real beat on him through his films, at least the ones that I've seen. I know that he was supposed to be very leftist, you know, one of those wokesters I think is So that's probably why we don't know that much, because you know, you go woke, you go broke and That's why probably even shouldn't even be talking about this movie.
He went out of style when woke was not cool yet, So you know, he was ahead of everybody dying in two thousand and three. He was whoa he knew woke before we ever had a definition.
If that's true his You know, I know that there are some leftist ideas debated, you know, especially in Caliber nine The Police Chiefs. You know, there's one leftist and one fascist, and they spend a fair amount of the film debating policing philosophies and things like that. But you know,
the genre itself is you know, often fairly really fascist. Frankly, you know, it was a lot of really over the top police heroes and vigilati heroes who just you know, slaughter their way and torture their way through through suspects and underworlds, and that we're rooting for them most of the time too. You know, I make no bones about really enjoying those films, But it's funny that a subgenre with so many pretty fascist examples would have leftist crews and directors behind them.
Well yeah, I mean it was Italy. It didn't all change after Mussolini was hung upside down. There were still a lot of fascist sympathizers and a ton of communist sympathizers at the same time. This was like the prime time of the Red Brigade, the Brigado Russo. And then to find out that this movie came out what was at the day after the Prime Minister was kidnapped by the Red Brigade and killed box office because nobody was in the mood to have fun go see a movie.
It's like when Hardball came out in the wake of nine to eleven and people were like, I can't watch a movie about Keanu Reeves teaching a bunch of kids how to play baseball. It's not what I'm feeling right now. I'd rather go see Jay and Silent Bob strike Back for the third time, which is actually an autobiographical moment that I've just illustrated.
Didn't Poody Tang come out right around that time as well, and I think that ruined.
Earlier that summer, But yeah, that's yeah, that definitely happened.
Nobody wanted to see Poody Tang.
For the five people who are aware of Poody Tang.
Yeah, the police Inspector is fantastic I really like this guy and again feels very woo to me as far as and also very Jean Pierre Melville as far as the police inspector who actually cares for the criminal and wants the criminal to go straight, kind of really empathizes with this guy. It really feels like the police inspector is more of a father figure too Guido than anybody else and really wants him to look at what's going on and really defends him quite a bit throughout this
entire thing. And it's good that he's there because Guido as a character, he's just kind of a cipher. And I hear that DeLeo liked working with this guy because he didn't give a lot of emotion, and I can really see that he's kind of an automaton through this whole movie.
Yeah, I have in my notes here protagonist of inaction. He doesn't really do much. He kind of stands there kind of observing everything that goes on. And I noticed that he looks like if you had an article on a newspaper with Christopher Lambert and Jason Clark in the same frame, and he took silly putty and you put it on it, and then you pull it off and whatever mangled face you would have that resembles both men, like some kind of transporter accident in the fly, that's
what you would have. You would have this guy's face.
That's pretty accurate. That's that's pretty good.
I like that.
I was thinking this last time watching it, how he was physically the opposite of a guest On Moshen, who played Ugo Piazza, the protagonist of a Caliber nine. And gust On is is kind of a he looks like a motherfucker, looks like to think. You know, he's he's kept the fireplum head, bald head, and you know, he's he's just kind of yeah, he's not heavy, but he's he's he's really thick and a slab of stone, you know.
And and he acts that way too.
He's completely blank and expressionless through you know, the first ninety of the film, and then at the very end there's a big change, whereas Casanelli is you know, kind
of more. He's not I wouldn't say gaunt, but he's you know, he's got that narrow face and that that kind of floppy hair and and but he's he also is is just totally blank and just I mean, he's there's just rage boiling underneath him for for the whole movie, but he's not you know, it's only in his eyes, and he's not never is yelling, he's never showing emotion except through his eyes until the end of the film too.
It's either rage or gas.
Of course, at the end of the film that turns into two deep sadness. And you know, as he realizes he's you know, his own mistakes have have you know, cost the lives of everyone he loved and he was a fool. And I find that final scene between Martin Balsom and him.
To be very moving.
Frankly, I like it a lot. I think every time I watch it it gets more powerful. And yeah, Martin balsam Is is terrific through the whole picture, especially when you know the truth about his character.
Really good shit.
And I like that speech he gives at the end, you know that you know, I've got to do this to make an example of you, not because I can't get over what you did to me or you know whatever, but you know, for them, and he's pointing out he's called an audience of all is underworld contacts and you know, henchmen and things like that, like they have to learn what it means to be in this life. And yeah, and of course I don't. I guess we're spoiling everything else,
but I don't want to spoil the decision. He makes it at the very end there, so I know you guys can if you want, but I won't leave that on my comments here. It's it's just a it's a it's a great, great scene.
Well.
I love all those guys in that scene, all standing by their white cars, and the way that the white cars are all lined up. It's kind of like the opposite of a funeral, but yet they're meaning in this kind of dingy it looks like a parking garage or something. Am I Oh, okay, this works, And I think he calls it a funeral, but it looks like the opposite of a funeral with the what those no hearse or anything.
And I'm glad you brought up Melville because that that's definitely a key point in a lot of these polite is it polye shtty? I don't want to mispronounce it.
I think everybody who says it mispronounces it.
So okay, well then polly shatty whatever these poll see movies. There's definitely the code of conduct that is very much a Mailville construct, and the kind of idea of the process of criminality and what it takes to kind of live that life is very much a Melville thing. Like you won't confuse it with Leicircle Rouge anytime soon, but it's definitely like the feet on the ground level of Melville.
Definitely they all have that code and the whole thing it's like, who violated the code? Who's the one that tipped off the cops that I was going to be doing this thing and set me up the river and trying to figure that out? And you know, he's got so many different people that he can basically choose from. He goes right for the boss obviously, but this whole thing of like it was, isn't it Maria's s Is
that how that works? And so yeah, who is kind of like the younger thief that Bob La Flambert takes under his wings And luckily I don't I know, he kind of screws up here and there, but he doesn't actually betray Bob like knowingly, whereas this guy is just like, oh yeah, And it's funny because you see, like you were talking about, the second time you watch it, you get more, and especially you get more of the Balsome character.
And it's like, well, the second time I watched it, I saw Enzo, you know, opening up the door and looking at Guido before he goes on that job, and I'm like, oh, okay, things just kind of really started to click more for me. And then yeah, when you see Balsam knowing that he didn't call for this and just is kind of confused, like why is Guido doing this stuff? Why does he think I'm the one that
set him up? I really appreciate this even more, and I can see liking this movie a second, third, fourth time more than I did even the first time.
And Enzo has the saddest eyes just of any so expressive, so very mournful, and very like it's clear that something, some part of his life has been taken away without his consent, and he's just kind of he's getting through the motions basically.
The sadist size and the hottest girl friend me. Oh yeah, Barbara Bouschette with her dance numberless she's doing to that amazing song what shocked me? And I could think of Ace freely.
In a nightclub where they have the name of the nightclub indoors on the wall, just in case you came in and forgot where you were, or unless I've never been to a nightclub, so maybe that's what it's like in it. Maybe Studio fifty four. Every single wall said fifty four on it. I don't know. I can't say, but usually if you walk into a nightclub, you're pretty sure where you are.
Yeah, techdir and the terminator did that.
Too, Yes, in case you're on your cell phone here, just like I'm at the tech Noir.
I'n't just play.
I pick up a bar called techt Noir.
I'm really scared, you know.
Another connection, of course, between Bun Diamonds and Calber nine is Barbara Bouchet as a go go dancer doing There's a great sequence in Calber nine where it's you know, shot at the low angles of her bikini go go dancing. And I will never complain about those scenes being as long as they are, but they are long scenes.
She must have had a non nudity clause because there are topless dancers right behind her.
Well, she does get nude a couple of times in the film, but you're right in that number she doesn't and the ladies behind her scene to be having a very good time.
Yeah, of course, I was thinking of We recently watched a Just Franco movie and there was a whole thing at a nightclub, and I was like, oh boy, I hope this doesn't go that way, because it was basically simulated sex in the nightclub, and so of like, no, no, I don't really need to see that again. But luckily they avoided that. And yeah, and I think there's a there's a couple of sex scenes, or at least one I remember from Caliber nine where, but it's more nudity
from the back of memory serves. I'm not sure. It's amazing that as you get older, you don't watch movies just for the nudity anymore.
It's funny when I grew up very sheltered, without cable and without being allowed to watch much.
You know.
I started when I was able to rent movies. I was still living at my parents' house. It was still I couldn't, you know, go see R rated films, but I could. I could rent them, you know, unless that one lady at the grocery store was working. She wouldn't rent me. She wouldn't rend me blood Sport or Point
Break or any of those. But well, I found, Yes, I was absolutely you remember those books, the a Precursor, the Mister Skin was the Bearer, the Bearess Bears video Guide, and you know, I would I would find a lot of interesting things to watch that way.
And it was it was funny.
I was renting a lot of like kind of highbrow art films, European and Asian stuff and and you know a lot of really trashy exploitation and you know, straight to video action movies. So I grew up with you know, I didn't have anybody who was a movie watcher telling me.
What I should watch.
I was pretty much looking for nudity all the time. And and that led me into you know, simultaneous, very different paths, the art film and the exploitation cheap old schlocky stuff, as they both tracked in nudity that you didn't get in those you know, cobious amounts in a lot of a lot of the fair that I was at the movie theaters.
When I was growing up and actually cared about nudity and movies. There was an issue Maxim magazine with Tara Reid on the cover, because I will never forget it. It's the only time I bought a Maxim magazine at a supermarket and nobody looked at me and said, aren't you a little young to be purchasing this. They're like, yeah, whatever, FU could take it. And it had inside the fifty best sex scenes in all of movies, and I managed to track down I think maybe forty seven of them,
and I felt so accomplished. And then I grew another two years, and then ultimately didn't care anymore, and then I actually started watching movies for the plot, for the esthetics, for all the stuff that doesn't involve boobies.
I'll get there someday.
There's not a lot to talk about when it comes to this movie, because it just seems to follow pretty well worn paths. I wasn't surprised by much. There wasn't in a really tense robbery scene. There wasn't There weren't like a lot of showcase scenes, you know, it's not like the robbery is just a thing. And even when it comes to they've got all these uncut diamonds, and eventually Guido and Marco go and decide to rip them off because you know how dear Wittso set me up
all this kind of stuff. It's an okay scene, you know, but it's not like some sort of like balls to the wall action type of thing like you were talking about before.
Ryan.
There's not a lot of chasing in here. There's a chase through a junk yard at one point, but it's all on foot. It's not a motorcycle race. I mean, as part of my research for this, I watched a little bit of what was it Lived Like a Cop Died Like a Man, which de Leo jered deared Addo. DeLeo had written that one, so I was like, oh, let me check that out. And I mean that motorcycle chase or dirt bike right up front, that right up front,
and it is amazing. Oh it's so well done. And yeah, just really kicks things in the high gear.
The thing that really surprised me watching this is that one of the bad guys drops a reference to Diabolic.
Yes, I thought that was great.
I was struck by it because I was like, oh, yeah, every country has its own self referential pop culture. Quentin Tarantino didn't invent that. It's not an inherently American thing. Everybody has their culture, and you know, like stuff might cross over to America, like Godzilla is now the suffix Zilla can now be applied to anything. But really it's a Japanese pop culture artifact.
And I want to say that it's Diabolic in the captions and the subtitles, but it's Superman in the dub.
That's interesting because when he's beating up Guido, he calls him the steel Man, but never calls him the man of steel, which is very very interesting.
You ain't good iron inside? Yeah, he's just like all thems.
No iron Man, no way.
Henriets is always saying that you're a man.
E Nah, he's right, you're made of iron, all right.
Only a man of mine could have did what you done. Yeah, he's touching Guido earlier in the film, after the robbery where he kills he gets his girlfriend killed and then he kills the two robbers and the you know, he's all over the news and Tony comes in. He's touching him like his abs and things like that, saying is there iron in?
There? Is there steel?
So yeah, I think that you know, when he comes back and tells him that he's killed Marco. At the end, He's like, well, he was full of steel. He was the iron man. You're soft, but he was iron.
And really it's Guido's freaking fault that Marco got killed. It's like, what are you doing?
It is?
You know, I thought the first time I saw this, and probably the second time I saw it too, I Guido goes to Marco's body shop after he's out of prison. You know, we get Marco at the beginning of the film when he's doing the heist, but then five years later he's a mechanic and he's got a limp and
you know that he got during the robbery. But when they see each other for the first time after Guido's getting out of prison, Marco is wearing this like really inch shirt and he's got this feathery hairdoo that that looks kind of partially combed over. It may even be
a hair piece, I don't know. It looked it's very feathery and and and he looks like he's wearing makeup, like he looks very lamb Rock frankly, and I thought perhaps there was a gay subtext to their relationship, that you know, Marco was really in love with him because of how soft and effeminate he looked in that Cem's He's got the muscles and you know, he's he's a
tough guy to the end there. But but I I was struck the first few times I watched it at that shot of him and the pink shirt and the you know, looking very made up, and is is you know, we talked about Enzo's soulful eyes, but Marco's eyes were pretty soulful there too, And I don't think that that
is actually plays out. I don't think that that was the intent, but that Marco is an interesting character, like and we're supposed to like him, and we're supposed to feel terrible that he gets killed, and we're supposed to feel as bad as Weirdo does at the end when you realize, you know, all these people that he loved died for nothing because.
He you know, made a mistake.
Maria would have gotten killed anyway, but everybody.
Else I don't think so, no, because she only gets killed because he assumes the robbers are there for him, and he runs into it, and it's when she starts running because he's running that the you know, she gets shot in the back. I think those. I believe Martin Balsamley says he has no idea who those you know guys were, and they didn't have anything to do with it, and so I think the robbery probably would have gone off without a hitch if Guido hadn't leapt into action
assuming that they were there to kill him. So it's not unreasonable for Guido to have that kind of instinct, but it is a wrong instinct, and it does it causes his attitude to calcify, because once Maria is dead, he's never going to listen to reason, you know, talking to him. Martin Balsom, He's never gonna He's too wounded already to ever think he was wrong.
And I do have to agree with you, Ryan, I think that Balsam does fit in very well with these Italian actors and these gangsters that he's hanging around with. I think the big side burns help quite a bit. But I mean, he's just so good and it's just always so nice to see Balsam show up in anything, and yeah, I really enjoyed his character, and yeah, especially that speeches at the end that he gives I thought was just really really well done.
The only cast member missing was Henry Silva. That's how you know you're watching an Italian exploitation film is when Henry Silva pops up. He goes, of course, now I know exactly what kind of movie I'm watching, and he's actually in. I believe The Italian Connection and The Box.
Those are two of the best of I think the whole genre, but definitely of the Leo's films.
It was I was nice to see those American actors show up in these things, and I know that was always like the box office draw, which is just so weird to me, because like, who's going to see a movie because of Martin Balsom being in it other than a weirdo like me? The box office peel of Ernest borgnine in nineteen seventy eight or something. It's like, okay, I mean, he was a fantastic part of that super Cop movie with Hill and superfull.
Going back to the Eurocrime documentary, Christopher Mitchum is being interviewed at one point. I have no reason to think he's mistaken, but you know, I did not do my own research on this, but he says, you know that in like Asia, it was like between him and Clint Eastwood and I forget who the other actor is, maybe if Steve McQueen or something like that. It was like, depending on which one of us had the most recent movie out, we were the three biggest movie stars in Asia.
He was saying, who we think is a big movie star here, you know, is not the same thing as it doesn't translate the same way around the world. And no one would ever put Chris Mitchum and Clint Eastwood the same ranking, you know, categories here, but apparently in Asia that was the case, and so you know, who knows. Maybe Martin Balsoman had an appeal. I mean, he certainly brings value to everything, and he's great in Confessions of a Police Captain, which I think was his first Italian
crime movie that he made in like seventy one. So yeah, it makes sense that he keeps coming back back to the East because I think that was an important, important film for the genre, and you know, he was right out front leading that one with the Franco Nero.
In Italy, the big draw was Charlie Bronson. He was kind of relegated to just like the revenge seeker roles in America, but over in Italy he was he would be top building like The Great Escape.
You know what, I would probably top Billum in The Great Escape as well.
He's digging tunnels like that in House of Wax like that.
We're going to sell. We're going to sell this on a mute performance. It's like, okay, well it worked.
I have to check something because I was watching that Delayo documentary and there's a shot and they say, oh, this is from Las Duxione from nineteen seventy three, and it's a shot of this guy wearing a very loud jacket with this blonde of brunette following him down these stairs. And I was like, no, that's not from l Seduxione unless they reused that shot and blood and Diamonds because that's the guy who's supposed to be cutting or grinding the diamonds. So I'm like, no, that's that's from that.
So I don't know unless if Delayo was because it's the same actor, the same guy with the big glasses. I'm like, why would you cheat a shot like that? Why would you just steal a shot from your own movies? That doesn't make any sense. So now I have a thing because I know that part of this soundtrack was used for another movie as well, but I have to
say I really like the score for this. I thought there's a couple of really groovy musical cues, not including Shack Me, of course, which is just the best.
It's a Louis Bakolov. And I only recognize that name because earlier that same day that I watched Blood and Diamonds, I watched the first Kill Bill and there's at least two Louis Bakolov tracks on that soundtrack, and I'm pretty sure Tarantino I had to pull it from one of these Delayo movies because he's a huge Delaya fan.
I remember getting to a verbal argument with some film nerd who is insisting that all of the music was written for Kill Bill.
I'm like, what, like, no, like three tracks out of forty five.
Are you fucking insane? Like most of these composers are already dead, Like Marcone was still alive, but most of them had passed on well before. Like, you're fucking crazy, man, do your research.
Yeah, nobody knows that Quentin Tarantino created The Green Hornet.
And Ironsides too.
That's right. He also wrote and directed Twisted Nerve, all these great films. They're all part of the Tarantino legacy.
Out of curiosity, Jedda Daia, how many movies did you watch for this episode?
Like about seventy Jesus Christ, Martin Balsam movies. And I tried to watch some more Castanelli films, And yeah, I watched as many Fernando de Laos as.
I could get.
Man, I watched several of the movies he wrote and didn't direct. Yeah, there's a lot of just kind of not a lot of distinction to my memory here, that's dedication.
I mentioned that commentary earlier. Did you listen to that one?
Ryan?
I didn't get a chance to, but since if it's still up on the drive, I'm definitely definitely taking a look because it sounds like the speaking of Tarantino, the Edgar Wright and Tarantino commentary for Hot Fuzz, where all they do is just back and forth recommend movies to
each other and don't even talk about the movie. I'm actually doing an episode on that tomorrow, and I just rewatched it today and it's like it's one of those things where it's like, oh my god, they talk about the movie for maybe forty five seconds, and it's terrific.
That's pretty much. Yet they just go back and forth and basically are banding about titles. It almost feels like a dick measuring contest as far as who knows the more obscure Italian film and then sometimes not even Italian films, but just going back and forth, back and forth, and then yeah, and then it's that typical IMDb like, oh, and this is Martin Balsom, who the year before was in this one. I'm like, you're just looking at the IMDb. You know, why are you doing this? I could go
to the IMDb just as easily as you can. You don't have to tell me their entire filmography when they died, how they died. And then that the whole thing that I was talking about with the kidnapping of the Prime Minister. I was like, they make a little mention of that, like oh yeah, some bad stuff happened when this movie
came out, and they barely talk about it. I'm like, come on, this is a major crime that happens and overshadows the film, like I would like to know more about that, But thank goodness for Wikipedia.
I guess I thought the commentary was okay. I mean, I definitely, you know, I didn't know all these actors. There's all the names, you know, terribly racist of me, but they all send the same to me. I'm having a hard time keeping track of But you know, they knew everybody who was in you know, thirty of these movies in ten years. And wow, no, I wouldn't have known that, wouldn't have known that.
It's been fun having.
The stats feature on letterbox now because I can see, oh, yeah, I have no idea who this person is, but apparently I've watched you know, seven of their movies.
Well, I didn't realize that I had seen a lot of Victorio Capriole Caprioi films, that he's the guy that played the inspector, and when I pull up his his IMDb, there's a picture of him and another dude. And then Pierre Richard, who was in a ton of Francis Ferber films, and I actually watched one of those called La Magnafique,
which is Verber. I think had a very little part in the writing of that, but that was the one with Jean Paul Belmondo where he's writing a book and then also fantasizing about being in the book, and in the book everything is wonderful and everything, and girlfriend Jacqueline Bessad is all about like giving him all this sex. But then when he's actually in real life and trying to write it, it's like everything's distracting him. And it
was a It was cute. I mean, we've seen that that play out, that whole book versus reality thing so many times, but I thought they handled it very well in that film, so I recommend Le Magnafique.
Well, unfortunately they never made a Blood and Diamonds animated series with a purple beaver.
All right, we're going to take a break and play a preview for next week's show right after these brief messages.
Oh and enjoys and all the towns in all the world in mine.
It's time nothing the fiftieth anniversary Collector's Edition video of Casa Blanca.
He's looking at you, kid, Casa Blanca.
Nineteen ninety eight or less after five dollars mail in rebate with purchase of taster's choice.
I think this is the beginning of a beautiful French.
That's right, we're back next week. But they talk about a very obscure film from nineteen forty two. It's called Casa Blanca. Until then, I want to thank my co host Ryan and Jedediah. So, Ryan, what is the latest with you, sir?
I am still working on a one Track Mind, which is an audio commentary's focused podcast, very much into physical media and trying to keep it alive, where every other week myself and a guest will review a movie based on its audio commentary and you can find that on
Facebook and Podchaser. I'm on blue Sky at one track mind dot, bsky dot social and still on Instagram spelled differently with a the number one instead of spelled out o any track Mind podcast, and i also do Reels of Justice, a fake movie court where we have a prosecutor, defender, judge, and jury try to conclude whether or not a movie is guilty of being a bad movie. That's every week instead of every other week, and you can find that
on all the social media's except for Blue Sky. Unfortunately they're still on the dreaded Bird app and it's at Reels of Justice.
And jet dyah anything to share deleted all my social Oh nice social media.
So I'm on a letterbox if you want to keep track of, you know, the hundreds of movie I'm watching this year, but yeah, dabbling and a little fiction writing, but.
Not a lot going on. Well, thank you so much guys for being on the show. Thanks to everybody for listening. If you want to hear more of me shooting off my mouth, check out some of the other shows that I work on. They're all available at whirredomamedia dot com. Thanks especially to our Patreon community. If you want to join the community, visit patreon dot com. Slash Projection Booth. Every donation we get helps the Projection Booth take over the world.
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