Italian director Joe D'Amato directed this well-produced period gangster movie, notable for good acting and fine English dialog recording that convincingly makes it seem to be an American rather than European production. Cast of top U. S. talent impresses.
Steven St. Croix delivers one of his better performances as Rocky Bartano, introduced as a Sicilian immigrant working as dishwasher at a Chcago restaurant who has Cagney-like dreams of taking over the rackets. He gets hired as a bodyguard by nightclub owner Frank Lobianco (convinclngly played by Tony Montana, whose stage name coincidentally is the same as Pacino's "Scarface" character). With his pal Tom (Mark Davis) by his side, he ruthlessly rises in the rackets and eventually turns against Lobianco, ending up replacing him in the rackets.
Other key roles are filled by Kyle Stone (who gets no billing) as a Canadian bootlegger named Heffner who facilitates Steven's rise and whose advice is duly ignored, plus a bevy of beauties led by J. R. Carrington as a huge-busted waitress who is St. Croix's first sexual conquest, Dallas as Lobianco's moll whom St. Croix inheits, Sohia Ferrari as a sexy girlfriend for Kyle. Plus Gina Rome and the great Roxanne Hall who participate in a strong group sex scene late in the movie. St. Corix's ultimate demise is staged with some panache by D'Amato.
Attractive period cars and some lavish locations help make this a winner. Horror fans have raised D'Amato to a lofty pinnacle in film history (almost laughably) and generally dismiss his vast quantiy of hardcore porn features out of hand (see the no-content dumb "review" preceding mine in IMDb), but this XXX movie is among his better efforts, horror included.
