I have never regarded Ben Gazzara as an actor able to transcend a limited number of facial expressions. In AFYAN OPPIO (THE SICILIAN CONNECTION) he keeps to that standard, always smug, always with that smirk on the corner of his lips suggesting that he considers himself to be cleverer than anyone else.
Which is a dangerous assumption to make in the dog eat dog world of drug smuggling, as he should know, finding out in the process that not even police live up to their word.
The best things about this cynical, brutally violent flick are: beautiful Silvia Monti, and all the other splendid females; and the beginning, when a police officer decides to investigate whether a corpse about to be buried actually hides drugs. Gazzara appears on the screen shortly afterward to guarantee downhill from that point on.
Probably influenced by the famous car chase in BULLITT (1968), this 1972 production serves two chases, including one where a FIAT vehicle changes color from black to white at a purported carwash - which is plain impossible even with 50 plus years' advancements in all areas of technology.
Gazzara keeps looking smug, which began to annoy me, and the rest of the cast get little time to stand out - both in terms of screen time and failure to dodge bullets furiously flying around.
Cinematography by Aiace Parolin is nothing to write home about (washed out filming of housing in rocks in Anatolia, and of Topkapi Palace in the distance in Turkey, for instance) and editing by Eugenio Alabiso rates at best careless, noticeably during the chases, which would have benefited from sharper cutting.
I watched AFYAN OPPIO in Italian which, I am told, is the original and better version, as the English dubbing was apparently substandard at the time of release. Well, dialogue still failed to impress, basically about looking after number one and being on your toes to stay alive... and old lesson that we all learn from the first days in primary school after meeting the class bully. 6/10.
