Italian mafia film with Antonio Sabato and Florinda Bolkan
The Sicilian Rosario Inzulia (Antonio Sabato) had to toil in a quarry with his now deceased friend Pasquale for eight years. The two were innocently sentenced to a long prison sentence. Back in Palermo, Rosario is having a difficult time. His wife is now dead, and there is hardly any normal work for someone like him. Inspector Modica (Silvano Tranquilli) urges him to become a key witness against the machinations of his former colleagues from "respectable society". But Rosario feels tied to his honor. Then the rich building contractor Lo Presti (Peter Carsten) gives him a hand. And in his private life there is also an approach to Rossana (Florinda Bolkan), the widow of his late friend. She would like to emigrate with him, but Rosario still feels tied to the old obligations of Sicilian men of honor. But gradually he realizes what game was being played with him. And what his benefactor Lo Presti has to do with it. Together with the violent Aldo Caponi (Don Backy), he finds out more and more background information. Finally, they kidnap Lo Presti's student son (Massimo Farinelli) and thus challenge the mafia...
With Day of the Black Lemons (translation of the original title), director Camillo Bazzoni has created a thoroughly exciting crime film, but it remains all too superficial in its characterization and social analysis. There is a lot of violence against women again, as was common in many Italian films of those years. The film was never released in West German cinemas. It was shown for the first time on West German private television in September 1989.
The cast is worth seeing! Antonio Sabato (1943-2021) is also known from other gangster films such as "The Mafia Boss" and "Poliziotti violenti". The German actor Peter Carsten (1928-2012) became famous for "08/15" and "Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben?" known. In Italy he could also be seen alongside Antonio Sabato in the western comedy "Fünf Klumpen Gold". The enchanting Florinda Bolkan (*1941) from Brazil is in real life the sister-in-law of the fashion designer Willy Bogner. And Don Backy (*1939) is not only an Italian singer, but was also one of the stars alongside George Eastman in the slapstick comedy "Prügel, dass die Fetzen fliegen".
