Jeff Blynn looks like a mad scientist tried to clone Richard Harrison, but one of Maurizio Merli's pubic hairs managed to drift into the machine at the same time. He's got Harrison's piercing stare, but the thick, manly moustache of Merli and especially his hair, which seems too big for his head.
Jeff isn't the main focus here. As usual, the main focus is crooner Mario Merola (who, I have to point out, reminds me of British TV Astrologer Russel Grant). You all know Mario, right? Drives a blue mercedes in every film, gives a bit of song, usually about Naples, smuggles cigarettes? Well all know that Mario always plays a down to Earth family man with a big heart, but we also all know that Mario isn't very good at protecting his family (usually his children) from violent gangsters.
The begins with cop Jeff and a journalist picking through the remains of a gunfight that has resulted in an awful lot of corpses. Jeff finds a zippo lighter that plays a tune, which causes a flashback to the rest of the film. It seems Mario and various other Neapolitans just want to work, look after their family, and sing, but violent hood Antonio Sabato wants to force his protection racket upon everyone. Mario insists he's strictly legit and made his money the hard way, which results in his warehouse being blown up. This happens to several other citizens too, while we get glimpses of the put upon people pulling triggers.
Mario's son gets beaten up and his girlfriend raped, which sets him off on a mission to take down the racket. Sadly for him the police are really thick and parade every single witness in front of the gang, with predictable results. We all know where the film is heading, but Breschia still manages to make it work by giving us a huge blood filled gun battle with a unique death for one guy in particular.
Full of people being Neapolitan (eating, smoking, screaming at full volume into each other's faces), Breschia mostly dispenses with the humour of the last few films (save for the usual fat guy) and doesn't even have any street urchins in the film at all. What he does have is a cheap, but nasty crime film where even the bad guys have a song, after a huge meal of course.
Once again, it all strangely works. Do you think that Mercedes actually belonged to Merola?
