Henry Silva kicks down Hamburg's brown door and paints it white on the way out in this German-based gangster film. Silva plays Luca Messina, an American/Sicilian mob boss who has picked Hamburg as his new territory, much to the annoyance of German mob boss Otto Westermann,
Silva arrives in town with his gangsters, his mistress, his daughter and his overbearing Sicilian mother and gets right on everyone's case by muscling in on all the whorehouses, gambling dens, and mob-run Greggs. He also just brazenly walks into one of Otto's meetings and declares himself boss of all, which for some reason doesn't go down too well with the German lot, many of whom are literally waving sausages about when they speak.
Complicating matters further is the burgeoning romance between Henry's daughter and Otto's son, which is fuelled by their kid's hatred for the life their father's having chosen. This is the only part of the film that slips a bit but I guess they had to inject some sort of sub plot into things instead of just having mobsters blow each other way for an hour and a half. Also, any hopes you might have of this romance uniting the two families should be dashed when Henry murders Otto's other son - via two Kung Fu masters, this being 1973 and all...
I love the way that almost the entire plot is thrown out of the window when Henry does something completely stupid near the end of the film and we go into a car chase followed by a speed boat chase. In fact, I don't know why but I get the feeling the whole film was a bit of a rush job, as quite a lot of the cast are dispensed with rapidly, and I wasn't even too sure of the sub plot with Henry's mistress and one of his mobster friends, but then by that point things were snowballing so I didn't dwell on it.
For those looking for a quick fix, this one will do - there's plenty of sauce for those interested in naked women who are now drawing a pension if they are still alive at all, and it makes a change to see a bunch of German mobsters smoking and drinking beer instead of Italian gangster smoking and slapping women around.
