Rabid Dogs

Original title: Cani arrabbiati

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

5.5K

YOUR RATING

Following a bungled robbery, three violent criminals take a young woman, a middle-aged man, and a child hostage and force them to drive them outside Rome to help them make a clean escape.

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Crime Drama Horror Thriller

Following a bungled robbery, three violent criminals take a young woman, a middle-aged man, and a child hostage and force them to drive them outside Rome to help them make a clean escape.Following a bungled robbery, three violent criminals take a young woman, a middle-aged man, and a child hostage and force them to drive them outside Rome to help them make a clean escape.Following a bungled robbery, three violent criminals take a young woman, a middle-aged man, and a child hostage and force them to drive them outside Rome to help them make a clean escape.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

5.5K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trentadue
(as Luigi Montefiori)

Riccardo Cucciolla

Riccardo

Don Backy

Bisturi
(as Aldo Caponi)

Maurice Poli

Dottore

Erika Dario

Marisa

Marisa Fabbri

Maria Sbravati

Luigi Antonio Guerra

Employee
(as Luigi Guerra)

Gustavo De Nardo

Gas Station Attendant
(as Francesco Ferrini)

Emilio Bonucci

Taxi Driver

Pino Manzari

Toll Collector

Ettore Manni

Bank President

Mario Bava

Crowd extra
(uncredited)

Anna Curti

Maria's Friend
(uncredited)

Stefano De Sando

Captain Diotallevi (version 'Kidnapped')
(uncredited)

Barbara Ehringer

Woman behind the window (1996 prologue restoration)
(voice)
(uncredited)

Nina Gueltzow

Woman behind the window (1996 prologue restoration)
(uncredited)

Mario Pascucci

Paymaster
(uncredited)

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The film was seized by the courts when the producer went bankrupt in 1974, during the final stages of production. Tied up in legal wrangling, it wasn't released theatrically until 1997.

Goofs
When Doc looks up from tinkering with a car's engine in his first scene, the camera crew is reflected in his sunglasses.

Quotes
Passenger in passing car: [to Riccardo, as Treintadue rapes Maria] What are you thinking? Are you a mobile motel? You drive up front, while your friends fuck in the back?

Alternate versions
Originally shot in 1974 under the title 'L'uomo e il bambino', this film was shelved when one of the film financial backers died and ownership of the picture became entangled in bankruptcy proceedings before post-production had been completed, which prevented its theatrical release. The film sat on a shelf for almost 25 years until actress Lea Lander rescued it from oblivion by helping finance a DVD release: a new short prologue was shot, according to Bava's original script, and editing and scoring were completed using existing available materials. In 2002 producer Alfredo Leone and director Lamberto Bava (Mario's son), allegedly dissatisfied with the DVD edit, produced a new restored version of the film. Lamberto Bava and his son Roy shot additional footage and original composer Stelvio Cipriani created a new complete musical score (though the DVD release employed some of Cipriani's cues and themes, the film was never properly scored in 1974). This restored version, produced by Kismet Entertainment Group and retitled "Kidnapped", premiered theatrically in the US on May 31, 2002 as part of a Mario Bava retrospective at the American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theater in Hollywood

Connections
Featured in End of the Road: Making 'Rabid Dogs' & 'Kidnapped' (2007)

Soundtracks
Hold On To Me
(Appears in the 'Kidnapped' version)
Words by Myriann D'Antine
Music by Stelvio Cipriani
Sung by Simona Patitucci

User reviews51

Review

Featured review

9/10

A Masterpiece of Tension and Suspense

After the heist of the payment of the employees of a chemical industry where the treasurer and a security guard are murdered, the driver of the runaway car of the criminals Dottore (Maurice Poli), Bisturi (Don Backy) and Trentadue (Luigi Montefiori) is shot and a bullet hits the gas tank. The car runs out of gas and the trio is forced to run to the parking lot of a mall where they kill one woman and kidnap her friend Maria (Lea Lander) and use her car to escape from the police. They are chased by the police but they carjack the car of the middle-aged Riccardo (Riccardo Cucciolla), who is driving his unconscious ill son to the hospital for an emergency surgery. They force the calm RIccardo to drive them out of the city using secondary roads to escape from the blocks in the highway. During the trip, the tension increases but Riccardo and Dottore manage to control the situation until an unexpected conclusion.

"Rabid Dogs" is a masterpiece of tension and suspense by Mario Bava. The immediate association that I made was with the famous Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" that is visibly inspired in this movie, but less realistic and tense. This is the first time that I have seen "Rabid Dogs" and the dialogs and situations are still very impressive; imagine thirty-five years ago the impact of this movie. The claustrophobic location inside a car where most of this feature was shot transmits the horror of Maria with the cruelty and sadism of Bisturi (that means scalpel and not blade) and Trentadue. The final twist is totally unexpected but makes a perfect sense to the plot. Now I intend to see the restored version "Kidnapped" also available on the DVD. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Cães Raivosos" ("Rabid Dogs")

Note: on 19 June 2020 I saw this film again.