That's that then. I've finally found the most boring poliziotesschi film imaginable. Imagine Cry of A Prostitute if Henry Silva turned up in Sicily, exchanged some harsh words with the Mafia bosses, and then sat out the end of the film with a nice book for company.
These Euro-Crime films are known for their extreme violence, exciting car chases, fast pace and downbeat endings, so Kidnap contains endless scenes of dialogue, people talking, people meeting in cafes, meetings held in conference rooms, people discussing horses, Henry Silva discussing his career, kidnappers discussing stuff, people waiting for phone calls, people discussing phone calls, etc etc etc. About an hour in you realise that nothing of interest is going to happen.
The story is that the daughter of a prominent businessman is kidnapped and the kidnappers are demanding 500 million lire as a ransom. Cop Henry Silva is on the case but instead uses it to lean on and disrupt the business of a Mafia Don whom he has been after for years. This prompts the Mafia Don to start investigating the kidnapping before his drug empire is destroyed.
This results in Henry vaguely threatening the Mafia boss over and over again while the family discuss paying the ransom and the kidnappers discuss what country is best to exchange the money in. It's like the film painted itself into a corner after about five minutes and kind of crams in a wee bit of action at the end. Utterly pointless when there's dozens of these films kicking about.
Henry Silva of all people doesn't even manage to work up much of a rage and spends the finale in his office, miles away from the action. What were they thinking here? Philipe Leroy gets more space to move around and the only real drama comes from the kidnappers, where loyalty changes place and treachery is afoot.
Nice soundtrack though. Take it from me though - skip it.
