Almost Human

Umberto Lenzi's hard boiled Almost Human is a definitive example of the Italian crime genre of the seventies. Violent and sadistic, it makes American movies like The French Connection seem tame by comparison. Released in 1974, Almost Human, opens with Giulio Sacchi (Tomas Milian) as the getaway driver in a Milian bank robbery. He panics when a traffic policeman approaches his parked car and shoots the cop. The thieves call Giulio a coward and kick him out of the gang. When Giulio learns that the wealthy boss (Guido Alberti) of his girlfriend, Iona (Anita Strindberg), has a young, beautiful daughter (Laura Belli), he decides to kidnap her. Giulio pushes Iona and her car off a cliff into Lake Como when she threatens to notify the police. He shows up innocently at police headquarters to report that Iona is missing and is interrogated by Inspector Walter Grandi (Henry Silva).

Almost Human reflects Italian class differences: Giulio resents the fact that he has so little while a small percentage have so much. This attitude is played out when Giulio and his thugs humiliate a group of well-to-do people in a villa before killing them. "I've always found people who live only for money disgusting," he sneers. In one of the extras, Lenzi calls his protagonist "the product of an unfair society."

Almost Human deserves its reputation more for Milian's performance than for the film's style. Lenzi has made westerns and horror films but is best known for his crime movies of the seventies. He may be trying to emulate the deliberate style of Jean-Pierre Melville's great thrillers from this period but he lacks that master filmmaker's touch.

With pointless shots of people crossing streets and cars pulling up in front of buildings, Almost Human resembles an American television cop show from the same era. Ennio Morricone, the greatest living composer, offers perhaps his weakest score, a simple da-da-da-da-da repeated whenever characters are on the move.

Milian, however, is riveting. Giulio may be repellent but Milian offers a fascinating performance, giving surprising sincerity to lines like "things got a bit out of hand" (after Giulio kills several people). Milian, who gives a great performance as the general in Traffic, perfectly captures the deadly intensity of Giulio's relentless gaze. Milian studied at the Actors' Studio and is full of Method mannerisms rarely seen in Italian movies: looking down while someone else is speaking, then raising his head slowly to accentuate the sadistic look in his eyes.

Scrawny, wearing what used to be called a pageboy haircut, Milian's Giulio is a cross between Robert De Niro's Johnny Boy from Mean Streets and Al Pacino's Tony Montana from Scarface. In one of the disc's extras, Milian expresses pride that the same actor who dubbed his voice into Italian also did the dubbing of De Niro and Pacino.

No Shame Films has remastered Almost Human from its original negative and the 2.35:1 widescreen result has a perfect clarity. The extras are excellent: a 30-minute interview with Milian and 37 minutes of interviews with Lenzi, screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi, and actors Ray Lovelock and Gino Santercole (who play Giulio's accomplices).

For Lenzi, the film is simply "a noir in the French noir style." Milian says he was first offered the part of the inspector but wanted to play Giulio so badly that he agreed to take the part for the smaller salary assigned to that role. It's a shock to see this grandfatherly man holding a cane after witnessing Giulio's viciousness. An informative six-page booklet also gives background about Lenzi, Milian, and other Italian crime films of the seventies. -- Michael Adams