MAD DOG

Helmut Berger stars as twisted psycho Nanni Vitale. Nanni and three others (including crime film vet Nello Pazzafini) have just busted out of prison. Nanni sadistically beats the gaurd they took hostage, then chucks his fat ass out of the speeding car. Inspector Santini (Richard Harrison) is hot on their tail, but looses them when his car blows up.

After stealing another car they stop to get some gas, and again they sadistically beat the shit out of the two attendants. Next on the agenda is to take care of the "stool pigeon" who got them locked up. Needless to say, he is sadistically beaten, then his girlfriend (Marissa Mel, way past her prime) is raped by Nanni. All of this happens in about the first 10 minutes.

There are some simularities of Umberto Lenzi's The Executioner in Mad Dog. Nanni is a murderous fiend when he has a gun, but is a coward without it, picking on defenseless women because he's stronger than them, much like Tomas Milian's character Guillo Sacchi in Executioner.

Mad Dog has a very sleazy low budget feel, probably 'cause it's sleazy and low budget. The camera work makes Jess Franco look like Martin Scorsese. Lots of rough, hand held stuff and haphazard framing. The music is very John Carpenter-ish, simple and effective, but i'd still prefer some Franco Micalizzi.

Probably not the best plae to start if you're not familiar with the genre, but a worthy addition to your collection if you are.

*trivia* scenes of this are used in the really boring and shitty Tarantino film Jackie Brown, and Mad Dog was recently ripped off/remade as a straight to cable flick Black Cat Run, which borrowed most of the story line, and even had an actor made up to look like Helmut Berger.