VIOLENT OFFENDER
(blutiger freitag; violenza contro violenza)1973 Roland Olsen West Germany
Starring: Ray Harmstorf, Amadeus August, Christine Bohm, Gianni Macchia
very violent Euro crime from Germany that manages to be just as good as it's Italian counterparts.
Ray Harmstorf, the Al Cliver lookalike and future villain of the Thunder Warrior movies, stars as Heinz, a ruthless criminal with a plan. before i go any further, has any plan to rob a bank ever worked in any movie? no.
the first part of the plan is to have his buddies bust him out of jail before he goes to court. i guess he didn't have a very good plan the first time either, or else he wouldn't be in jail in the first place. Heinz's Italian pal Luigi sneaks him a gun while he's in the bathroom. the officers gaurding him tell him to hurry it up, and he responds with the classic line "i ain't trying to break the olympic record for quick shits...i have to take it easy on my hemorroids"
Heinz and Luigi waste no time putting their plan into action. they steal some artillery from an American military truck, during which a soldier meets the business end of a pick axe. the car chase that follows contains one of the most amazing, jaw-dropping scenes in the genre: as the speeding car races through a village, police hot on their tail, they hit an a man on his bike. he gets caught on the hood of the car and Luigi pounds him with his fist until he falls off, almost getting run over by the back wheels. yikes!
the bank robbery that Heinz so carefully planned goes nothing like as planned, naturally, and tension among the group runs high. Heinz decides to keep the people in the bank as hostages, after shooting an old man in the hand and beating up a blind guy.
unlike most films of this type, the police are very willing to nogotiate. they give Heinz & co. everything they ask for and allow them to take off. the police put a tracking device in the car, but they switch vehicles and loose the pigs. while switching cars, Luigi is attacked by a watch dog. wounded and bleeding heavily, they are forced to get him a doctor once they reach the hideout. the doc tell Heinz that Luigi will die in a few days if he doesn't get to a hospital, but ol' Heinz is busy stickin' it to their lesbian hostage.
as is expected, the fuzz shows up and all are massacred in bloody detail. the simple story works amazingly well and Violent Offender is actually better than a lot of Italian and American crime movies. the foul-mouthed dialog, gritty camera work and the swanky Francesco De Masi music are all great. 
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