BLOOD IN THE STREETS

Months later, Vito Cipriani (Oliver Reed), a prison warden is getting it on with his wife when the phone rings-coitus interruptus-and he is called away. When he gets home, his wife is gone; she's been kidnapped. Reed gets the obligatory "we got your wife" phone call. The kidnappers demand that prisoner Milo Ruiz is released.

If i may interrupt myself here...Milo is supposed to be French. "Milo Ruiz" doesn't sound very French.

So anyways, Vito beats the crud out of Ruiz, in an attempt to have him disclose where his wife is. Ruiz doesn't know, as he doesn't have any friend with that type of power.

Well, to make a long story short, the people who kidnapped Vito's wife want Ruiz out of jail so they can kill him because he knows about a political assassination. Now both Ruiz and Vito are being hunted by the police, and they have to work together. The plot get REALLY complicated, eventually involving a hippy folk singer and some kind of underground organization. Vito is told that the only way he'll see his wife again is to kill Ruiz himself...which he reluctantly accepts.

Anyone who's seen Sollima's other crime film VIOLENT CITY (aka THE FAMILY) should have a clue to how the final scene plays out. totally unexpected and shocking. Maybe not as effective as the elevator scene in VC, but still a great climax.

Oliver Reed is simply great as the pissed off warden, and i certainly wouldn't want to be around him when he's pissed. Fabio Testi, usually known for his bland roles, is very good as smart ass sleaze ball Ruiz. Morriconne provides the score, which is good, but really nothing special. It seems like Morricone's crime film scores were always sub-par, even the UNTOUCHABLES score is shitty. Well, VIOLENT CITY is good, but really an exeption.

BLOOD IN THE STREETS is definately one of the best "political" crime films, and well worth tracking down.