''Gang War in Milan'' ( it, Milano rovente, lit=Scorching Hot Milan) is a 1973 Italian ''

poliziottesco Poliziotteschi (; singular ''poliziottesco'') constitute a subgenre of crime and action films that emerged in Italy in the late 1960s and reached the height of their popularity in the 1970s. They are also known as ''polizieschi all'italiana'', ' ...

'' film directed by

Umberto Lenzi Umberto Lenzi (6 August 1931 – 19 October 2017) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and novelist. A fan of film since young age, Lenzi studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and made his first film in 1958 which went unr ...

Cast

* Antonio Sabàto: Salvatore Cangemi * Philippe Leroy: Roger Daverty *

Marisa Mell Marisa Mell (born Marlies Theres Moitzi; 24 February 1939 – 16 May 1992) was an Austrian actress. Typecast as a femme fatale in European arthouse and genre films, she is best regarded for her performances as Eva Kant in Mario Bava's critically ...

: Jasmina *

Antonio Casagrande Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...

: Lino Caruso *

Carla Romanelli Carla is the feminized version of Carl, Carlos or Charles, from ''ceorl'' in Old English, which means "free man". Notable people with the name include: * Carla, French singer and former member of the children's music group Kids United * Carla Ab ...

: Virginia *

Tano Cimarosa Tano Cimarosa, real name Gaetano Cisco, (1 January 1922 – 24 May 2008) was an Italian actor, screenwriter and film director. He participated in more than fifty movies. He played the "Blacksmith" in the Oscar-winning film ''Cinema Paradiso'' fr ...

: Nino Balsamo

Production

''Gang War in Milan'' was

's first entry in the crime genre after making several spy and action films in the 1960s. Lenzi stated in an interview that both the film's story and script were by

Franco Enna Franco Enna (1921-1990) was the best known pseudonym of Francesco Cannarozzo, an Italian writer. He was born in Castrogiovanni (now known as Enna), Sicily, on the 16 September 1921, the son of a police sergeant, and died at Lugano, Switzerland, o ...

, a ''

giallo In Italian cinema, ''Giallo'' (; plural ''gialli'', from ''giallo'', Italian for yellow) is a genre of mystery fiction and thrillers that often contains slasher, crime fiction, psychological thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, ...

'' novelist who lived in Switzerland and that the credited writer Ombretta Lanza was a daughter of one of the producers who attributed to the story. Lenzi than later claimed that he completely re-wrote the script as it was closer to a 1930s crime film than a

film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...

. It was filmed at Icet - De Paolis Studios in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

and on location in Milan.

Release

''Gang War in Milan'' was released theatrically in Italy on 23 February 1973 where it was distributed by Variety Film. The film grossed a total of 631.702 million

Italian lira The lira (; plural lire) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was first introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually f ...

on its release.

Reception

Director

later felt that the film's story had "a basic error on the behalf of the producers .. We shouldn't have made the protagonist a pimp. You can have a pickpocket, a drug dealer, or a killer, but not a pimp, because the viewer doesn't sympathize with him. He's a dirty soundrel with whom you can't identify"

Footnotes

References

External links

* *
Film locations in Milan
1973 films Poliziotteschi films 1973 crime films Films scored by Carlo Rustichelli Films set in Milan Films shot in Italy 1970s Italian films {{1970s-crime-film-stub