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Rulers of the City
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - United Kingdom - Raro Video UK Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (10th March 2025). |
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The Film
 Tony (Berlin Alexanderplatz's Harry Baer) is a low-rung protection money collector for Luigi Chercio (The Fifth Cord's Edmund Purdom). He gets all of the smaller collections – and the resulting lower commissions – for a lot of work (including some weekly fisticuffs with one resistant client). He is the butt of jokes about his manliness because he is the only one of the gang who has not slept with Clara (Contamination's Gisela Hahn), although she’s eager to try him out. When Manzari (Contempt's Jack Palance) – aka Scarface – deliberately passes a bad check for three million lire in Luigi’s gambling hall, Tony begs Luigi to let him get the money back from Manzari. The rest of Luigi’s men are content to let him get himself killed in the effort. Fortunately, Tony has made the acquaintance of Ric (Zombie's Al Cliver) – freshly ousted from Manzari’s gang – who comes up with a con to recover the money. Tony and an actor pose as tax inspectors and barge into Manzari’s office while he is at home. Eager to prevent the discovery of the contents of a folder on his desk, Manzari tells his second-in-command Luca (To Be Twenty's Roberto Reale) to pass them a ten million lire bribe. Tony is brash enough to leave Manzari the bad check, which sends Luigi into a panic. He skips town and leaves Beppe (The Kidnap Syndicate's Enzo Pulcrano) in charge. Beppe quickly spills the beans about Tony to Manzari and is promised a top position in exchange for Tony. With the help of manzari's gunmen, beppe sets luigi’s band of protection collectors, purse snatchers, and burglars after tony but veteran hood Napoli (Tout va bien's Vittorio Caprioli) helps Tony and Ric stay one step ahead of them as the pair draw Manzari into a final confrontation at an old slaughterhouse that figures into Scarface’s past. Rulers of the City is an atypical Fernando Di Leo crime film. There are certainly plenty of fights, shootouts, and stunt work along with a dollop of nudity, but it is also more lighthearted and quite funny throughout. Baer and Cliver are likable leads and their characters are contrasted in terms of their fighting skills. Cool Ric is an expert shot, while jocular Tony is good with his fists (and feet). Purdom and Palance are not particularly formidable mobsters which may be intended since Luigi constantly defers to Napoli's advice in front of his men, Manzari is easily flustered, and both are manipulated by underlings. Hahn sings two songs during the strip club scenes but is largely window-dressing (Hahn and Cliver would team up once more in the far lesser Jess Franco cannibal pic Devil Hunter). Nello Pazzafini (A Long Ride from Hell) also has a small supporting role while weapons consultant Gilberto Galimberti doubles as one of Manzari’s thugs. The scoring of Luis Bacalov (Django) for this crime thriller is just as idiosyncratic as his spaghetti western works while the photography of Erico Menczer (Dario Argento's Cat O’Nine Tails) cinematography is not particularly showy but always attractive. Di Leo's credited co-writer was Polish actor Peter Berling (Aguirre, Wrath of God), although it is difficult to discern whether he contributed or was credited for co-production purposes. Like Rulers of the City, Berling's other writing credits such as Red Rings of Fear and Maladolescenza were co-produced with West Germany, and he appears briefly onscreen here and in The Italian Connection. The opening childhood trauma flashback is a bit spaghetti western-ish – and there may be a reason for that according to the extras – but its resurgence in the story proper is a touch giallo-esque. 
Video
Rulers of the City received U.S. theatrical release as "Mister Scarface" in 1977 in a version running roughly ten minutes shorter than the Italian original and the English export version, and the video master for it was the source of a few legitimate and many unauthorized VHS releases. In the U.K., the film was released uncut twice on pre-cert VHS in the early eighties from Cinehollywood and EKO. Raro Video in Italy released the film on DVD in English-friendly form in 2005 but the letterboxed transfer as non-anamorphic, and that master was what debuted stateside on DVD as part of Raro Video USA's Fernando Di Leo Crime Collection in 2011 alongside anamorphic transfers of the films that comprise Di Leo's "Milieu Trilogy" Milan Calibre 9, The Italian Connection, and The Boss only to finally receive a remaster the following year when Raro Video USA upgraded the set to Blu-ray. The 2012 HD remaster revealed slivers of more picture information on the sides and bottom of the frame but Raro Video's Radiance Films-curated Blu-ray features a 2020 4K restoration released last year in France. The 2012 remaster blew the dingy non-anamorphic DVD master out of the water and the 2020 version as represented by Raro's U.K. 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.88:1 widescreen Blu-ray represents is a more imperfect restoration than those of the "milieu trilogy" possibly due to the materials. The colors are not as pumped up so the grain field is more visible and finely-rendered here; however, the framing is considerably tighter on all four sides of the frame than the previous versions, never impeding compositions (and actually removing some dead space at the top of the frame) but definitely noticeable to those who have seen the earlier versions. There is a slight tinge of yellow in the whites compared to the 2012 HD master, a couple blink-and-you'll-miss-it splices and a missing frame that causes a jump in one shot. There are a couple marks that could not be cleaned completely as well as fluctuations in color at a few shot changes. 
Audio
Audio options include clean-sounding English and Italian LPCM 2.0 mono tracks along with optional English and English SDH subtitles (which present sound effects notations in all caps rather than the usual practice of enclosing them in parentheses). Given the lighter tone of this Di Leo film, the English dub is just as good a choice as the Italian track as far as voice casting. 
Extras
Extras are sparse on this set, porting over the Raro DVD documentary "Violent City" (15:32) featuring interviews with some of the then-surviving participants on the film. Di Leo – seen in two separate interview sessions – recalls working with Palance who did not understand that making eye contact was a sign of disrespect in the mafia, actor Cliver recalls that the shoot was almost two months in reiterating Di Leo's comments about calling it a day at five rather than working twelve to thirteen hours like some of his contemporaries on less leisurely shoots. Editor Amedeo Giomini recalls Baer having hemorrhoids and having to jump in and out of his dune buggy as well as working with Di Leo who scolded him for cutting the film without reading the script. Weapons expert Galimberti discusses working out the stunt work with Di Leo and some mishaps on the set.  "As a child, I saw my father murdered, and I want revenge now that I'm grown" (13:06) is an interview with Eurocrime authority Mike Malloy who defines the film as part of a particular subgenre of revenge films that overlap with other genres including the spaghetti western which the Eurocrime genre replaced and suggests that Rulers of the City might have been one of the western scripts rewritten and repurposed as such.
Packaging
The disc comes with a reversible sleeve featuring artwork based on original posters and a booklet with new writing by Francesco Massaccesi (not supplied for review). 
Overall
Rulers of the City is an atypical Di Leo crime film with plenty of fights, shootouts, and stunt work while also being quite funny throughout.
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