The Climber 1975

A New York immigrant working as a cigarette smuggler in Naples gets fucked over my his boss and flees to Rome to lick his wounds. There he works his way into the local rackets and returns to Naples with his own gang to even old scores




This is a hard one to track down, lacking the commercial appeal of a proper dvd release for companies with no Franco Nero or Henry Silva to pull in the punters. This film stars Joe Dallesandro and Euro vixen Stefania Casini and that's as big stars as you're going to get. It was Joe that pulled me to this, he stared in some other Eurocrimes around this time but this is the only one that I am aware of that is a strict gangster yarn. Usually he played some sort of rampant thug in films like Savage Three. Here he is a little more subdued, going for a lot of moody James Dean type posing and riding a motorcycle through dock yards and twisting streets whilst his shirt strains at the seams.

For those that don't know 'ol Joe was a New York hustler turned model and was part of Andy Worhol's pack. His crotch adorns 'Sticky Fingers' by the Stones and Lou Reed took the piss out of him more than once. Yet Dallesandro has a stone cold presence in this film, looking the part as a greedy, reckless young thug.

The film crafted around Joe was directed by Pasquale Squitieri a man whose output time has maybe passed by. A shame really. He made a career mixing mainly period and political films with the odd genre piece here and there. He much favoured mob sagas rather than police caper films and this shows in his other movies that're much more rural and historical in nature such as the Iron Prefect. He has a definite spin on the genre, I would go as far to say that he adopts some realist traditions for segments of this flick. Whilst Joe carries about his work, the camera takes in drab housing with pointed close ups of haggard faces and drab housewives. There is one sequence in particular that stands out where Joe is driving his car and there and children running after him, with the camera deliberately taking in the faces and reactions of the street kids as Joe putters his sleek roadster through their neighbourhood.

Elsewhere though this is a sordid gangster yarn with some brutal violence and a killer soundtrack. The action quotient is maybe lower than some may expect but this is a crime film rather than an action film. Joe's gang does include some bikers and a bad arse sharpshooter so you get some stunts along with some nifty squibs, the best being a clash with rival gangsters in a narrow street along with a gun battle in a quarry. Welded onto this is a furious mix of strings, hard rock and soft funk pop. Really a superb eclectic soundtrack for what is a fairly unknown film, there's one furious guitar break that sounds like Kyuss going supernova. Really splendid stuff.

The ending is quiet, a powerful little moment in a genre usually reserved for cinematic outrage and vice, set to soft music and the beach at night, it's Kitano a couple of decades early.

I really llked this movie but unfortunately the only print out there is a vhsrip with burnt in subtitles. My copy had some sound sync issues towards the end also. Due to the print quality and the fact its probably slow going for novices I'd really just recommend this for seasoned eurocrimers.