Italian crime director Fernando Di Leo has helmed heavyweight gangster thrillers far more unsavory than this relatively lightweight 'David vs. Goliath' mobster melodrama with Oscar winner Jack Palance in the title role. The no-nonsense Peter Berling & Fernando Di Leo screenplay establishes both character and plot for the first forty-five minutes of this young Turks revenge yarn and then during the last half-hour blends gunfights galore with comic relief. This average but entertaining urban crime drama depicts the rise and fall of Palance as the head of his own crime syndicate in Italy. Although it would help to see this amoral shoot'em saga in a letterboxed version with good sound, "Mister Scarface" combines elements of far superior American racketeering narratives like "Mean Streets" and "The Godfather." Di Leo's "Manhunt" a.k.a. "Italian Connection" with Mario Adorf and "The Big Boss" a.k.a. "Wipe Out" with Henry Silva surpass "Mister Scarface" in terms of their sheer amount of violence and bloodshed. Hooligans aren't fed like cordwood into a blazing furnace, and women & children aren't run down in the streets by Volkswagen buses. Long-time Di Leo collaborator Luis Enríquez Bacalov provides a serviceable jazz score to heighten the suspense and tension.
"Mr. Scarface" opens with a dreamy slow motion scene where two criminals enter a household with a satchel of loot. One of them, Manzari (Jack Palance of "Shane"), shoots his unnamed partner (Fulvio Mingozzi of "Django Against Sartana"), and awakens a sleeping child. The lad seizes the pistol that Manzari has laid aside and tries to shoot Manzari, except that Manzari's pistol is now empty. Manzari smacks the kid around.
The scene shifts fifteen years later as a twentysomething hood, Tony (Harry Baer of "The Venus Trap"), tools around town in a souped-up, red Puma GT dune buggy collecting protection money from storeowners for his boss, Luigi Cherico (Edmund Purdom of "City of the Walking Dead"), a racketeer that runs a gambling hall with an army of henchmen. A young man, Rick (Al Cliver of "2020 Texas Gladiators"), gets in a card game at Luigi's and loses. A fight erupts later between Rick and Luigi's hoods and they run Rick off. Later, Rick returns with Manzari and his army of thugs. Tony and an older criminal, Vinchenzo Napoli (Vittorio Caprioli of "Moving Target"), watch Manzari enter Luigi's gambling parlor, Napoli observes that just looking at Manzari makes his anus 'twitch.' Manzari's thugs rough up Luigi's minions and then Manzari takes three million lira from Luigi and gives him a check.
Once Manzari takes care of Luigi's men, he lectures Rick about his gambling losses. "If you don't know which table to sit at, don't go gambling, you know what I mean?" Palance's Scarface adopts the line "you know what I mean" for his signature phrase, and he uses it at least three times so that it becomes identified with his wicked character. "If a man gets taken as a sucker, he can't be one of mine." Manzari has a tiny crescent scar on his left cheek and he smokes a cigarette in a holder. Manzari's men beat up Rick and leave him sprawled on the street. Tony comes along and lets Rick heal up from his beating at his place. Rick dreams up a scheme to scam Manzari. Tony and an actor that they hire masquerade as 'Finance Ministry' officials. They visit Manzari's office decked out in official uniforms to inspect the mob boss's records. Scarface's underling Luca calls him about the situation and Scarface orders him to bribe the official so that he will not see some of Scarface's illegal folders. Scarface authorizes his people to pay Tony and the Finance imposter approximately 10 million lira. Later, Luigi blows a gasket when Tony shows up with the three million lira, but he doesn't inform his associates about the other 7 million lira. Previous another of Luigi's hoods had ridiculed Tony because Tony wanted to move up in the organization and collect from bigger clients.
Scarface dispatches his thugs to bust heads in retaliation for the scam. Luca (Roberto Reale of "Being Twenty") tracks down the actor that impersonated the Finance Minister and shoots him with a silenced pistol in the head as he is concluding a performance on stage at a theatre. A frightened Luigi decides to clear out of town and leaves his affairs to an underling, Peppi (Enzo Pulcrano of "The Kidnap Syndicate"), and Peppi shoots Luigi in the head in the movie's biggest surprise. (You were warned about spoilers!) Peppi joins forces with Manzari and prepares a list of places where Luca and his boys can find Tony and Rick. Rick saunters into the late Luigi's gambling parlor and shoots Peppi several times with a silenced automatic. All hell then breaks loose in the last forty-five minutes with a minor gunfight where Rick blows away three of Manzari's thugs that try to string up Napoli because he would reveal the whereabouts of Rick and Tony, and ultimately in a massive gun battle takes place at an old, derelict slaughter house factory where Manzari gets his comeuppance and we learn Rick's true identity.
"Mister Scarface" contains minimal nudity and some profanity, including use of the F-word. Di Leo doesn't linger on anything and keeps the story moving forward at all times. Ironically, Jack Palance's lethal gangster boasts that nobody in his organization qualifies as a sucker and hubris turns out to be his undoing when the Tony and Rick scam him. Our low-level criminal protagonist spend most of their time defending themselves from higher up hoods so they can be classified as sympathetic heroes. Di Leo appears to have lensed everything in authentic Italian locations. Napoli, the older hood, supplies the comic relief, particularly in an amusing scene during the shoot out in the slaughterhouse factory when he has trouble killing a Manzari ruffian. Typically, "Mister Scarface" appears in public domain collections along with other European public domain movies.
"Mr. Scarface" opens with a dreamy slow motion scene where two criminals enter a household with a satchel of loot. One of them, Manzari (Jack Palance of "Shane"), shoots his unnamed partner (Fulvio Mingozzi of "Django Against Sartana"), and awakens a sleeping child. The lad seizes the pistol that Manzari has laid aside and tries to shoot Manzari, except that Manzari's pistol is now empty. Manzari smacks the kid around.
The scene shifts fifteen years later as a twentysomething hood, Tony (Harry Baer of "The Venus Trap"), tools around town in a souped-up, red Puma GT dune buggy collecting protection money from storeowners for his boss, Luigi Cherico (Edmund Purdom of "City of the Walking Dead"), a racketeer that runs a gambling hall with an army of henchmen. A young man, Rick (Al Cliver of "2020 Texas Gladiators"), gets in a card game at Luigi's and loses. A fight erupts later between Rick and Luigi's hoods and they run Rick off. Later, Rick returns with Manzari and his army of thugs. Tony and an older criminal, Vinchenzo Napoli (Vittorio Caprioli of "Moving Target"), watch Manzari enter Luigi's gambling parlor, Napoli observes that just looking at Manzari makes his anus 'twitch.' Manzari's thugs rough up Luigi's minions and then Manzari takes three million lira from Luigi and gives him a check.
Once Manzari takes care of Luigi's men, he lectures Rick about his gambling losses. "If you don't know which table to sit at, don't go gambling, you know what I mean?" Palance's Scarface adopts the line "you know what I mean" for his signature phrase, and he uses it at least three times so that it becomes identified with his wicked character. "If a man gets taken as a sucker, he can't be one of mine." Manzari has a tiny crescent scar on his left cheek and he smokes a cigarette in a holder. Manzari's men beat up Rick and leave him sprawled on the street. Tony comes along and lets Rick heal up from his beating at his place. Rick dreams up a scheme to scam Manzari. Tony and an actor that they hire masquerade as 'Finance Ministry' officials. They visit Manzari's office decked out in official uniforms to inspect the mob boss's records. Scarface's underling Luca calls him about the situation and Scarface orders him to bribe the official so that he will not see some of Scarface's illegal folders. Scarface authorizes his people to pay Tony and the Finance imposter approximately 10 million lira. Later, Luigi blows a gasket when Tony shows up with the three million lira, but he doesn't inform his associates about the other 7 million lira. Previous another of Luigi's hoods had ridiculed Tony because Tony wanted to move up in the organization and collect from bigger clients.
Scarface dispatches his thugs to bust heads in retaliation for the scam. Luca (Roberto Reale of "Being Twenty") tracks down the actor that impersonated the Finance Minister and shoots him with a silenced pistol in the head as he is concluding a performance on stage at a theatre. A frightened Luigi decides to clear out of town and leaves his affairs to an underling, Peppi (Enzo Pulcrano of "The Kidnap Syndicate"), and Peppi shoots Luigi in the head in the movie's biggest surprise. (You were warned about spoilers!) Peppi joins forces with Manzari and prepares a list of places where Luca and his boys can find Tony and Rick. Rick saunters into the late Luigi's gambling parlor and shoots Peppi several times with a silenced automatic. All hell then breaks loose in the last forty-five minutes with a minor gunfight where Rick blows away three of Manzari's thugs that try to string up Napoli because he would reveal the whereabouts of Rick and Tony, and ultimately in a massive gun battle takes place at an old, derelict slaughter house factory where Manzari gets his comeuppance and we learn Rick's true identity.
"Mister Scarface" contains minimal nudity and some profanity, including use of the F-word. Di Leo doesn't linger on anything and keeps the story moving forward at all times. Ironically, Jack Palance's lethal gangster boasts that nobody in his organization qualifies as a sucker and hubris turns out to be his undoing when the Tony and Rick scam him. Our low-level criminal protagonist spend most of their time defending themselves from higher up hoods so they can be classified as sympathetic heroes. Di Leo appears to have lensed everything in authentic Italian locations. Napoli, the older hood, supplies the comic relief, particularly in an amusing scene during the shoot out in the slaughterhouse factory when he has trouble killing a Manzari ruffian. Typically, "Mister Scarface" appears in public domain collections along with other European public domain movies.