Almost Human () is a 1974 Italian poliziottesco film directed by Umberto Lenzi and starring Tomas Milian, Henry Silva, Laura Belli, Ray Lovelock, Gino Santercole and Anita Strindberg. Milian stars as Giulio Sacchi, an arrogant and murderous small-time criminal who convinces two gullible associates, Carmine (Lovelock) and Vittorio (Santercole), into joining him for a series of increasingly sordid crimes — most notably the kidnapping of heiress Marilú Porrino (Belli) — which test police Inspector Grandi's (Silva) belief in mainstream law enforcement.
While negatively received during its original run, Almost Human is now regarded as one of the best Italian crime films of the 1970s, and marked the first of several collaborations between Lenzi and Milian.
The film has been released under a variety of titles, with the original English-dubbed export prints bearing the title The Executioner. In North America, it opened in limited release as The Kidnap of Mary Lou in 1975, before receiving a wider release as The Death Dealer'''. Its most enduring English title, Almost Human, stems from a 1980 reissue, for which it was dubiously marketed as a horror film.
Plot A bunch of thieves kidnap a boy in a red hoodie from his mother's arms. This is followed by an action-packed car chase full of breaking boxes, defacing cars, and slim getaways. The chase ends when the kidnappers are saved by an oncoming train, which cuts off the police from their trail. They find this a perfect opportunity to dump the kid and make their getaway. The boy is returned to his family but the kidnappers' gang beat the thieves up for their failure.
Following a castration threat, the kidnapper goes home to rape his girlfriend. He then robs a cigarette dispenser and stabs the beat cop who catches him. This leads to a detective to start asking questions. The following day, while the thief is picking up his aforementioned girlfriend from her office, he notices the young brown-haired daughter of his girlfriend's boss, and decides to kidnap her. After a love-making session with his girlfriend in her apartment, the kidnapper leaves to find his friend and convinces him to join his plan. We are shown how tough a cop the detective is through a cut scene. The kidnapper and his gang start stalking the girl while she's playing tennis with her father and his friends. Using his girlfriend's stolen red car, the thieves go buy guns from an old confidant of theirs, nicknamed Papà. The guns are worth ITL100,000 each and, if they kill someone, their confidant keeps their deposit. Not wanting to pay their confidant the deposit, they murder Papà and his staff, and make their escape.
They then catch up with their target while she is discussing her future with the boy she wants to marry in his car in the middle of a forest. Her boyfriend shows his reluctance to marry her unless she refuses her inheritance on the basis of principle. The girl refuses and starts making out with her boyfriend against his will. The kidnappers then attack and kidnap her and murder her boyfriend. However, the girl then escapes into the forest until she reaches a bungalow where she is taken in, and the family agree to protect her. The bad guys break in nevertheless, murdering everyone, including a young child, and run off with the girl, who they stash in an abandoned ship yard. After returning his girlfriend's car to her, he murders her by drowning and disposes of her car.
During all this, the inspector gets a lead when three bad guys make a ransom call and ask for "No police interference". While posting a ransom letter that they had forced the girl to write, one of the thieves realizes the cops have discovered the murder of the daughter of his girlfriend's boss. The cops conclude all the murders and thefts were by the same gang. Deducing the kidnappers knew the girlfriend, the cops decide to visit her apartment. The protagonist notices this and follows them back to his own apartment and sees them discover his connection to the whole mess. Scared, he calls his acquaintance, the guy who had beat him up, and asks for a deal. He then goes to the police and acts innocent to throw off suspicion from himself. When he and the detective visit the acquaintance, he covers for his "friend", and then threatens the kidnapper with castration again. After the cops start closing in on him, the protagonist goes insane and murders the hostage, a shoot-out ensues, and only the protagonist survives. He runs off to hide, but the detective finds him the next day and shoots him in the head.
Cast
As was frequently the case in Italian genre films, the film was shot without sound and dubbed in post-production, often by different actors than the stars appearing on screen. For the first time, Milian was dubbed by Ferruccio Amendola, who would become a fixture of the actor's crime film cycle. Strindberg was voiced by Paila Pavese, Lovelock by Massimo Turci and Santercole by Michele Gammino.
Production Development Although it is not a sequel, the film's original title is a callback to Milano trema: la polizia vuole giustizia (), a successful 1973 crime film written by Ernesto Gastaldi and produced by Luciano Martino, and known in English as The Violent Professionals. The story was informed by the social climate of the times, but unlike Milano trema, it was not inspired by any specific event. Martino wanted his brother Sergio—who had helmed Milano trema—to make this as well, but he passed in favor of the melodrama La bellissima estate.Castellari 2018. When Umberto Lenzi was hired, he did not perform any rewrites, marking the first time he did not contribute to the narrative of one of his films. Lenzi did not consider it to be a poliziesco because it centers on the criminals, and as such more closely resembles French film noirs, such as those of Jacques Becker.
Casting The cast saw several changes and role permutations. The part of Sacchi was originally offered to Franco-Swiss actor Marc Porel but, based on their meeting, Lenzi found him unbearable and refused to work with him.Spagnuolo 2018. Milian initially agreed to a featured role, which entailed fewer days of work and a reduced rate. This made commissioner Grandi the likeliest option for him. However his real-life friend Ray Lovelock, who was under consideration to play a yet-to-be-determined antagonist, suggested that Milian switch to Sacchi, while he could do Carmine. Martino agreed, but would not upgrade Milian's salary to match the larger role. The Cuban relented, as he felt the part was strong enough to benefit his career down the line. According to Lenzi, Milano trema Richard Conte was then tabbed to play Grandi, but he had to be replaced due to unforeseen circumstances (which the director incorrectly remembered as being Conte's own death). Henry Silva was brought in on short notice, but he did not fit Lenzi's vision of the character, which therefore required streamlining to fit his limited acting range.
Filming Although the film is set in Lombardy, early filming took place in Lazio, and was reported underway on 25 Mars 1974. The crane ship used as the kidnappers' lair was located in Passo Corese, which doubled for the Milan suburbs of Cologno Monzese in some shots and Rho in others.Spagnuolo 2018. Additional scenes were shot at D.E.A.R. Studios in Rome.Spagnuolo 2018. The press announced that filming had resumed in Milan on 11 April. Sacchi's hangout, where the final showdown between Silva and Milian also takes place, was a now closed bar on via Palmanova. The car drowning, set at Lake Como in storyline, was actually shot at Lake Iseo near Castro. The film briefly ventures into Switzerland for a scene in the border city of Chiasso. This was a tightly run shoot, with Lenzi's contract provisioning seven weeks of work, a limit of 15,000 feet of film and the obligation to build a car chase around stock footage from Milano trema.Spagnuolo 2018.
The film was the first collaboration between Lenzi and director of photography Federico Zanni, who was assigned to him by Martino. Zanni lacked experience with filming at night, which required one such scene to be reshot, but otherwise proved competent.Spagnuolo 2018. However, Lenzi was underwhelmed by assistant director Alessandro Metz, who did not have a good command of action, and set designer Antonio Visione.Spagnuolo 2018. By his own admission, Milian had a longstanding penchant for drinking but, as a method actor, his character's dissolute lifestyle provided him with justification to take his alcohol consumption one step further. Lenzi also remembered that he laced his vodka with tablets of Optalidon, a tranquilizer. Milian devised his own origin story for inspiration, which Gastaldi remembered as being even more sordid than the filmed script. The writer credited a large part of the movie's eventual tone to the actor's personality.
Release Pre-releaseMilano odia received an under-18 ban from the Italian Ministry of Tourism and Entertainment. The producers returned to the review board with a slightly trimmed version, but the cuts were not found to have significantly softened the film's tone, and the rating was upheld for the rest of its theatrical run.
Italy The picture was released domestically by Interfilm and opened on 8 August 1974. Its was a solid performer, grossing ITL1,168,745,000.
United States In the U.S., the film's rights were acquired by Joseph Brenner Associates. Brenner re-scored and re-edited portions of the film, shoretening it to 92 minutes. He also re-titled it The Kidnap of Mary Lou. English-language source materials later used to restore the film suggest that the intended export title was The Executioner.
Brenner gave the film its U.S. debut in Chicago on 24 October 1975 for an exclusive engagement at the M&R Oriental theatre, through regional subdistributor William Lange & Associates. The film drew a mediocre 3,200 patrons for $11,200 between its Wednesday opening and the end of the weekend, and disappeared after a few more Illinois dates.
It was relaunched under the title The Death Dealer on 12 March 1976 in Houston, where Brenner had opened Martino's hit Torso. An October 1975 trade ad from Brenner announced both the opening of The Kidnap of Mary Lou and the pending release of a film called The Death Dealers, indicating that the title was already being considered, whether for this film or another. While Brenner claimed that The Death Dealer Houston debut had outperformed that of Torso, this was not borne by the film's ensuing run, which reached Philadelphia/South Jersey in March 1977 but stopped short of New York City.
Reception Contemporary Initial reaction to the film was largely negative. Milian's heavy-handed performance was frequently derided, while the storyline was alternately viewed as derivative, or pandering and over-the-top.
Italy