Cry of a Prostitute (1974)

Best movie ever!

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This is a lousy remake of Fistfull of Dollars/Yojimbo. The film begins with a really violent and gory car accident that is edited really well. The police discover the sewn up dead body of a kid in the car and the body contains vials of cocaine.A police officer (Henry Silva) is sent to the Sicilian countryside to solve the feud (by basically killing everyone) between two families. He usually makes an entrance with a whistling tune that is quite tuneless. A good background score could have elevated this film a little bit.The film can boast of some great locales - like the streets, avenues and villas of Sicily.Barbara Bouchet is completely wasted. She plays the ex-prostitute alcoholic wife of one of the family heads. I am no male feminist and the reason I watched this film is to look at Barbara Bouchet. But she is completely demeaned in this film - there is a scene where Silva anally rapes her with her face buried in the bloody carcass of a cow! I can never forgive the director for this humiliation of one of my favorite actresses. Hence, the 3 rating. It turns out in the end that Silva has a beef with the man who sent him on the mission. The film ends rather tackily with a sermon - The eyes that cause weeping will weep someday themselves". The hands on action scenes were quite good. It is nice to watch on Blu Ray. (4.5/10)

A Fistful of Dollars in Sicily except the protagonist, the always dependable Henry Silva, is a worse evil than anyone in the picture. His 1963 US movie Johnny Cool was just a warm-up for this movie. He really belts the hell out of no-good Barbara Bouchet in a very graphic rape scene. I don't think I've ever seen Bouchet so slutty. Her banana eating scene is worth the rental alone. "When it comes to nastiness, I don't know which one of us would win the Oscar," Barbara yells at Silva in their first consensual sex scene. Another over the top scene is Henry driving a steamroller over two Mafia men he's killed for no apparent reason.

It would seem that this film is more of a godfather rip-off than anything else, but it's clear that the film takes its fair share of influence from the western genre. Many Italian films lift plots from other successful films, and in this case it's A Fistful of Dollars that provides the influence (though in fairness to this film, Leone's first masterpiece did take its plot from Yojimbo...). The film also takes influence from the crime films that were rising in popularity in 1974, and could be described as an urban western. The plot focuses on Tony Aniante, a loner who arrives in a Sicilian town with a pair of warring families. He decides to be friends with both of them, until the moment to strike presents itself and he can have both families implode on themselves. The prostitute of the title refers to Barbara Bouchet's character Margie; one of the mob's whores who takes a liking to Tony and ends up getting embroiled in his little war with the rival mafia families.The film features all the things that make the Italian crime films popular, including fist fights, gun fights and car chases and none are in short supply. Andrea Bianchi never got himself a reputation for making high quality films, and that really isn't surprising considering how much Cry of a Prostitute borrows from other, more esteemed, sources. However, he does at least manage to keep things entertaining and that is of course the most important thing about a film like this. Of course, the fact that the plot has been seen many times before means that it is not difficult to guess what is going to happen by the end, which kind of spoils it a bit. The lead actor is Henry Silva and he does a good job in the central role. My main reason for seeing this film is the fact that it stars the lovely Barbara Bouchet. Barbara has never come across as being shy, and she doesn't here either! Overall, I wont say that Cry of a Prostitute is a must see Italian film; it adds very little for the experienced Italian film viewer; but it's not bad and is worth a watch.

Personally, I didn't think that this film was too bad. I have seen tons of Italian crime / mafia films of similar ilk and there is definitely a hell of a lot worse out there!. I would advise those reared on Hollywood blockbusters and popcorn to steer well clear, but for those of us who enjoy these cheap and cheerful Italian productions with their inane dialogue and gratuitous violence and nudity then 'Cry Of A Prostitute' may well appeal. The mighty Henry Silva plays Tony Aniante who yo-yo's back and forth between two rival families in Sicily, playing both hands until he sees the moment to take the initiative. Yes, we've seen it all before but for me , the film is all about Henry Silva. His fans will be pleased to know that he gets maximum screen time in this one and has at least one classic scene, where he is being taunted by a couple of hoods in a café. One of them pours hot coffee over his expensive leather shoes and all hell breaks loose ("Clean my shoes motherf*****!"). Barbara Bouchet is as memorable as ever as the slutty, bored 'wife' of one of the mafia dons. Best scene has to be where she is flirting with Henry Silva by simulating fellatio on a banana at the dinner table... The action scenes are clumsy in places but fairly bloody (lots of slo-mo bursting blood squibs!) and the score is pretty good too. Right, now I'm off to watch Bianchi's mutli-million dollar epic 'Nights Of Terror'....