Rabid Dogs

For the 2015 film, see Rabid Dogs (2015 film).
Semaforo Rosso

DVD cover
Directed by Mario Bava
Produced by David E. Allen, Lamberto Bava, Harmon Kaslow, Alfredo Leone, Roberto Loyola
Written by Allesandro Parenzo
Screenplay by Allesandro Parenzo
Starring Riccardo Cucciolla
Don Backy (as Aldo Caponi/Riccardo Rovatti)
Lea Lander
Maurice Poli (as Renato Cecchetto)
George Eastman (as Luigi Montefiori/Gabriele Duma)
Maria Fabbri (as Marisa Fabbri)
Erika Dario
Music by Stelvio Cipriani
Cinematography Emilio Varriano
Edited by Carlo Reali
Production
company
International Media Films, Spero Cinematografica
Release dates
 24 February 1998 (see release dates)
Running time
 96 min.
Country Italy
Language Italian

Rabid Dogs is an Italian film directed by Mario Bava. It was made in 1974 but the film was seized by the courts during the final stages of production when the producer went bankrupt after the main investor in the film died in a car crash.[1] It was not released until 1998.[2]

Filmed originally as Semaforo Rosso (translation: Red Light), the film was released in 1998 on VHS as Rabid Dogs / Cani Arrabbiati, and re-released again in 2007 (in a slightly re-edited form) on DVD as Kidnapped. The original Italian title (Red Light) referred to a key scene in the film in which the characters make a fatal stop at a traffic signal, an occurrence that triggers all of the events of the plot, which involves a group of bank robbers and the hostages they take to facilitate their escape.

Plot synopsis

Four ruthless criminals wait outside the gates of a pharmaceutical company to steal the pay wages from an armored truck which will arrive at the gated complex. Upon the truck's arrival, the heavily armed thieves hold up the truck, killing a number of people in the process. But during the getaway, the thieves' car is riddled with bullets from the company's security guards which kill the getaway driver, and damage the car so that it's leaking fuel. The clean-cut, cunning leader of the group, known only as Doc (Maurice Poli), and his two vicious and scruffy cohorts, the knife-wielding Blade (Aldo Caponi) and the hulking seven-foot tall Thirty-Two (Luigi Montefiori) are overjoyed at the stolen cash they now have. But when their car stalls in a downtown part of Rome, they are forced to flee on foot into an underground car park, pursued by the police. The criminals grab two women as hostages, and when Blade accidentally kills one, the police, seeing the other female hostage Maria (Lea Lander) in danger, back away, allowing the criminals to steal her car and make an escape from the car park.

Back on the street, Doc knows that its only a matter of time before a description of their new getaway car reach the authorities, which will make it impossible for them to get out of the city. But the situation is resolved when they stop at a red traffic light by hijacking the car in front of them. The middle-aged driver of the other car, Riccardo (Riccardo Cucciolla) protests that he has to get his young child, a small, deathly-pale little boy wrapped up in a blanket, to the hospital. But the criminals, plus their female hostage Maria, force Riccardo to drive them out of the city.

Once outside the city, Doc forces Riccardo to drive onto a local tollway to Naples which will lead them to their hideout outside that city. But aware that the police will be surveying the autostrade for them, Doc forces Riccardo to turn around and exit the toll road, taking secondary, but slower, roads to get to their hideout.

During most the long road journey, Maria cannot stop herself from shaking and quaking with fear, which annoys Blade and Thirty-Two. Riccardo on the other hand, despite being somewhat unnerved and intimidated, takes what's happening to him very calmly. Blade and Thirty-Two frequently fondle Maria who continues to tremble constantly, and Doc is barely able to keep them in line. At a traffic construction site, Doc forces the group to roll their windows up, which attracts some attention because it is the middle of a hot summer day, and makes some of the motorists in front and behind them wonder. But Doc has them roll their windows back down, and the group continues on.

A little later, Maria ask Doc to pull the car over so she can relieve herself. But she takes the opportunity to try to escape. She is pursued by Blade and Thirty-Two, who chase her to an unoccupied farmhouse. Once Maria is recaptured, Blade and Thirty-Two torture the woman, both physically and mentally. Since she claimed that she had to relieve herself as an excuse to try to escape, they force her to urinate in front of them as punishment.

Back on another autostrade, Riccardo asks Doc if can pull into a rest stop for food and supplies. With Thirty-Two accompanying him, Riccardo buys some sandwiches and soda pop, while Thirty-Two buys a bottle of scotch. When a random woman at the rest area recognizes Riccardo, he manages to shake her off by saying that he's going on a picnic in the countryside with some friends.

Back on the expressway, Thirty-Two becomes very intoxicated from the bottle of liquor he bought, and his actions begin to draw attention from other motorists to the car. Doc and Blade try to control him, but he gets more and more out of control, and he attempts to rape Maria. Rather than risk attracting the attention of the highway police, Doc suddenly shoots Thirty-Two in the neck. Blade is completely shaken by this, but understands that Doc had no other choice. Thirty-Two does not die, but becomes completely helpless and immobile. Blade tries to help his friend by bandaging the bullet wound, but Doc knows that Thirty-Two is as good as dead.

Soon after this incident, Riccardo tells them that they need to stop for gas. However, when they finally reach a rural Esso filling station, the elderly attendant (Francesco Ferrini) tells them that he's on his hour break and won't help them for at least another 20 minutes. Doc, in a hurry to complete their journey, attempts to threaten the old man, who instead pulls a gun on Doc telling them that he was robbed the previous year and cannot be intimidated. Thinking quickly, Blade forces Maria to smooth things over by pleading with the attendant to come out and fill their car so they can get the comatose little boy to a hospital. The old man quickly relents and comes out to unlock the fuel pumps and fill the car. But soon, another complication arises with the arrival of an overly cheerful young woman (Eriak Dario) who shows up at the station claiming that her car had broken down a kilometer away and that she needs assistance. Seeing the group, she pressures Doc into giving her a ride to the next town. When the woman opens the side door to the car, Thirty-Two's hand, covered with his own blood, slumps into view. The woman fails to see this, but the attendant does. Rather than risk a scene, Doc allows the woman to come along with them, and they drive off, with none of them knowing that the attendant saw the near-dead Thirty-Two. The old man returns to his office with a shrug.

The presence of this female hitchhiker is clearly annoying to Doc and everybody else since she cannot stop talking or ranting about how hot the day is and of the countryside. Ironically enough, the woman is also named Maria. But Maria the hitchhiker is a little too vivacious and outgoing, and her manner clearly has a grating effect on both the criminals and hostages. Maria the hitchhiker is completely oblivious to her situation and when she inadvertently removes the blanket covering Thirty-Two's neck, she notices the bullet wound. Blade kills the hitchhiker by stabbing her in the neck with his signature knife. Doc forces Riccardo to pull over so they can dispose of the body. As the hitchhiker's body is thrown unceremoniously off a cliff, Riccardo helps Blade carry the still breathing Thirty-Two down the bottom of the cliff where Blade shoots his mortally wounded friend in the head to put him out of his misery.

The group finally reaches their destination: a ruined villa just south of Naples where Doc has stashed a back-up car, carrying the appropriate papers that will enable him and Blade to leave the country. Riccardo and Maria are elated, but Doc reveals that he has no intention of letting them go for the hostages must be killed to secure their escape. Riccardo persuades Doc to let the little boy, who has been in a sedative-induced sleep for the whole duration, live. But Doc refuses and orders Riccardo to remove the little boy from the car. However, as Riccardo does so, he pulls out a gun hidden all this time in the child's blanket and shoots both Doc and Blade, who fatally injures Maria with his machine gun before expiring. With the tires of the car flat from the bullet hits, Riccardo moves the child to Doc's getaway car, steals the stolen money still clutched in Blade's fingers, and drives off.

In a final twist, it is revealed that Riccardo, too, has a dark secret of his own. The startling finale is worth the price of admission alone.

Critical reception

Allmovie's review of the film was mixed, calling it "easily the most nihilistic of Mario Bava's films."[2] Tim Lucas, author of the critical biography Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark, calls the film "an exceptional work in the distinguished career of Mario Bava" and states that Rabid Dogs is to Bava's career what Detour (1945) is to the filmography of Edgar G. Ulmer, a minimalist noir masterpiece that shows how much drama he was capable of conjuring onscreen with little or no means."[3]

Release dates

Aftermath and influence

Rabid Dogs was remade under the same title as the debut feature by Eric Hannezo in 2015.[4]

References

  1. ↑ "Did You Know?". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 11 June 2012.
  2. 1 2 Jason Buchanan. "Rabid Dogs (1974)". Allmovie. Retrieved 11 June 2012.
  3. ↑ Tim Lucas (1997). "Rabid Dogs: The Ironic Eye of Mario Bava". Retrieved 10 July 2012.
  4. ↑ Mintzer, Jordan (May 19, 2015). "‘Rabid Dogs’ (‘Enragés’): Cannes Review". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 24, 2016.

External links

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