Day of the Cobra

Last updated
Day of the Cobra
Il giorno del Cobra.jpg
Italian poster for Day of the Cobra
Directed by Enzo G. Castellari
Screenplay by
Story by Aldo Lado [1]
Produced by Turi Vasile [1]
Starring
CinematographyGiovanni Bergamini [1]
Edited byGianfranco Amicucci [1]
Music byPaolo Vasile
Production
company
Laser [1]
Release date
  • August 12, 1980 (1980-08-12)
Running time
95 minutes [1]
CountryItaly [1]

Day of the Cobra (Italian : Il giorno del Cobra) is a 1980 Italian poliziottesco film directed by Enzo G. Castellari.

Contents

Production

Director Enzo G. Castellari initially approached Vasile with a script written by Vasile's son. The boxing film project was shelved and Vasile offered Castellari to direct Day of the Cobra. [1] Day of the Cobra was written by Aldo Lado who was initially going to direct the film. [1] Lado's story was initially set right after World War II in Trieste. [2] Castellari's film is set in the present day and he imagined the film a "homage to Chandler. [2]

Castellari cast many actors who he had previously worked with, including Franco Nero and Massimo Vanni. [2] He also cast some of his family members such as his brother Enio Girolami and daughter Stefania. [2]

Day of the Cobra was shot on location in San Francisco, Genoa and at Incir-de Paolis in Rome. [1]

Cast

Release

Day of the Cobra was released on August 12, 1980. [1] The film grossed a total of 489,000,000 Italian lira on its domestic release. [1] The score of the film was by Paolo Vasile which was released by Cinevox. [1]

Reception

According to the German book Der Terror führt Regie: "Day of the Cobra is technically pure cinema. The film suffers a bit in its pandering to American viewing habits." [3] Online film database AllMovie gave the film two stars out of five, stating that a "key flaw is the maddening story line, which manages to be over-complicated and half-baked all at once." and that "elements of the story simply rehash other, better thrillers, like The French Connection ." [4] The review noted that the film contains "a few worthwhile action set pieces. The rooftop chase that opens the film is quite exciting and there is also a memorably tongue-in-cheek scene where Nero dukes it out with a transvestite in an empty disco. However, the viewer must wade through a lot of clichés and dull passages to get to these moments" [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Eastman (actor)</span> Italian actor and screenwriter

George Eastman is an Italian actor and screenwriter well known for his frequent collaborations with notorious director Joe D'Amato. He is most famous for his role as the insane, cannibalistic serial killer Klaus Wortmann in the gory 1980 horror film Antropophagus. He also played a similar role in its 1981 follow-up, Absurd. Both films were directed by D'Amato and written by Eastman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poliziotteschi</span> Genre of Italian crime films

Poliziotteschi constitute a subgenre of crime and action films that emerged in Italy in the late 1960s and reached the height of their popularity in the 1970s. They are also known as polizieschi all'italiana, Euro-crime, Italo-crime, spaghetti crime films, or simply Italian crime films. Influenced by both 1970s French crime films and gritty 1960s and 1970s American cop films and vigilante films, poliziotteschi films were made amidst an atmosphere of socio-political turmoil in Italy known as Years of Lead and increasing Italian crime rates. The films generally featured graphic and brutal violence, organized crime, car chases, vigilantism, heists, gunfights, and corruption up to the highest levels. The protagonists were generally tough working class loners, willing to act outside a corrupt or overly bureaucratic system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enzo G. Castellari</span> Italian director, screenwriter and actor

Enzo Girolami Castellari is an Italian director, screenwriter and actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fabio Testi</span> Italian actor (born 1941)

Fabio Testi is an Italian actor. After growing up witnessing film work done around Lake Garda, Testi entered the sets of the film and began work as a stuntman and a double on set, where he worked as a stuntman on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Testi continued stunt work and getting roles in low budget genre films until he was cast in Vittorio De Sica's film The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. Following this film, Testi became a star in Italy, appearing in some artistic films by Giuseppe Patroni Griffi and Claude Chabrol. Testi also continued to work in poliziotteschi genre films in the 1970s as well as a few gialli, and gained infamy for his publicised relationships with actresses Ursula Andress and Charlotte Rampling.

<i>High Crime</i> 1973 film

High Crime is a 1973 Italian-Spanish poliziottesco film directed by Enzo G. Castellari. The film stars Franco Nero, James Whitmore, Delia Boccardo and Fernando Rey. High Crime was a big success at the time of its release, and helped popularize the Italian cop thriller genre.

<i>Escape from the Bronx</i> 1983 Italian film

Escape from the Bronx, also known as Bronx Warriors 2 in the United Kingdom and Escape 2000, is a 1983 Italian action film directed by Enzo G. Castellari. It was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 under its Escape 2000 name. It is a sequel to 1990: The Bronx Warriors.

Marino Girolami was an Italian film director and actor.

<i>Street Law</i> (film) 1974 film

Street Law is a 1974 poliziotteschi film. It stars Franco Nero, Barbara Bach and was directed by Enzo G. Castellari.

<i>The Heroin Busters</i> 1977 film

The Heroin Busters is a 1977 Italian crime film directed by Enzo G. Castellari and starring Fabio Testi, David Hemmings and Sherry Buchanan.

<i>The Big Racket</i> 1976 film

The Big Racket is a 1976 Italian poliziottesco film directed by Enzo G. Castellari. Fabio Testi stars as a police inspector who takes on a gang of hoodlums who terrorise an Italian city by extorting cash from local shop and bar owners.

<i>Cry, Onion!</i> 1975 Italian film

Cry, Onion! is a 1975 Spaghetti Western comedy film directed by Enzo G. Castellari. It is openly comedic and parodic.

<i>The Shark Hunter</i> 1979 film

The Shark Hunter, also known as Guardians of the Deep, is a 1979 Italian adventure film directed by Enzo G. Castellari.

<i>The House by the Edge of the Lake</i> 1979 film

The House by the Edge of the Lake is a horror film directed by Enzo G. Castellari.

<i>Johnny Hamlet</i> 1968 film by Enzo G. Castellari

Johnny Hamlet (Italian: Quella sporca storia nel West, lit. 'That Dirty Story in the West' is a 1968 Italian film directed by Enzo G. Castellari. The film is a Spaghetti Western version of William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet.

<i>Light Blast</i> 1985 Italian film

Colpi di luce is a 1985 Italian science-fiction action film directed by Enzo G. Castellari. It stars Erik Estrada alongside Peggy Rowe, whom he would soon marry in Rome.

<i>Violent Rome</i> 1975 film

Violent Rome is an Italian 1975 poliziottesco film directed by Marino Girolami It obtained a great commercial success and launched the career of Maurizio Merli. The film is the first entry into the Commissioner Betti Trilogy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ennio Girolami</span> Italian actor

Enio Girolami, sometimes credited as Thomas Moore, was an Italian film and television actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enzo Liberti</span>

Vincenzo "Enzo" Liberti was an Italian actor, voice actor, director and television personality.

Massimo Vanni is an Italian film actor.

<i>Roma, laltra faccia della violenza</i> 1976 film

Roma, l'altra faccia della violenza is a 1976 "poliziottesco" film directed by Marino Girolami and starring Marcel Bozzuffi.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Curti, 2013. p. 271
  2. 1 2 3 4 Curti, 2013. p. 272
  3. ↑ Michael Cholewa, Karsten Thurau. Der Terror führt Regie - Der italienische Gangster- und Polizeifilm. Auflage, 2008.
  4. 1 2 Guarisco, Donald. "Il Giorno del Cobra (1980) - Review". AllMovie . Retrieved March 19, 2015.


Italy film clapperboard.svg

This article related to an Italian film of the 1980s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.