Mafia Junction
Mafia Junction
R | 27 February 1977 (USA)
Mafia Junction Trailers

Cliff works as a narcotics investigator for the police and infiltrate a mafia gang. Soon it turns out that Cliff has bigger plans than just to bust bad guys.

Reviews
Bezenby

Notable actors: Ivan Rassimov! Stephanie Beacham! Giacomo Rossi-Stuart!, Patricia Hayes! Others!You're never really sure for the duration of the film, but Ivan Rassimov is either a corrupt cop or a straight cop pretending to be corrupt. What's for sure is that he is undercover as a button man for Marco (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart), who are up against Mama The Turk, a psychotic gangster granny whose on children have written her her own theme tune! Mama shows she means business by quickly dispatching a hitman sent to kill by taking him out during a car chase, in Beruit.Ivan, whose been doing his own hit man thing in Beruit, heads for London and works at an escort agency for Morrel, who is into blackmailing politicians and forcing them to go to Paris to buy statues filled with drugs. We see one escort girl (Beacham) take a politician home, while he indulges in his favourite aberration - that of dressing up and acting like a rabbit. This liaison is filmed through a wall in the room, but when Beacham and Morrel play it back, it's like a multi-camera Hollywood production! Obviously Ivan muscles his way into the business, and, subsequently, Stephanie Beacham's pants.Ivan's plan goes a bit pear-shaped once his police contact gets a bullet to the back of the head in rather gory fashion, and of course Mama's no fool and sends her own hit man to London to take care of business, but Ivan's playing the long con and all he has to do is get every gangster in the one place in New York so they can be all gunned down, but is he doing it for business or something else?You know you are good hands with Massimo Dallamano, director of Bandidos. He's got a great eye for a unique shot, including in this one a point of view shot from underneath a frying pan. So you get his visual skills in a film filled with the usual Euro-crime traits - double crossing, nude women, car chases, and extreme violence. This is a very bloody film and violent film, especially when a minor character is savagely beaten by Mama's children, while one of the plays a tune on a guitar, and then, while laughing, they graphically run the guy over and kill him. Special shout goes out to Patricia Hayes, who is one of those actors you see in eighties films (like Willow and Never Ending Story) but you never really remember her name. She's great here as Mama, and seems to be doing quite a lot of the driving during the car chases sequence! She kind of overshadows Rassimov, but Stephanie Beacham is rather good too as the hooker who falls for big Ivan. You get to see her naked, if anyone's interested.Another good one from a genre full of good ones!

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BA_Harrison

Director Massimo Dallamano's 1973 poliziotteschi Super Bitch stars Italian exploitation legend Ivan Rassimov as devious undercover narcotics agent Cliff, who is every bit as corrupt as the drug-runners he is supposed to bring to justice. Cliff manipulates everyone—criminals and cops—to suit his own needs, using whatever means necessary to put the bad-guys out of the picture AND make himself a fortune in the process.To be honest, I had trouble keeping up with all of the intricacies of Super Bitch's storyline: Cliff's Machiavellian scheming gets awfully complex, and with British hottie Stephanie Beacham (as lovely escort girl Joanne, who is worth every penny) shedding her clothes every few minutes, I found my mind wandering quite a bit (especially during that shower scene! Phew!).Thankfully, a thorough understanding of the plot isn't absolutely necessary to have a good time with this nifty little crime thriller. Dallamano's film delivers plenty of fast-paced action, lots of OTT violence (blood squibs-a-plenty), and colourful characters (including a diplomat who likes to dress up as a rabbit, and a family of singing hippie gangsters, led by Patricia Hayes' ruthless crime-boss Mamma), plus more welcome eye-candy in the form of Mamma's sexy daughter Eva (Verna Harvey).Super Bitch also benefits from great location work (Beirut, London, and New York), a wonderfully funky score from Riz Ortolani, and a cool ending in which Cliff's carefully laid plans finally go awry.

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punishmentpark

I'm not much at home in the poliziotteschi genre, but this was a fun, fast-paced film of international allure, playing in New York, Athens, Paris, Beirut and mostly London, though the filming locations here on IMDb indicate partly differently. Anyway, things start out with loads of action, but for the rest of it, there is only some in the middle and the end.In between there's a lot scheming, blackmail and intimidation to and fro, plus some murders, sexy time, fine female nudity and singing, all performed by a lot of colorful characters, with 'superbitch' taking the lead. The rather dramatic conclusion came as bit of a surprise; what preceded was much exploitation oriented. Add a very nice score by Riz Ortolani as the final icing on the cake, and what we have here is a more than enjoyable crime (/action) flick.Unfortunately I saw a mediocre VHS-rip with English dub, but what the hey; a good 7 out of 10.

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zpzjones

this is a good thriller/chiller type of European crime story. Ivan Rassimov gives Clint Eastwood an able run for his money as a Dirty Harry type detective albeit a corrupted one. Stephane Beacham, the presumed title character is as beautiful as she had been with Brando in "The Nightcomers". This might sound like a cheapy production with the video title being "Superbitch". But it has great photography & excellent location work ie the ruins in Greece at the beginning. Also the film has a thumping theme on it's soundtrack. Look out for veteran Brit actress Patricia Hayes as Mamma with her band of misfit though lovable grown children. Hayes is excellent & funny as the old lady crime family boss. Without giving spoiler away I'll just say this. The song two of her eldest boys sing her will have you reaching for your hanky. This movie goes to show you where a slim budget need not hinder the making of a good taut movie. And this movie's script gets tauter and tauter as the later part of the movie wears on. You must pay good attention in the last part of the movie to appreciate all you've seen from the beginning. This would be a great part for an actress like Sharon Stone to pick up the Mamma role with a merry band of criminal children. She's at the right age to do it believably. Perhaps not as old as Hayes was but a younger 'Mamma' actress would work just fine. If not Stone then an actress like Susan Sarandon. But this could be updated & remade. Id love it.

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