Rabid Dogs, or Cani arrabbiati, (1974) is a cheesy but enthralling thriller. While it may not stand the test of time due to how unintentionally funny it can be, this film has some of the best pacing I have ever seen. There is not a single boring moment in the entirety of its runtime. Everything is consistently being pushed in one singular motion, with no signs of ever stopping. As goofy as this may sound, Italian is somehow the perfect language for this film to be set in. There's just something so entertaining about Italian men frustratingly yelling at each other. The acting is also quite believable, and after a while, it didn't even feel like they were even acting in the first place. Like I previously mentioned, the biggest flaw in this entire movie is how dated it feels. The tension is still high, but it is extremely over-the-top. Nevertheless, 'Rabid Dogs' is still an exhilarating watch.

Rabid Dogs (1974) **** (out of 4) A father (Riccardo Cucciolla) is rushing his young son to the hospital because he is near death but before getting there three criminals and their female hostage kidnap them and force them to drive them away from the police. The leader, Doctor (Maurice Poli), and his two assistants (Don Backy, George Eastman) are all crazed madmen who want to escape the police with their money and they don't care what happens to the sick child. It's been many years since I last saw this film and while it went down a few pages in my book I still think it's a very impressive film that would have done director Bava wonders for his career had it ever been released while he was alive. Before the post-production could be finished, one of the film's producers went bankrupt and this caused the film to be seized by the courts where it stayed until 1997, a full seventeen years after Bava had died. Once again the director does wonders with such a small budget and he really creates a nailbitting thriller that manages to have several tense scenes and some claustrophobic moments. I love the visual style of the film, which takes place, for the majority of the running time, inside a moving car. The tight space in the car and the way Bava shoots this tightness makes for a very tense ride as we wait and see what the killers are going to do next. Most of the scenes are filmed in close up and this puts us right in the middle of the action. I also loved the way Bava shows developments in the story even if it's something simple like one of the bad guys pulling a gun. Bava just lets the camera gently slide to where the action is and this slow pace really helps build the tension. The entire cast deliver strong performances by it's George Eastman who really sticks out as the perverted Thirty-Two. The movie is rather mean spirited but it never relies on gore or graphic violence. Most of the violence takes place off screen but the way the criminals have no regards for the dying son makes them perfect villains. The music score by Stelvio Cipriani really captures the mood and frantic pacing and adds a lot of tension as well. Then, of course, there's the downright shocking and out of left field ending, which perfectly closes the film. If anyone sees this ending coming then they're a lot better than I am.Kidnapped (2002/1974) ** (out of 4) This is the re-edited, American version of Mario Bava's 1974 masterpiece Rabid Dogs, which has been tinkered with to the point where it's really not the same film. Producer Alfredo Leone, who had previously worked with Mario Bava, bought the American rights to Rabid Dogs but he wasn't too happy with the edit that had been done in the 1990's so he hired Mario's son, Lamberto, to shoot new scenes, re-edited other scenes and then added an entire new score. You could argue that there will never ben an official, director's cut of this film, which is a shame but I see this version as a complete hack job from start to finish. I'm not sure what Lamberto didn't like about the original editing job but everything his father's film had going for it is pretty much lost here in the bastard like version. For starters, it seems that the producer wanted more of an action movie so we get added scenes that really don't do anything for the film. During the opening heist we see added footage of the police being called. The biggest problem with these added scenes are three moments where an extra character is brought into the film and this really ruins the ending. I won't ruin the brilliant original ending by writing about it here but once you watch the original version you'll see what I mean. Then there's the re-editing of the film. Once again I feel this really takes away the pacing of what Bava had in mind. How can I know what Mario original had it mind? Because Rabid Dogs has the pacing of a lot of Mario's films while Kidnapped doesn't. There's also a new music score added, which is a real killer as it, again, adds nothing to the film. If you're a fan of the original film and want to see how a producer can mess up a classic then I'd recommend you watching this version. If you haven't seen either version then stick with the original. It's funny but producer Leone messed around with Mario's Lisa and the Devil and turned it into the hated The House of Exorcism so it's no shock that he would do it again. It is shocking to see Lamberto putting his name on this however.

The great Mario Bava is mainly known as the supreme master of Gothic Horror Tales as well as the inventor of the Giallo. With the two aforementioned sub-genres being my favorites in the Horror genre, it is not surprising that Bava ranks among my favorite directors ever in motion picture history. Out of all Horror directors, Bava is arguably the one responsible for the most masterpieces - the man simply directed so many ingenious films that it is hard to pick out favorites. If I had to choose a favorite, it would be "La Maschera Del Demonio" aka. "Black Sunday" (1960), but there are various other flawless masterpieces in this brilliant man's repertoire that no Horror fan, no, no lover of film in general, could possibly consider missing, such as "Blood And Black Lace", "Kill Baby... Kill", "Black Sabbath", "The Girl Who Knew Too Much", "The Whip And The Body, or "A Bay Of Blood", just to name a few. Or this ingenious film. Even when dabbling outside of his most familiar Horror genre, Mario Bava outshines the rest, as "Cani Arrabbiati" proves. Bava obviously was in for something different with "Cani Arrabbiati" aka "Rabid Dogs" of 1974, and the outcome was an incomparably breathtaking mixture of stunning Crime/Heist flick and sadistic thriller. Even though violent crime flicks were immensely popular (and many of them immensely brilliant) in Italy of the mid 70s, "Rabid Dogs" is somewhat unique. Without exaggeration, the film, which runs by several aka. titles, such as "Semaforo Rosso", "Wild Dogs" and "Kidnapped" must be one of the most uncompromising, breathtaking and purely adrenaline-driven masterpieces ever brought to screen. Sadly, this ingenious film remained unreleased to the public for over 20 years. Due to the producer's bankruptcy, the completed film was withheld by courts until it was finally released in the late 90s, years after Bava's death.After a robbery, three criminals, their leader being a cold thinker called The Doctor (Maurice Poli), the other two sadistic psychopaths named Thirtytwo (none other than exploitation-cult-actor Greorge Eastman) and Balde (Don Backy), brutally murder a woman and take another woman hostage, in order to escape from the police. In order to obtain a new car they also kidnap a man named Riccardo (Riccardo Cucciolla), and the sick child that he was about to bring to hospital... I am not going to give away more, but I can assure that the film is absolutely stunning. The tension and constantly menacing atmosphere never pauses for even a minute, and, at times the film gets quite shockingly sadistic. While Bava's goriest film is doubtlessly "A Bay Of Blood", this "Cani Arrabbiati" is easily his most disturbing one. All three of the gangsters are despicable characters, but while the leader is merely interested in getting away, Blade and especially Thirtytwo are mainly psychopathic. The acting performances are entirely great. Riccardo Cucciolla is excellent in the lead (if one can call it that, as the film is mainly set in a car, and all the characters have almost equal screen time). All three gangsters are brilliantly displayed as despicable as possibly imaginable. Maurice Poli, who plays the leader, had already worked with Bava in "5 Dolls For An August Moon" as well as in a small role in "Baron Blood". George Eastman enjoys a deserved cult status for starring in and co-writing various exploitation classics (most memorably Joe D'Amato's gruesome "Antropophagus" and the equally shocking follow-up "Absurd"), "Cani Arrabiati" is arguably the greatest film he was ever involved in. Don Backy is equally sadistic as the knife-specialist Blade, and Lea Leander is just great as the female hostage Maria. Leander does an outstanding job with her very realistic portrayal of the fear and distress of a hostage. The camera-work is ingenious, and Stelvio Cipriani's brilliant score holds the tense atmosphere up for every second. I could go on praising "Cani Arrabbiati" for a long time, but I will just finish with the statement that it is a true must-see for everyone even remotely interested in 70s genre-cinema. This masterpiece was lost for many years, and while it is unfortunate that it never got released in Mario Bava's lifetime, it is more than great that it is available now. This may not be a typical example for Mario Bava's great repertoire, but it ranges among his most brilliant films. A true must! 10/10

A trio of brutal criminals -- ruthless ringleader Doctor (superbly played by Maurice Poli), vicious psycho Thirty-Two (an incredibly feral and frightening performance by Luigi Montefiori), and his equally nasty buddy Blade (a memorably vile Aldo Caponi) -- barely manage to pull off a payroll heist. With one of their number shot down by the cops and every minute of the essence, the dangerous hoodlums are forced to take three hostages: middle-aged Riccardo (the excellent Riccardo Cuciolla), his sickly infant son, and lovely young lady Maria (the fetching Lea Lander). They all go on the lam in Riccardo's car. Director Mario Bava, working from a tight and bleak script by Alessandro Parenzo, relates the gripping story at a relentless barnstorming pace, does a masterful job of creating a hard, gritty, no-nonsense tone, and wrings plenty of nerve-wracking suspense from the claustrophobic confines of the constantly moving automobile. Moreover, Bava's trademark black humor is notably absent here; in its place there's a mean and unsparing nihilism that's a true savage and shocking wonder to behold. Stelvio Cipriani's thrilling, pulsating score further enhances the grungy excitement while Emilio Varriano's plain, yet polished cinematography likewise does the trick. Starting with a deliriously messy opening robbery sequence, given an extra stinging edge by several startling outbursts of raw, ugly violence, the extremely coarse dialogue, and the fierce sweltering hot summer day setting, and perfectly capped off with a great surprise bummer double twist ending, this simply stupendous crime thriller winner makes the grade with flying colors. Absolutely astounding.