Blazing Magnum, 1976.
Directed by Alberto De Martino.
Starring Stuart Whitman, John Saxon, Martin Landau, Tisa Farrow, Carole Laure, Jean Leclerc, and Tisa Farrow.
SYNOPSIS:
A cop investigates the murder of his sister, only to discover things aren’t quite as simple as he first thought.
When is a poliziotteschi movie not a poliziotteschi movie? When it is also a giallo. Alberto De Martino’s Blazing Magnum (a.k.a. Shadows in an Empty Room) is a 1976 crime thriller which the more cynical viewer may describe as a knock-off Dirty Harry – and they wouldn’t be far off the mark, if truth be told – but there is an added murder mystery element at play here in between the indiscriminate beatings of anyone who ever made eye contact with the victim and the many contributions to the scrap metal business thanks to some eventful car chases.
Our cop-on-the-edge here is Captain Tony Saitta (Stuart Whitman), and he is in Ottawa to investigate the murder of his (much) younger sister Louise (Carole Laure); quite why a police department in another town would send the brother of a murder victim to investigate is a detail we are supposed to ignore, so let us just assume that would happen. Anyway, Tony suspects that Dr. Tracer (Martin Landau) is the wrongdoer as he has been having an affair with Louise and was the doctor on the scene when she was poisoned, and therefore the last person to have touched her or been close to her. Of course, the doctor denies it but Tony – and his new partner Sergeant Ned Matthews (John Saxon), who has been assigned to him from the local police force – is having none of it and goes for an arrest, but when new evidence emerges that could possibly clear Tracer’s name our two detectives go on the hunt for their mystery killer, and uncover more than the simple murder of an innocent woman.
And that is where the giallo element comes in, because if it didn’t keep you guessing as to who the killer was then Blazing Magnum would just be scene after scene of Stuart Whitman driving around Ottawa chasing random people, flipping their cars over and then beating them to a pulp before asking if they knew his sister, and that is actually a better prospect than it probably sounds because despite the slightly dodgy Italian production values, Blazing Magnum is actually terrific fun. Most of this could be put down to having a stellar cast, as Stuart Whitman takes Clint Eastwood’s iconic Harry Callahan character as a template and amps the aggression up full whack, making Tony Saitta one mean mutha.
Pair him up with genre stalwart John Saxon and you have a pair of tough, no-nonsense cops who get results, which is of course a cliché but it is a hell of an entertaining one in the hands of director Alberto De Martino, who strings the action scenes together with some flimsy plot details that he is clearly hoping you will ignore, which is easy to do as the action is so relentless. It does get a bit silly at times – such as Tony going to town on a pair of transvestites, culminating in a curling iron being put where a curling iron shouldn’t go – and, as previously stated, you are best to just let the fact that a cop from another jurisdiction is investigating the death of his sister just go over your head, otherwise you have to apply real world logic to the rest of it and that just wouldn’t be in the spirit of poliziotteschi or giallo, would it?
Released as part of StudioCanal’s Cult Classics line, Blazing Magnum isn’t the brightest movie to look at when it comes to colours popping or amazing detail, but it does look decent enough. The funky soundtrack is played constantly in between lines of dialogue so if you have a good speaker system then make the most of it and whack the volume up, as it is an earworm and sounds great with all the car crashes and bullets flying. As for extras, director Alberto De Martino shares his memories of making the movie but best of all is the super-knowledgeable author/critic Kim Newman giving his thoughts on the movie and poliziotteschi movies in general, which is definitely worth listening to (but watch the movie first). Also included are six art cards and optional English/Italian audio.
Overall, Blazing Magnum is a total blast as long as you don’t question it or apply any sort of logic to what is going on. The cast all seem committed, taking it very seriously and turning in solid performances, even though they must have known what sort of movie they were making, and if you are looking for some gritty cop action but the dour nature of the Dirty Harry movies isn’t quite your vibe, then you may have just found a suitable alternative. It isn’t original, groundbreaking or pushing any boundaries but sometimes just having a great time with no questions asked is all you need, and Blazing Magnum is exactly that.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★/ Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
