The Italian Connection

Director: Fernando Di Leo

1972 / 95min / DCP

Small-time Milan pimp Luca Canali (Mario Adorf) has to think fast when, accused of taking off with a shipment of heroin belonging to the mob, he finds himself in the crosshairs of two New York hitmen (Henry Silva and Woody Strode, their characters admitted inspirations for the Travolta-Jackson pairing in Pulp Fiction). Hunted and persecuted until he finally turns on his enemies with the ferocity of a cornered animal, Adorf—who did his own stuntwork in the film’s jaw-dropping car chase scene—gives an unforgettably frantic and fiercely physical performance in the second entry of Di Leo’s Milieu Trilogy, drawn from the work of crime writer Giorgio Scerbanenco.

New 4K restoration from the original camera negatives.