Beast With a Gun (1977)

I was expecting a little more out of "Beast With a Gun" (aka. "Mad Dog Killer", aka. "Ferocious Beast With a Gun", aka. "La belva col mitra"). As much as I enjoyed certain aspects of it, it just didn't 'shine' as the violent sleaze-fest I had been informed it was.

A ruthless killer and his cronies escape from prison and end up abducting the stoolpigeon who had him put away, as well as the squealer's girlfriend. After kicking the shit out of the 'rat', raping his chick, coating him with lime and burying him in a shallow grave, the sadistic ringleader of this band of cons forces his captive female to arrange for him to rob a company her father works for. Things go a little haywire when she goes behind his back and tips off a detective, thus dampering his armed hold-up. Of course, the maniacal lunatic is pissed off and tries to bump off the double-crossing bitch and eventually kidnaps members of the detectives family in a psychotic scheme to acquire money and maintain his freedom.

Helmut Berger does a pretty kick-ass job as the criminal scumbag and there's a little bit of nudity and prolonged scenes of violence, though I felt like the pacing was a little 'off' with this one and that there wasn't enough to hold my interest during certain stretches. I guess I was just expecting something a little more 'hard-hitting' and memorable and this one wound up falling a little short in the ol' sleaze department for me, at least. For a '70s crime-exploitation outing, "Beast With a Gun" is just okay in my book. I just wish it'd went a little 'harder'...