Beast with a Gun

Moviecut—Beast with a Gun

Helmut Berger is excellent in this pure example of what Italian crime thrillers were in the seventies: full of gratuitous violence and excess male chauvinism, where women were always raped, beaten, tortured, killed; even kids from time to time. Here, Helmut Berger is a vicious, sadistic, brutal escaped killer on rampage. The story is not new, very predictable and for poliziottesco die hard fans. But it is efficient, fast paced, gritty and helped by awesome directing, camera angles, score; good Italian job.

An excellent cast, a perfect bad guy (Helmut is so awesome as Nanni Vitale) and the best director you could get are responsible for this fantastic movie. Not to mention the soundtrack, which is a catchy tune from the first moment on. (An oscar to the composer, he´s a true genius!) A film full of magic moments (the rapture of Marisa Mell), brutal action scenes (like the scene where Helmut is beating up a gas station attendant) and great artwork (the identikit pictures of Nanni). But the best thing is the german dub version ("Lies das, Hure!" "Ich bin Nanni Vitale, der wahnsinnige Moerder, der gefährliche Verbrecher!") Very, very recommendable, one of the true highlights of the italian cinema, should be in the list of the 100 best films ever. Helmut Berger is god!!!!

Helmut Berger gives a gritty performance as a sadistic killer. Unfortunately there are two kinds of punishment being dished out, Helmut's and that which the audience must suffer. The police work in "Beast With a Gun" is mortally laughable, and the stilted dialog in the dubbed version rivals that in the worst "Godzilla" movie. Berger's deranged killer, and a nice Morricone-like score save this from being just another Italian crime flick. So, if you can throw logic out the window, cringe a bit with each spoken word, and suspend disbelief, you might be ready to watch this gloriously sleazy tale of robbery, rape, and revenge. - MERK

Helmut Berger leads a group of prison escapees on a rampage targeting cop Richard Harrison,who testified against him in court.After Berger rapes beautiful Marisa Mell("Danger:Diabolik"),then forces her to join the gang,Harrison hatches his own plan to stop dangerous Berger.The film is loaded with sleaze and violence,but it's not as nasty as it's reputed to be."Mad Dog" is well-acted,well-directed and has a fast pace from beginning to end.So if you're a fan of Italian crime flicks give this one a look-just don't expect something mind-shattering.

This is surprisingly a decent crime thriller... really better than I was anticipating it to be. The film is a graphic violent crime-thriller - scary to watch. Richard Harrison is the tough police inspector Giulio Santini. He's out to get a prison escapee named Vitali (Helmut Berger) and his gang. Vitali and gang goes on a spree of rape, rob and murder. The gang is very much afraid of Vitali and will do whatever he says - even things they do not care to do for they fear Vitali's violence against them. I got this movie in the 50-pack Drive-in collection. It's one of the better films in the pack. I'm glad they added it, the film is good. 7/10

Remember the scene in Jackie Brown with Robert DeNiro and Bridget Fonda watching TV and then Samuel Jackson walks in and goes: "Is that Rutger Hauer?" and Fonda replies: "No, it's Helmut Berger."? Well, it's this movie they're watching. It's a typical low-key Italian gangster movie with a bunch of evil, skinny, mustached (except Helmut Berger) crooks driving around doing evil stuff. The violence scenes are very brutal but there are many moments where also unintentional humor is present. Once again, I have a Finnish super rare version of this movie with Finnish title (roughly translated) "Death Obeys No Law" on the front cover and in the back cover it says "Best With A Gun", (obviously a typing error). In the opening credits it says "Furious" (or "Ferocious"). A movie with so many names can't be that bad, can it?

Known as Mad Dog Killer and Beast With A Gun, my print comes up with the title, Furious Mad Dog Killer and I have to say all titles are appropriate. This is not sophisticated film making by any means but does, as they say, what it says on the can. Little story, just an angry young man determined to do with his gun what he is going to do and even rape the co-star along the way. Helmut Berger is excellent in the lead and fully convinces as the near lunatic, Mad Dog or Killer of the titles. Marisa Mell is also effective and not quite as dumb as the females often seem to have to be in these Italian crime movies. The police are as dumb as usual, even if led by the charismatic, Richard Harrison. Tough. Mean and fast moving.