Main Cast: Oliver Reed, Agostina Belli, Fabio Testi
Release Year: 1975
Country: FR/IT/WG
Run Time: 111 minutes
Plot
The luridly titled Italian/French/German thriller Blood in the Streets went into production under the more restrained cognomen The Revolver. Oliver Reed plays a prison official whose wife is kidnapped. The price for her return is the release of incarcerated criminal Fabio Testi. When it becomes obvious that Testi's former cohorts plan to murder him once he's set free, Reed and Testi team up to foil the baddies. Blood in the Streets poses as an anti-gun tract, but its plot is still resolved by Oliver Reed wielding a weapon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Revolver is a stylish but ultimately unsatisfying thriller that is more interesting for its ambitions than its success in realizing these ambitions. The script lends some interesting shadings to its action via some surprising twists near the end that add a bit of political commentary into the mix . Unfortunately, these message-oriented moments are delivered in an obvious, heavy-handed style that lessens their dramatic punch and are incorporated into the story in a way that stops its momentum cold. Sergio Sollima's direction is quite stylish and occasionally generates powerful moments of raw emotion (the final scene between Oliver Reed and Fabio Testi is a stunner) but his slack pacing allows these flashes of power to slip between the cracks. Performances are solid throughout but suffer due to the thin characterizations: Reed has to rely on his ability to physically convey emotion and Testi has to put forth a lot of charm to keep their standard-issue cop and crook characters interesting. In the end, Revolver has just enough action to keep fans of Italian crime films interested but isn't likely to appeal to most other viewers. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
