The Salamander (1981)

Director:

Peter Zinner

Writers:

Robert Katz (writer)
Rod Serling (adaptation)

Release Date:

23 May 1983 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller

Plot:

An Italian policeman investigates a series of murders involving people in prominent positions. Left...

Plot Keywords:

Fascist | Italian | Golpe | Industrialist | Carabinieri

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Franco Nero	...	Carabinieri Colonel Dante Matucci
Anthony Quinn	...	Bruno Manzini
Martin Balsam	...	Captain Steffanelli
Sybil Danning	...	Lili Anders
Christopher Lee	...	Prince Baldasar, the Director of Counterintelligence
Cleavon Little	...	Major Carl Malinowski, USMC
Paul L. Smith	...	The Surgeon (as Paul Smith)
John Steiner	...	Captain Roditi
Claudia Cardinale	...	Elena Leporello
Eli Wallach	...	General Leporello
Renzo Palmer	...	Carabinieri Major Giorgione
Anita Strindberg	...	Princess Faubiani
Marino Masé	...	Captain Rigoli
Jacques Herlin	...	Woodpecker
Fortunato Arena	...	General Pantaleone

Also Known As:

Morris West's The Salamander (UK) (complete title)
Salamandra, La (Italy)
Kennwort - Salamander (West Germany) [de]
Salamandra roja, La (Spain) [es]
Salamandra, La (Argentina) [es]
Salamandre, La (France) [fr]

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA | Italy | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Norway:16 | Argentina:16

Company:

Incorporated Television Company (ITC)

A political thriller without the thrills

The ingredients are here for a passable political-thriller but the approach used to tell the story is numbingly routine. Investigator Franco Nero pursues his case simply through a series of interviews, thus allowing the movie to present its roster of marquee-names -- Christopher Lee, Eli Wallach, Claudia Cardinale, etc. -- in a succession of talky, static scenes that lack interest and vitality. (Though these interviews provide an opportunity to show off a series of impressively furnished and decorated rooms.) And then, when it comes time for Nero to present his solution to the case, he does so by showing to a group of people a movie which simply re-caps information gleaned from his interviews!

Attempts to liven up the proceedings with spurts of action merely serve to emphasize the overall dullness of the movie. For example, when Nero falls into the clutches of a villain known as "the Surgeon" who is determined to torture information from him, we only see Nero -- stripped to a jockstrap and strapped to a chair -- being given an injection with a hypodermic needle. Surely this is one of the most boring forms of torture ever shown on the screen.