Web of Violence (1966) User Reviews

Untangled web of violence.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 6/10 · 13 March 2018]

With Easter coming up,I started looking for a film that I could send to a friend as a gift. Previously finding his Spaghetti Western Day After Tomorrow (also reviewed) a stylish,black Comedy take on the genre,I was pleased to find a DVD seller say he had tracked down a rare Euro Spy flick from Nick Nostro,which led to me webbing the violence.

View on the film:

Spinning the web when the genre was entering a (somewhat) more serious phase, this adaptation of Sergio Donati's novel uniquely crosses Euro Spy with the early stages of the Italian Crime genre. Linking Lisa with the criminal underworld, the writers make Walter (played by a chiseled Brett Halsey) use espionage skills to locate the underworld big boss, with Walter having to skillfully unscramble all of the names of the thugs who know Lisa.

Limited to being seen in a third generation pan & scan VHSD rip (aww..the bad old pre-DVD days!) director Nick Nostro & cinematographer Emilio Foriscot slick look is still able to shine,with Walter's friend/helper Christina (played by an eye-catching Margaret Lee) being given a glamour shine, and side shots catching glances/spying on Walter. Loading up on Italian Crime for the final, Nostro slams the case shut with clipped car chases and blunt shootouts that recoil as Walter turns the web of violence.

Crime thriller co-produced by Italy/Spain with thrills, chases, and violent fights.

[ma-cortes · 5/10 · 7 June 2024]

An agreeable Italian/Spanish co-production blending some elements of the Euro-Spy genre with the early stages of the Italian poliziottescho story, taking parts here and there of these two sub-genres. This entertaining and twisted thriller, containing a crime plotline with plenty of plot twists, a lot of fights, though packs some absurd situations and cheesy frames. Dealing with Walter (Brett Hasley), a journalist who recently lost his job, is feeling a bit down, and gets even more depressed when his girlfriend, Lisa (Irán Eory), is missing. Walter to be aware of Lisa is linking with the criminal underworld, and particularly with a ringleader, a nasty big boss called Gardiello (José Calvo) who runs a criminal gang smuggling dope around the world. Walter undertaking an arduous investigation and he'll stop at nothing to discover the underworld big boss and find his sweetheart. Along the way, Walter having to skillfully disembowel all of the names of the thugs who know Lisa. She had recently taken up with a friend of theirs, a wealthy older doctor (Julio Peña). As Walter (Brett Halsey) peels away each layer of the disappearance, he digs deeper into a world of drugs, killings and corruption.

This enjoyable movie is full of thrills, crossfire, noisy action , double-crosses, breathtaking pursuits and anything else. This is a humdrum adaptation in middle budget, based on a novel by Sergio Donati (who wrote a lot of Spaghetti Westerns) about a hero who gets into more and more trouble while investigating his fiancée's vanishing. Stars the american Brett Hasley as a reporter who finds himself entangled with a gang of drug smugglers in Rome, when he sets out to investigate the kidnapping of his former girlfriend by using espionage skills to locate her. Brett Halsey was a beefcake who emigrated Italy and played a lot of B films , often billed as "Montgomery Ford" . Brett starred as several sword-and-sandal type heroes in including the spectacles ¨The Seventh Sword¨ and ¨The Magnificent Adventurer¨. He also settled comfortably into the fashionable international spy , "spaghetti" western and Giallo genres with a slew of work including ¨Berlín , Spy in Your Eye¨ , ¨Espionage in Lisbon¨ , ¨The Hour of Truth¨, and ¨Kill Johnny Ringo¨ . And it's great to see José Calvo as a pure manipulative villain with no redeeming values or tragic backstory. Being an Italian-Spanish co-production (although mostly Italian), there is a mix of Italian: Daniele Vargas as a police inspector, Renzo Palmer, Emilio Messina, Enzo Cerusico, Mirko Ellis and Spanish actors: Julio Peña, Irán Eory and José Calvo of 'Leone's For a fistful of dollars'.

It contains a colorful cinematography in Eastmancolor and Chronoscope by Emilio Foriscot. This good Spanish cameraman photographed a large number of coproductions , such as : ¨Fast Hand Is Still My Name¨, ¨One by one¨, ¨Dakota Joe¨, ¨Mutiny at Fort Sharpe¨, ¨La grande notte di Ringo¨, ¨Singapur Hour Zero¨, ¨Segretissimo¨, ¨La coda dello scorpione¨, among others. Shot on location in Fontana di Trevi, and Incir De Paolis Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy. Nick Nostro's direction is professionally crafted, but average , here he is more inclined toward action. He directed this so-so action film, a genre in which he would not only excel but one where he would spent much of the rest of his career , as he directed all kinds of genres , most of them co-produced with Spain, such as: Peplum as "Triumph of the Ten Gladiators" , ¨Spartacus and 10 gladiators¨ and Spaghetti as "One Dollar of Fire" and Day After Tomorrow¨ also titled ¨One After Another or ¨Von Django¨ and Italian crime/mystery/Giallo as ¨Lo strano vizio della signora Wardh¨, "Web of Violence" , "Operation Counterspy" , "Vendetta at Sorrento" , and the pretty fun superhero movie based on comic books , the Italian Fumetti: "Superargo Against Diabolicus" . Rating ¨3 notti violente¨ (1966) : 4.5/10. Very mediocre but passable at times.

Just for Margaret Lee!

[RodrigAndrisan · 1/10 · 9 February 2021]

Predictably like many other Italian thrillers of the '60s. Slow and boring. Brett Halsey is tasteless. Flat are all the others, characters and actors. Only the charm and beauty of Margaret Lee makes the movie worth watching, only once, no more. That only star is for her. Franco Pisano's music is not bad.

exciting Italian crime/mystery with Brett Halsey

[django-1 · 9/10 · 14 November 2004]

Walter, a journalist who recently lost his job, is feeling a bit down, and gets even more depressed when his fiancée, Lisa, vanishes. She had recently taken up with a friend of theirs, a rich older doctor. As Walter (Brett Halsey) peels away each layer of the disappearance, he digs deeper and deeper into a world of crime and corruption and he gets into more and more trouble. Halsey, American star of Return of the Fly, Girl in Lovers Lane, and Return to Peyton Place, went to Europe in 1963 where he made quite a success and worked steadily, appearing in some classic westerns, spy films, costume dramas, and giallos. Films such as MAGNIFICENT ADVENTURER (where he plays Benvenuto Cellini), ESPIONAGE IN LISBON, TODAY IT'S ME TOMORROW YOU, and PERVERSION STORY are classics to me. Director Nick Nostro (familiar to me for his "gladiator" films starring Dan Vadis) keeps the action moving fast, yet manages to focus on Walter's state of mind also. Although the film is not wall-to-wall fights, some of them are quite over the top and show Nostro's roots in the peplum genre. In one scene where Halsey is in a car chase a suspicious character, another car cuts in front of him to stop him. Halsey gets out of the car to get into a fight with the crooks following him, and one of them belts him so hard he flies across the hood of the car! Margaret Lee is also present as a friend, Christina, who has always had feelings for Halsey but never put the move on him because of his engagement to Lisa. What is her motivation? Watch the film and see. As Italian crime-mysteries circa 1966 go, this one is quite good. With a strong leading man such as Halsey, a mystery angle that keeps the viewer guessing, and lots of action, WEB OF VIOLENCE is definitely worth watching.