Buitres sobre la ciudad

Oh dear! You know you've fallen pretty far down the Euro-crime rabbit hole when you're seeking out, watching, or (worse yet) reviewing ultra-obscure movies like this one.

Maurizio Merli plays an Italo-American Journalist uncovering a major corruption scandal having to do with Spanish oil imports with Hugo Stiglitz as his trusty camera friend. Things get complicated when secretive rich widow Nadiuska (CONAN THE BARBARIAN's mother) confides in him some secret details behind an assassination which leads to some fisticuffs, rape, and revenge involving Merli's girlfriend.

This lurid and downbeat film doesn't really have much action and Gianni Siragusa's staging and direction never really rises to even the level of Fernando Di Leo. However it does feature a lot of interesting shots of early 80's Madrid with a lot of the same locations, props, music, and actors from NIGHTMARE CITY. Hell, I'd wager that both movies were made simultaneously. Even the same ambulance appears in both movies! Stelvio Cipriani's score hits most of the same notes including another goofy disco song during a pointless striptease sequence in a sleazy nightclub.

There's a higher than average nudity level in the movie, mainly on the part of Merli's (quite beautiful) girlfriend Lili Carati who gets awfully violated by greasy henchmen led by the ubiquitous Manolo Zarzo and the even more ubiquitous (and un-billed) Riccardo Petrazzi. Maybe this was Petrazzi's revenge for the two fatal shootings he'd received from Merli earlier in THE CYNIC THE RAT AND THE FIST and ROMA A MANO ARMATA? I can only imagine.

Fans of Francisco Rabal will be delighted to hear his actual voice used in dubbing the Spanish language version of this film, which is all I've been able to locate so far.

I really don't think I can think of much very positive to write about this film. I suppose the poster is OK and Lili Carati as the lead's girlfriend is fine and takes her rape rather well. Maurizio Merli is not one of my favourite actors, I don't know whether he got fed up with the Franco Nero comparisons or got off on them, but he barely gets up the enthusiasm to bother to throw a punch in the right direction here. Some of the Madrid shots were nice, especially good to see the old station because when I was there they had just done the place up as some recreational/botanical garden place. It looked great but looked even better here with the old trains. There is a burst of action some two thirds of the way through but for the most part this is people chatting about what's got to be done and whose going to do it, or not.

The masterfully macho, recklessly roundhousing, manfully moustache-sportin', no mercy ass-kicker, Maurizio Merli, once again, boisterously unleashes his inimitable style of cathartic, non-PC, gonzo skell-bashing in this agreeably gutsy poliziottesco from the somewhat undocumented exploitation director, Gianni 'Hell Behind The Bars' Siragusa. While Siragusa's frequently punchy, early 80s Euro-crime, 'Vultures over The City' aka 'Buitres Sobre La Ciudad' is only rarely mentioned, the appealing thriller's current obscurity is arguably due to its limited availability, rather than the pulse-pounding crime drama's dearth of hoodlum hunting action!

While unrefined, lacking the delirious dynamism of a Lenzi or Massi-helmed masterpiece, the brawny, 'Vultures over The City' ably provides enough noisome, uber-masculine midnight movie fare to compensate for its paucity of hyperbolic bloodshed. The seemingly incongruent pairing of the handsome, hot-headed, Merli & lower wattage Exploitation-stud, Stiglitz proves viable; their predictably mucho-macho manliness sweetly leavened by the strident sensuality of delectable Euro-starlet, Lilli Carati; a distractingly nubile actress who very rarely, if at all, has the inclination to cover her lissome frame with anything quite so spurious as clothing! 'Vultures over The City' is charged with an equally slinky-sexy theme by the gifted, agreeably ubiquitous Euro-crime composer, Stelvio Cipriani. This solid, enjoyably rough n' tumble, sporadically kinetic actioner remains a worthwhile watch for curious Euro-Crime neophytes and hardened poliziotteschi obsessives alike!