Summertime Killer | Furious Euro-Classics

Taking a look at another often overlooked Euro-classic, Isasmendi’s SUMMERTIME KILLER (more about the movie at the GCDB) often makes the list of cult classics a lot of cineasts have heard of but haven’t seen it. As it is available at least in semi-acceptable DVD versions, here’s my review.

Summertime Killer

Wine grower Alfredi momentarily doesn’t have much to laugh about. However, this is not due to a failed harvest but rather because some of his business partners are transported to the afterlife the ungentle way. It seems to be the same assassin in all cases. A serious blow to Alfredi, who does not understand why such a thing should happen to him. At least he so tells police commissioner Kiley (Karl Malden), whose investigative work is not entirely of altruistic nature, while he is also on the payroll of mafia organizations. Kiley rather quickly detects that the wine-growing “Lord” is not as innocent as he pretends to be. Years ago Alfredi, along with other gangsters, was responsible for the death of a man. Bad luck there was a witness: Ray Castor, son of the murdered man. The young man with a slight crack (after all, he is haunted by horrific visions of the death of his father) has only one goal: Revenge for his father’s death. The noose around the hypocritical Alfredi’s neck slowly tightens. In particular when Castor abducts his beloved daughter ….

Summertime Killer

The title “Summertime Killer” is probably not known to many people. Not surprisingly, the film has obviously been falling into oblivion for decades. One might think of that exploitation – chronicler Quentin Tarantino likes the film and mentioned it in the course of his promo for Kill Bill. Tarantino also used the soundtrack for his own work. Apart from this, however, the film remained pretty much unnoticed and was previously hard to get.

Summertime Killer

A look at the title and the year of creation tells you almost everything you need to know about the movie. It is to be a 70s style thriller with some nice plot twists. Chris Mitchum’s part as Ray Castor is reminiscent of Mitchum’s role in the crime thriller “Ricco, The Mean Machine“. There he also portrays a stoic and apparently completely cold killer, who has only revenge in mind.

Summertime Killer

Despite a director (Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi), who was not from Italy and otherwise did not subscribe to Euro Crime flicks, the proximity to the gangster thrillers that have flooded the market in the early 70s, shines through very clearly. This is reflected in creative and unusual camera angles especially designed to spice up the very straightly staged thriller and the fine background music. Luis E. Bacalov  (Milano Caliber 9; Django) was responsible for the soundtrack, which of course is worth listening to. The breakneck action sequences along with the car chases obligatory for the decade (Mitchum is riding an off-road motorcycle) are the film’s centerpieces and the film is urgently in need for them. For while the action was filmed so experienced and truly as fast-paced as possible, so dull is the rest of the movie. Despite the long playing time the plot is not very complex and the characters remain mostly flat. This fact sadly doesn’t really contribute to the overall positive impression.

Summertime Killer

Wild East’s DVD presentation (double feature with Confessions of a Police Captain) – and other available versions similarly – is far from being bad but the print used does sport a number of flecks and scratches and its colors are a little faded in spots. The flat encoding also results in a slightly soft picture quality. The film’s sound quality is generally good though it is a little abrasive and crackly in places. The extra features for Summertime Killer include an impressively extensive image gallery.

Verdict: For Euro-cult fans the film should be interesting just because of its obscurity. Ultimately, it is not one of the greats of the genre (see Milano Caliber 9, The Death Dealer) but still worth seeing. Eventually, it deserves a properly restored release, until then cineasts should be fine with this or other available releases.

Click here to buy it at Amazon.com

Click here to buy the German DVD at Amazon.de

Read here: The Europeans are coming!

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