First things first: ALL HAIL NOSHAME FILMS! Seriously, I’m getting more and more ecstatic about this DVD company after every new release they put out. Hands down, DVDs released by NoShame are of the absolute highest quality on the market. That said, let it be known that NoShame’s latest release, a 70s Italo-crime film called The Last Round, continues the company’s tradition of awesomeness. Aside from all the NoShame goodness, another cool factor is that the film is pretty damn decent in itself.
Last Round tells the story of a nomad named Marco (played by real-life middleweight boxing champion Carlos Monzon) who comes into a new town looking for work. He meets up with an extremely nice/poor man who calls himself Wisdom and his blind daughter (both of whom decide to give him a place to stay while he ventures for a job). He also gets acquainted with members from a homicidal clan led by the malicious Rico Manzetti (a great love-to-hate-him character played by Luc Merenda) and after a little bit of violent persuasion, convinces the clan to allow him to work for them. Thing is, while he’s working for the Manzetti clan, Marco also makes a few negotiations with a rival family. The two gangs eventually confront each other, produce a ton of gunfire and bloodshed, beat the hell out of Marco and Wisdom, and rape the blind girl…that is, until Marco extracts some kick-ass vengeance.
There is a lot of violence in Last Round, and while much of it is just men getting gunned down, there are a few select kills that are done stylishly and in a manner that, to my knowledge, has never been achieved in a film before (I won’t ruin them by explaining them, but you’ll know them when you see them). While not a horror film, Last Round is worthy of a Scare Factor, as it does get horrific and tense at times (particularly during the raid of Wisdom’s house and the rape scene).
Director Stelvio Massi is also extremely creative with the camera, devising some very cool and unique shots, while also still utilizing that trademark Italian “zoom-to-close-up” technique.
The music is classic, catchy, and memorable (this seems to be a trend in ‘70s Italian films, and what an awesome trend it is!), and really does wonders to set up that “crime” mood.
As far as NoShame’s DVD release goes, they’ve included their standard 8-page booklet, poster/still gallery, and original theatrical trailers, and even an on-site visit of Luc Merenda’s antique shop in Paris, but as a special bonus on this particular release, they’ve also included Entropia’s “The Eclectic Ultimate Cinedelic Experience (Funky Cops & Hard Boiled Girls)”, a very impressive music CD full of remixed “classic cult scores”.
Also, it should be noted that there is some text at the beginning of the film that states that the original vault negative that NoShame created the DVD directly from contained a few non-correctable “imperfections”— in all honesty, I managed to catch one so-called “imperfection”, and it was just a slight glitch in the picture and nothing major at all.
As a whole, Last Round has all of the classic obscure ‘70s essentials–everything from the badass main character to the excessive violence and rape to the cheesily choreographed fighting (both hand-to-hand combat and gunplay) to the revenge plot. The Last Round is what it is—it’s not enjoyable by everyone’s standards, but it’s safe to say that if you dig crime movies from the 70’s, you’ll get a kick out of it.
-Spooky Steve
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
