Umberto Lenzi's 1974 police thriller begins with a bank robbery. The bandits get out of the car, masked, and enter the bank while the getaway car driver, mask-less, gets harassed by a cop for parking in a no parking zone. When the cop asks to see his licenses, the getaway car driver shoots the cop in cold blood forcing the thieves to have to high tail it out of there pronto before the heat really comes down on them. This is our introduction to Giulio Sacchi (Tomas Milian of A Cop In Blue Jeans and The Big Gundown), the getaway car driver and an all around low life thug with no regard for human life at all, save for his own.

The bank robbers don't want Giulio in their midst anymore so, unwillingly, he goes back to live off of his girlfriend, Iona (pretty blonde Anita Strindberg of Who Saw Her Die? and Lizard In A Woman's Skin). When Giulio accosts Iona the next day at work, he spies a pretty girl playing tennis. Giulio asks Iona about her and finds that her name is Mary Lou (the lovely Laura Belli of Execution Squad), a girl who comes from a very rich family. Sacchi and his two cronies come up with a plan to kidnap Mary Lou seeing as her father is the local wealthy businessman (who just so happens to run the company with which Iona is employed), and hold her hostage for the massive ransom. Of half a billion Lira If the rich man doesn't pay up, his daughter gets it and the gang goes into hiding.

Giulio and his two companions figure their plan is pretty much a surefire winner but what they don't gamble on is the interference of a tough cop by the name of Inspector Walter Grandi (Henry Silva of L'Insolant). Grandi is hot on their tale and is a smart cop, smart enough to know what they're up to and smart enough to be able to do something about it. When the three hoods start killing people along the way to their hideout (in one grisly scene Giulio forces a man to fellate him at gun point while the two women he's with are tied up and forced to watch) the cops put on the pressure and Grandi starts to take a more personal interest in capturing Sacchi and his crew.

Almost Human is one of those definitive Eurocrime films that embodies what the genre is all about. Milian is perfect in the role of the sleaze ball crook who will stop at nothing to get rich quick even if means killing a child in cold blood or sending his own girlfriend to her watery grave. His two cohorts (one of whom is played by Ray Lovelock of Squadra Volante and Last House On The Beach and the other by Gino Santercole) are almost as bad and function as enablers for Sacchi's dysfunction. Silva, in a rather restrained performance (at least until the final reel), nails the part of the cop who is hot on the trail of these thugs and his chiseled mug lends the part an almost inhuman look that works well in the context of the film.

The film also has one of Ennio Morricone's most recognizable Polizia scores and outside of his western pieces, one of the best scores he's ever made. Collaborations with Leone aside, Almost Human stands out as one of his best (alongside Revolver from which this score borrows quite liberally) and its evocative notes heighten the tension and suite the film perfectly. If you're not careful you're apt to wind up with opening number stuck in your head long after the film has ended.

So if you like your police action films with loads of sleaze, smart-ass crooks, slick cops, and no shortage of violent action (realism be damned!) then Almost Human should be right up your alley. Lenzi's direction is tight and slick and demonstrative of what a great eye for detail he used to have when he was at the top of his game. He makes the sets and the action larger than life and keeps the film moving at a solid pace from start to finish.

Video:

No Shame continues their excellent work in the transfer department and gives Almost Human a very solid 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that boasts excellent color reproduction and almost no print damage whatsoever. It's not quite perfect in that there is some heavy edge enhancement in a couple of scenes and a few other scenes where you're probably going to notice the same line shimmering that I found moderately distracting but other than that, the film looks great. The clean and clear image presents some very nice fine detail, the natural coat of film grain present never comes close to being bothersome, and the black levels are solid and deep.