Day of the Cobra

Day of the Cobra
Italian poster for Day of the Cobra
Directed byEnzo G. Castellari
Screenplay by
Story byAldo Lado[1]
Produced byTuri Vasile[1]
Starring
CinematographyGiovanni Bergamini[1]
Edited byGianfranco Amicucci[1]
Music byPaolo Vasile
Production
company
Laser[1]
Release date
  • August 12, 1980 (1980-08-12)
Running time
95 minutes[1]
CountryItaly[1]
Box office489 million

Day of the Cobra (Italian: Il giorno del Cobra) is a 1980 Italian poliziottesco film directed by Enzo G. Castellari.

Plot

Production

Director Enzo G. Castellari initially approached Vasile with a script written by Vasile's son. The boxing film project was shelved and Vasile offered Castellari to direct Day of the Cobra.[1] Day of the Cobra was written by Aldo Lado who was initially going to direct the film.[1] Lado's story was initially set right after World War II in Trieste.[2] Castellari's film is set in the present day and he imagined the film a "homage to Chandler.[2]

Castellari cast many actors who he had previously worked with, including Franco Nero and Massimo Vanni.[2] He also cast some of his family members such as his brother Enio Girolami and daughter Stefania.[2]

Day of the Cobra was shot on location in San Francisco, Genoa and at Incir-de Paolis in Rome.[1]

Cast

Release

Day of the Cobra was released on August 12, 1980.[1] The film grossed a total of 489,000,000 Italian lira on its domestic release.[1] The score of the film was by Paolo Vasile which was released by Cinevox.[1]

Reception

According to the German book Der Terror führt Regie: "Day of the Cobra is technically pure cinema. The film suffers a bit in its pandering to American viewing habits."[3] Online film database AllMovie gave the film two stars out of five, stating that a "key flaw is the maddening story line, which manages to be over-complicated and half-baked all at once." and that "elements of the story simply rehash other, better thrillers, like The French Connection."[4] The review noted that the film contains "a few worthwhile action set pieces. The rooftop chase that opens the film is quite exciting and there is also a memorably tongue-in-cheek scene where Nero dukes it out with a transvestite in an empty disco. However, the viewer must wade through a lot of clichés and dull passages to get to these moments"[4]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Curti, 2013. p. 271
  2. ^ a b c d Curti, 2013. p. 272
  3. ^ Michael Cholewa, Karsten Thurau. Der Terror führt Regie - Der italienische Gangster- und Polizeifilm. Auflage, 2008.
  4. ^ a b Guarisco, Donald. "Il Giorno del Cobra (1980) - Review". AllMovie. Retrieved March 19, 2015.
  • Curti, Roberto (2013). Italian Crime Filmography, 1968-1980. McFarland. ISBN 978-0786469765.